A few days ago, I watched the KO waterpolo cup final between Neptunes and Exiles at the national swimming pool in Msida. After the pool was inaugurated in 1993, I frequented it almost every day and continued going to watch waterpolo matches there for several years.

However, it has been some time since I last visited and my recent return to the pool brought back some mixed memories.

So what made me go to the national pool to watch the KO cup final? Exiles was playing and for the club – but also for me – this was indeed a historic event. It was the first time since the club was founded in the 1960s that Exiles was playing in the final of one of the major cups in the local waterpolo scene. It certainly was a big step forward for the youngest club within the national association, the ASA.

I had not seen the first team of Exiles play for quite a number of years and I was very pleasantly surprised.

Each member of the team, including the reserves, knew exactly what they had to do. They swam and kept up well with their more experienced opponents. Certainly, it is not my intention to diminish in any way the good performance of the Neptunes team which, most deservedly, came out the winners of the cup. They definitely merited lifting the cup at the end of the game.

What I would like is to emphasise the big change in quality of play, in the swimming and in the overall way of playing of the Exiles team. In my opinion, given a couple of years, Exiles will have a team good enough to challenge the top honours in waterpolo. The club has really come a very long way since a few friends from St Aloysius College used to meet at the Exiles Beach and one day had the “bright” idea to form a sports club organising teams for various sports but especially waterpolo.

Undoubtedly, this improvement has been achieved through the dedication and sacrifice of the present administrators of the club and of a few gentlemen who have been helping the club since its foundation. It has also happened because of the love the present Exiles players and the present coach, who is well known for his great passion for the game, undoubtedly have for the game of waterpolo and for the Exiles club.