DUNFERMLINE Water Polo Club’s senior men followed in the footsteps of their under-16 counterparts by being crowned league champions without losing a match.

The squad clinched the Scottish National League title on Monday night by recording a 19-7 victory over Menzieshill in Dundee and are on course to complete a league and cup double after they set up a Scottish Cup final meeting with Portobello last month.

Dunfermline made a strong start and trebles from Daniel Woodall and Darren Campbell, as well as solitary strikes from Ali Campbell and Andrew Woodall, saw them lead 8-4 at half-time before both Campbells and James Melville scored in the third quarter to edge them closer to the championship.

In the final period, Dunfermline showed why they are top of the pile as they scored a further eight goals to Menzieshill’s two, including Finlay Nesbitt’s first goal for the senior side with an excellent lob shot.

The title win rounds off a successful season for the senior men that also saw seven players feature for Scotland in the Commonwealth water polo tournament in April and team manager Ali Campbell said, “To finish the season unbeaten is a major plus as I don’t think it’s happened since I’ve been playing.

“We’re pretty confident we can win against all teams but we maintained our professionalism and put our foot to the gas to get the win. Everyone was happy but the Portobello game that we drew last week was the big one - we just needed to get over the line.

“We’ve come a long way in the last five or six years and the under-17s have two matches left and are still in with a shout of winning their league. In the match on Monday, James Melville and Finlay Nesbitt played and were also part of the under-16s team so that is very promising for the future.” Meanwhile, there was international recognition for two of the club’s younger members as they featured for Scotland’s under-14 team at the 2014 Inter-Regions tournament in Walsall at the weekend.

Goalkeeper Thomas Cameron and Craig Harris helped the Scots to a sixth-place finish in the eight-team competition where they played against districts from across England. After going down 12-6 and 14-9 to eventual finalists London and North West respectively, Scotland defeated East Midlands 8-3 and North West seconds 12-3 to take their place in the fifth/sixth-place play-off match, which they lost 10-7 to East London.

Speaking about their experiences, Thomas said, “It was really good to play in such challenging matches at my own age group. Playing in a different pool and against players I don’t know was really good fun. It is great to get experience playing in England where the standard is higher as they have more players to choose from. It was a slightly different style of polo compared to what we do at Dunfermline but it is good to see that you have to play different styles in different situations.” Craig added, “The standard was really high and the pace of the game was just so much quicker. If you made a slight mistake you didn’t get away with it.

“The tournament has made me more aware of the speed needed in the game, not just with swimming but the mental speed. The tournament was great and I’m looking forward to upcoming events like this.” There was additional success for the club as their under-15 girls/under-14 boys team of Gemma Kane, Jack Gillespie, Orla Mcquade, Cameron Baigrie, Rory Nesbitt, Douglas Leishman, Alex Thomson, Saul Paton took a silver medal in the Scottish under-14/under-15 development championships in Stirling.