IT was a mixed weekend for the St Albans Canoe Polo team members in the British squads competing for the Flanders Cup in Belgium on June 29 and 30, with the mens Under-21's faring best with a silver medal.

St Albans' Matthew Taylor and Richard Hirst featured in the team that, after beating Germany in the group stages, were unable to repeat the feat in the final, going down 3-1.

The senior mens team, comprising Dave Sanders, Alan Vessey and Ginny Coyles of St Albans, were less successful.

Although beating Switzerland (8-2), Belgium (4-2) and France (1-0), narrow defeats to the Dutch (2-1) and Germany (3-2 after being 3-0 down) ended their ambitions.

Meanwhile, Lianne and Philippa Grayson were part of the womens' squad that won five and drew one of the seven matches they played, but still failed to progress through the group stages.

A draw with Germany coupled with a 5-4 loss to France saw them eliminated.

Philippa Grayson said: "This was our first tournament as a team, so we used this as a training event. We could have had an easy ride, but swopped to a more difficult group for better practice, and in that sense we learnt a lot."

Also in action from the St Albans club were Jemma Murray and Hilary Clarke, who were representing the ladies Under-21 team.

July 3, 2002 16:30