Friday evening

On Friday night I arrived at the swimming pool directly from the airport. Two days earlier, after our Wednesday session, Joe had asked me whether I was excited about the tournament. At the time I was drained from work and at 10.00pm I replied to him: "I will see when I get there." Well...the first thing I saw was a swimming pool full of gay men in Speedos in a really good mood.  I knew instantly that I was at the right place. I had arrived just in time for the friendly games. Although there was supposed to be a schedule as to when and who plays with whom, the atmosphere was relaxed and gay in every way, and people just got in and out of the swimming pool when there was a change. The Dutch organisers were very welcoming and after the friendly matches there were drinks at the bar overlooking the swimming pool.

The first night back at the hotel (all arranged by Duncan!), I could not sleep, so I went to the hotel lobby only to find two other team members and ended up having a couple of double gin and tonics and a two-hour chat! I couldn't have felt more welcomed and part of the team.

Saturday morning-afternoon

On the main day of the tournament some people were sleepless because of the anxiety of the games ahead, and others because of the “games” the night before.

The London team was split in two teams (Orca 1 & 2) so that everyone would have the opportunity to play at the tournament. I was member of Orca 2 together with the other new water polo members of the London team. Once again the Dutch team were excellent in creating a relaxed, friendly and welcoming atmosphere on the day. We had 6 games ahead of us, four in the morning and two in the afternoon. I was anxious, as this was my first tournament, and my first proper water polo game ever.

And then the tournament started! In contrast to the training sessions that focus on one aspect of the game or a specific drill, the tournament had a flow that helped put all the skills and drills and Greg’s intensive water polo rule sessions in perspective. I took Joe’s advice to focus on what I could do best: swim fast. During the first couple of matches I even managed to score a few goals, which was quite an adrenaline rush. The wonderful thing about the goals was that each was the result of collaboration between the team members in the water and Greg giving us direction from the side. It felt more like a group dance between us, where everyone was in the right place at the right time in order to score the goal. This feeling of connectedness within the team and the wave of joy each goal seemed to generate to the whole of the London team was incredibly rewarding. Later that day, we had a discussion with some of the guys from the team about the sense of connectedness in the water that often is so alien for most of us as gay men, as often during our development we had had to learn to do things alone, in isolation. Therefore, this experience as a member of a team, doing something as part of a group, seemed to have an even more significant impact on some of us.

We won three of the four matches in the morning and one of the two matches in the afternoon. I don’t even remember our final position but for me it didn’t matter anyway. We had great fun, we played the best game we could and we have won most of our matches!

Orca 1 played some great matches and it was among the best teams in the tournament. As the players of Orca 1 were more experienced, each one seemed to have a very distinctive style in the water, which was great to watch. I wish I had pictures capturing moments of Ben’s passion as a goal keeper, Joe’s speed, Bill’s reverse shooting, Steven’s tight marking, Greg’s energy, to mention only a few images that come directly to my mind.

Saturday evening

Now although this was officially the end of the tournament it was only the beginning of the weekend in Amsterdam! For those who missed it, some of the best moments: On Saturday evening the dinner ended with the French team doing a drag version of Madonna vs Britney of “Like a Virgin”, the same night the London team managed to persuade everyone in a gay bar to take their tops off (guys in the next tournament lets try the pants off!), and Sunday the massive party at Paradiso took place in a very impressive old church building in the centre of the town. To mention only a few!

The tournament has the reputation of bringing people together and in the past has even become fertile ground for new relationships to develop. This was the case for me as well. I made some new friends and found out more about my team members, and I had the opportunity to open up to them. Water polo is only the excuse to celebrate being gay, to have fun and meet new people, as an older and wiser member of the team said, somewhere in between the third pint of lager and the second glass of champagne!