Watford Water Polo’s under-12s were crowned Winter League champions on Sunday after winning nine of their 10 games across the season.

Having won six of their seven games prior to the weekend, the side needed to win at least two of their three games to win the title.

The afternoon got off to a great start as Watford raced into a 3-0 lead against West London Hillingdon, and although Hillingdon hit back to make it 3-2, Watford scored 0.4 seconds from half-time to take a 4-2 lead.

An early goal in the second period looked to have made it comfortable at 5-2, and Hillingdon couldn’t recover despite scoring twice to bring it back to 5-4.

The next game against Croydon was all one-way traffic and Watford stormed to a 9-0 lead at the break, with eight of the starting 11 finding the net.

A further three goals after the interval saw Watford ease to a 12-0 victory.

They continued in a similar vain in their final game, sticking a further 12 goals past West London Latymer in a 12-1 win.

Eight players were again on the scoresheet in a game that sealed their ninth win of the season and, with it, the league title.

Meanwhile, this weekend, the ladies’ side will take part in the qualification round for entry to the British Water Polo League for the 2019/20 season starting in September.

Six teams will contest the tournament,t to be held at Northampton Boys School over April 6 and 7, with the top three qualifying for next season’s BWPL Division Three.

Watford join Exeter and Nova Centurions as the teams looking to gain entry, and they come up against three sides, Cheltenham, Manchester Comets and Sunderland, who played in the division last year.

Watford open their bid on Saturday against Cheltenham before facing Exeter and Nova later that day, and they then come up against Manchester and Sunderland on Sunday.