Bradford, just six miles from the World Heritage city of Bath, is a tourist hotspot in its own right. The Wiltshire town boasts a 14th century tithe barn, medieval bridge, a Saxon church, dozens of good pubs and restaurants – and, of course, a long-established water polo team!

The town’s indoor swimming pool is situated alongside the River Avon. It’s not exactly Olympic standard! But we’ve operated there very happily since the club was formed in approximately 1974, when the original goalposts were made in his school woodwork lesson by founder member Mike Coppin, who is still, remarkably, claiming a regular place in the Bradford team.

Standards have varied over the years. In the late 1980s, the club played the likes of Bristol Central and Cheltenham in Division One of the Bristol & West League as well as reaching two finals of the Western Counties Intermediate Championship and winning the Wiltshire League and B&W KO Cup. Since then, we have slipped to Division Three of the B&W – but without ever losing our international reputation as a club with a great social history!

Since 1989, BoA groups have attended (as spectators, of course!) European or World Championships in Bonn, Athens, Rome, Sheffield, Florence, Seville, Budapest, Slovenia and Belgrade. And we were in Malaga in 2008!

The Bradford team is part of Bradford-on-Avon Swimming Club and draws its players from Bath and much of Wiltshire. The senior coach is ex-GB international Louise Betts, the leading goal scorer in the Women’s National League in 2007/8 for Wiltshire club Tisbury.