2004 Tour
This year, the team have traveled to the following events in the pursuit of having a laugh.
Cup of the North Champs (Edmonton Canada)
Canoe Exibition (NEC)
Charleroi (Belgium)
Zurich Fair Play Tournement (Switzerland)
BUSA Champs Doncaster
National Champs, Doncaster, England
Prague
Merseyside, England
Hull, England
Venice Italy
Welsh Open
Ieper, Belguim
London, England
Dublin, Ireland
USA National Champs (possibly)
Play hard, then play harder
(via the bottle !!!)
The club was established by Ian Williams in 1975 where the club played mainly Internationals.
Ian Williams who also designed and built the most competitive true polo boat design of the day, the Dragon Bat. This boat was developed further and with numerous further development to ensure the boat continued to comply with changing boat specifications. The last model from the factory was the Polo Mint which was a lower volume version of the original but sold very limited numbers. The Dragon Clubman was the plastic version of the Dragon Extra and was the most successful competition boat made of plastic well before the likes of the Pyranha RX300 or Revenge selling most of all in central Europe. Deliveries of these boats became the back bone of the club's main competition circuit including venues in Amsterdam, Caen, Lochrist and Cesenatico.
In the early days, the club, the team Dragon were always drawn from a collection of players from the South Wales area including players from local clubs of GVP and Bridgend.
Guest players have been an integral part of "Team Sellection", such as it was, with the team often providing a platform for social polo for players who like to play for fun, but often don't play with teams who allow such a laid back approach to the game with things like larger at half time, and generally making sure the team are more concerned with the dry part of competition life than the results.
In recent years players have been drawn on
long term from other clubs which
has helped bolstered the teams more regular
line up, and so providing a bit more
consistency in results.
Over the years, there have been more abandoned
games when Dragon have played
various Italian teams than perhaps any other
teams around. Whist this is not
something the club are particularly proud
of, it does at least show the passion
in which the members have played with.
Currently the Club probably enjoy playing in Mediterainian environments due to the usually poor weather at home.
The Wimpy Dragon's are the ladies team of the club and have a pretty much similar arrangement of players.
Players who have played in Dragon...
Ian Williams - Founder & some other names tragically lost in the mist of time.
Clyde Hammond - Feb 1985 - Lyon
Diddi Morris - August 1985 - Amsterdam
Fossil Arrowsmith - August 1986 - Amsterdam
Chris Wilson - September 1987 - Ireland/Dublin
Paul Brain - September 1987 - Ireland/Dublin
Steve Bennett - September 1987 - Ireland/Dublin
Mathew Bennett - September 1987 - Ireland/Dublin
Paul Adams - September 1987 - Ireland/Dublin
Moomin Whitaker - 1988 - Amsterdam
Greg Kirkbride - 1988 - Amsterdam
Richard Spicer
Mick Noble
Ross Kettle
Dewi Ward
Julian Orchard
Greame Gurr
Turbo Townsend - August 1996 - Ieper
Andrew Woody Wood - August 1996 - Ieper
Convict Knight - June 2000 - Liverpool
Simon Forest
Ratman Roland
Dave Saunders
Alan Vessey
Oli Bishop
Mark Preddy
Curly Barker
Neil Parker
Darren Ling
Alex Longson
Keith McLeary
Kieran Cooke
Nigel Whitehouse
Rolland Bennett
Nick the Knife
Nick Arrowsmith
Ian Slaughter
Sooty Harrison
Rob Pierce
Ian James
Pete Dyer
Oli Dyer
Ian Taylor
Diggy (1 sprint and a sub...Hull '99)
It must also be acknowledged that the girls have bailed us out many time and will no doubt continue to do so for all their natural days.
2003 Tour
Canada National Champs
Zurich Fair Play Tournement
BUSA Champs Doncaster
National Champs, Doncaster, England
Merseyside, England
Hull, England
Welsh Open
Ieper, Belguim
London, England
Dublin, Ireland
USA National Champs , Los Angeles USA
2002 Tour
Charleroi, Belgium
National Champs, Doncaster, England
Merseyside, England
USA National Champs , Boston USA
Hull, England
Welsh Open
Ieper, Belguim
London, England
Dublin, Ireland
European Club Championsghips Napoli Italy
Charleroi, Belgium
Madrid, Spain
National Champs, Doncaster, England
Merseyside, England
Zurich, Switzerland
Hull, England
Liverpool, England
Welsh Open
Ieper, Belguim
London, England
Dublin, Ireland
Malaga, Spain
America
Belgium
Canada
England
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
Scotland
Spain
Swizerland
Wales,
Mega International Group, Ainsworth.