THE young guns of Dunfermline Water Polo Club proved that the future’s bright after they claimed three national trophies on Sunday.

Five club teams were in action at the annual Scottish National Water Polo Championships finals day in Dundee and the boys’ under-18s, women’s under-19s and men’s under-21s were all successful in bringing trophies back to West Fife.

There was, however, disappointment for the senior women and men, who both lost in their finals to Edinburgh University and Portobello respectively.

Dunfermline, for the second year running, were the most represented club competing on the day as they featured in every final except the mixed under-16 event, which opened the day’s play.

The men’s under-21s were first up when they faced off against Portobello and Dunfermline led 9-3 at half-time before pulling away to record a well-earned 18-10 win to take the title.

That success was followed by the under-19 women, who took on Stirling, and after a tight opening quarter, Dunfermline led 8-4 at the break before going on to achieve a comfortable 17-6 victory.

The trophy treble was completed by the boys’ under-18s, who retained their title by overcoming Menzieshill 19-9.

Hopes of a Dunfermline clean sweep, however, were shattered when the Edinburgh Uni students edged an excellent senior women’s final by a single point before the senior men lost a tense game 7-4 to a strong Portobello team.

That was their third successive final loss to the same opponents and Alasdair Campbell, senior team manager, said: “At senior level we’ve not got the depth like Portobello have and we’re disappointed we didn’t score in the second period, and I don’t think we did in the third either.

“That’s ultimately what cost us but we need to try and find a way of breaking them down; they have a very good goalie and sit back and hit on the break. We had a lot of under-20s coming off the bench though which will be a good experience for them and hopefully be good for us going forward.

“That’s the third successive year we’ve lost to them but I’m sure we’ll beat them at some point! In our starting line-up we had one guy who just turned 18 on Sunday and one who is 17, so for them to be playing against a team that’s full of Scotland internationals is hard.

“It was a bit mixed but the under-18 boys, under-19 girls and the under-21 men winning is encouraging.”

He added: “The senior women lost to Edinburgh University by a point and, in the league, they beat them by a point, which shows how close they are.

“We were in every final except the under-16s and won three of them, and like last year we had the most teams of any club in the finals. That shows we’re strong in different areas, we’re very inclusive and focus on all areas.”