CHRISTCHURCH and New Milton Seagulls’ water polo teams secured two Dorset League titles in the latest round of matches – and are on course for a third.

The club’s junior, key stage 2 and key stage 3 teams completed a clean sweep of victories in a trio of matches against Bridport Barracudas before a large crowd at Two Riversmeet.

The junior and KS3 wins were enough to secure the titles in their respective leagues while the KS2 team’s victory took them back to the top of the table with two matches to play.

In the Junior League, it was the second Seagulls v Bridport clash in seven days following the South West Championships at Gloucester.

After a scrappy first quarter, which ended 0-0, two flowing counter-attacks saw Seagulls take a 2-0 lead by the halfway point.

The third quarter opened with two converted penalties – one for each side – before Seagulls finally hit a rhythm and scored twice more to lead 5-1 at the break.

In the final quarter, Seagulls controlled the pool, repelling Barracudas’ attacks and keeping possession to maintain the 5-1 scoreline.

The result saw them leapfrog Weymouth to take the championship for the first time by just one point.

Seagulls’ KS3 team extended their season-long unbeaten run with a 7-0 victory.

With other results going their way on the night, they cannot now be caught despite having two games still to play.

Seagulls opened the scoring with just 12 seconds on the clock but the rest of the quarter was deadlocked with neither side fully committing to attack.

From the start of the second quarter, Seagulls adopted their trademark “full pool press”, a physically demanding but highly effective man-for-man marking game.

They scored twice as Barracudas tired under the pressure, then increased their lead to 4-0 just 30 seconds into the third quarter and 6-0 going into the final quarter.

Barracudas put up a good fight in the closing stages but Seagulls scored once more to make it 7-0 – their third successive clean sheet at the back.

The KS2 game featured the top two teams with Seagulls still smarting from their only defeat of the season, away to Barracudas.

The Christchurch club scored within the 40 seconds of the start and held the lead until Bridport equalised at the end of an uncompromising first quarter.

The second quarter was even closer as both sides adopted tight marking across the pool.

Seagulls broke the deadlock to take a 2-1 lead just before the turnaround.

Barracudas fought back in the third quarter to lead 3-2 only for Seagulls tp level with eight seconds left on the clock.

In a close-fought final quarter, Seagulls took an early lead and extended it late on to win 5-3 and take themselves back to the top of the table on goal difference.

Seagulls coach Rob Webber said: “Winning the Junior League is a first for us – until now it has been dominated by Weymouth.” Seagulls squads – Junior: Chris Chamberlain, Josh Farmer, Joe Foale-Groves, Kristy Rides, James Rogers, Connor Sleightholme, Laura Spence, Anand Vaithilingham, Sam Webber, Elliot Wilks, Daisy Wyper.

KS2: Kyle East, Harrison Mullins, Saskia Ormrod, Ben Radford, Sarah Rogers, Chloe Roxburgh, James Stephenson, Alice Tai, Christian Tai.

KS3: Georgina Crossley, Charles Elderfield, Megan Fletcher, Joe Foale-Groves, David Gallagher, Nick Hardacre, Mikey Kingsley, Cianan Mann, Jackson Mullins, Ali Rogers, Charlie Roberts, Sam Webber, Natasha Webber, Elliot Wilks.