Foreign Players Return to the

local Waterpolo scene

In 1983, the Amateur Swimming Association came up with another version of the format of the league when it introduced a preliminary round in which all the affiliated and participating clubs met each other on a round robin basis in a preliminary round after which the teams are split into two groups: the first four compete for the League Championship; the rest of the pack (six) play to win the Second Division League. This decision in a way it was disappointing for Exiles as they were not allowed to participate in the first division on the merits of the previous year’s success when they won the Double. However, the Swimming Association reasoned that with the introduction of the foreign player after an absence of a good number of years, could have been an opportunity for all clubs that fielded a foreign player to hope to qualify for the final four.

That year Exiles managed to sign an Englishman Jeremy Birmingham who was one of the best players that came over in that particular season, Jeremy was an exemplary player: he taught several skills to his team mates; he also to give a hand at coaching of the youngsters: he made several visits to Malta later when the Great Britain team was invited to participate in friendly waterpolo tournaments organized in Malta.  He was considered to be one of Britain’s top players. Contact had been made with the London Polytechnic team through Charles Grixti who was living in the UK. Gino Camilleri and Karol Farrugia had traveled to London to see him play in a league match and signed him for the season in a pub afterwards when pints were being downed by both sets of teams.

That year also saw Exiles getting a sponsorship from Captain Morgan Cruises; it was the first time that a waterpolo club included the name of the sponsor beside its own name. Subsequently all the teams followed suit and nowadays it is synonymous to have the name of the sponsor added. Paul Dowling was the coach having been in charge of the team in the previous memorable season. Paul had taken the opportunity of introducing further more young blood in addition to the established names that had rewarded him in the past campaigns.

I remember that as usual the local game had anecdotes of drama attached to it. The highlight was that Valletta had problems with their foreigner and ended being unable to field one in time. This obviously put them at a disadvantage to the rest of the field. In the Preliminary Round, Valletta had suspended the Dowling brothers for the match against Exiles and we did not miss the opportunity to beat them 6-2 to wreck their chances to qualify for the League Championship pool by one point for Sirens to qualify. Against the latter we lost 2-5 in a balanced match where Dutchman Jan Evert Veer tussled with our Birmingham to foil each other whilst the rest of the St Paul’s Bay team proved to be more accurate and incisive to win the points and qualification.

Against the other teams which qualified Exiles lost 4-10 against B’Bugia, 6-12 versus Neptunes and 5-13 against Sliema. In the second round Valletta revenged their previous defeat by heavily beating Exiles 16-6 to win the second division championship ahead of San Giljan and Exiles.  The meetings with San Giljan were very close: in the first encounter Exiles drew a match (9-9) in the dying seconds when their earlier lead fizzled out; in a decisive second round tie San Giljan won just before the final whistle 8-7 to clinch the runner-up position. In the Knock-Out, Exiles were pitted against Neptunes with the latter winning 14-5.   

The following year (1984) the same format was retained and this time Valletta United made it a point of signing a foreign player and ensuring that they qualified together with Sliema Neptunes and B’Bugia. The difference in the class between the first three teams and the rest of the teams was evident in the standard of play and especially in the durability and preparation. Exiles had engaged Dutchman Wilco Mondeel whilst as their coach had roped in Joe Chetcuti. He had the philosophy of preparing the tactics of the team during the winter months when the players were (according to Joe) more attentive and responsive to his instructions than before/ during the actual match where at times it was difficult to communicate in the din of the prevailing atmosphere.

The matches against the other participants proved to be very close affairs  but against Sirens, the eventual winners of the second division championship, we just couldn’t shake their tough opposition ending twice on the losing side (6-8) and (5-8) to end up in the runner-up position. More new faces were appearing in the team. Exiles made amends in the Knock-Out competition by beating Sirens 7-4 in the semi final before just beating Marsascala 6-5 in a final which was played with both sides shorn of their foreigners who had both left for home.  Scorers for Exiles were Peter Paris and James Scerri who scored a brace each whilst Michael Paris and Stephen Paris put their names on the scorers’ list. After the match, skipper Martin Gauci received the trophy from Gino Camilleri the newly elected President of the Amateur Swimming Association.

In the next article we go through another two alternate years

Did you know that……

Most of the goalkeepers that defended the Exiles’ posts have been products of the Club. One of the longest serving players was Francis Pace Lupi who together with Brian Micallef  (ex-Sliema) had this arduous task in the initial years of the Club’s participation.

Adrian Farrugia also alternated in the goalkeeping position before being utilized as a player  in the mid-pitch position. Edward Borg Barthet (il-Manga),Karl Magri and Michael Testa paced Cicko Pace Lupi until he retired in 1984 before Karl and Michael tussled to inherit his place. Antoine Sciberras who appeared on the scene in 1986 took over for another long stretch  which lasted up to 2000 when he was the deputy of Dino Camilleri (ex San Giljan and Neptunes) and was in the squad which won the second division Double. Stephen Mamo an Exiles product deputized for Antoine whilst Michael Scerri (ex Barracudas) contributed to the team in 1990 and 1991. Alan Grech was on loan to Exiles in 2002 from Sirens and in 2005, James Cuschieri an Exiles product, took the plunge to defend gallantly the post.