DEATH OF HARRY WOODS

Former Great Britain international and national coach Harry Woods has died suddenly after collapsing while taking a junior training session at his club, Southport. He was 69.

Harry was a member of the all-conquering Birkenhead side that won the National League title and ASA Club Championship in 1965.

He played for Birkenhead, England and Great Britain alongside Allan Murray (the long-serving Birkenhead club water polo secretary) with great distinction, notably at the West European Championships in 1964. Great Britain finished as runners-up to the Netherlands, having beaten the Dutch at the group stage but lost to Germany – the German defeat robbing them of the title.

Birkenhead were very much a power in the land in the 1960s, finishing runners-up to Cheltenham in the first year of National League competition in 1963, clinching the title once again in 1966 and then finishing runners-up in each of the next three years – to Sutton & Cheam, Cheltenham and then Polytechnic. In addition to Harry and Allan Murray (Harry was best man at his wedding in 1960), other leading players included Dickie Mathews, Jimmy Ayre, Bert Bintley, Harry Fogg, George Waring and Frank Manley.

Harry went on to coach England and Great Britain. When he left Birkenhead for Southport, it prompted a new and especially rewarding phase of his career as he took the helm at the Southport club and built a team that was to compete in the National League from 1975 until 1989.

Southport won promotion to Division One in 1978 and remained in the top flight for another six seasons, also reaching an ASA Club Championship final.