SEVEN Dunfermline Water Polo Club players have created history by helping Scotland to claim a bronze medal in the Commonwealth tournament.

Alasdair, Chris and Darren Campbell, along with Mark Speed, Andrew Woodall, Davie Baxter and Simon Metcalfe were in the men's team who claimed third place with a play-off victory over South Africa in Aberdeen on Saturday 5th April.

The tournament, which was being held for the third time, was the first time Scotland had fielded a men's team along with a women's side. They competed against another six men's and four women's teams, with England claiming gold in both events while Malta and Canada took silver respectively.

Although there was medal glory for the men, Scotland's women - featuring Dunfermline contingent Alison Tate, Nicola Tate, Laura Fox, Julia Mackay and Chantal Guillot - missed out on bronze as they lost their third-place decider against South Africa 16-1, with Mackay netting for Scotland.

The men's side impressively defeated Wales, New Zealand and Singapore to set up the third-place match with South Africa and Darren Campbell netted their fifth in a thrilling 6-5 win. Alasdair Campbell with 11, Speed with five, Woodall with four and Chris Campbell with three goals also netted during the tournament while Dunfermline's Nicola Tate (seven) and Laura Fox (six) added to Mackay's solitary strike in the women's event.

Alasdair, who is the club's senior team manager and was Scotland's second-top goalscorer, said, "I couldn't believe it when we won bronze and it's still not really sunk in to be honest. We thought that given the teams we were up against, who have more experience at this level, to make the third/fourth place play-off would be a great achievement but to win a medal is remarkable. The likes of England and Malta have professional players and although we lost to them, we played well.

"New Zealand and South Africa play at the highest level and some of the South African players are massive - it was like swimming against a wall! The final period went on forever but it's something that none of us will ever experience again for a long time. It's the biggest crowd we've played in front of; there were hundreds of people there for every game which was incredible. It definitely inspired us and it is the biggest thing to happen in Scottish water polo since I've been alive which is 25 years.

"The women did really well although they didn't win a medal and our own Nicola Tate was their top scorer, while her sister Alison turned 16 during the tournament and I'm sure was the youngest player there. Hopefully we can use that to kick on and progress and inspire players to keep going with their polo careers and others to take up the sport. I hope there's now a case to make it a Commonwealth sport which would bring extra funding, more publicity and allow the sport to grow. This is massive for Scottish water polo." Results (men): Scotland 20 Wales 11, Scotland 7 Malta 18, Scotland 8 South Africa 9, Scotland 4 England 17, Scotland 9 New Zealand 7, Scotland 12 Singapore 6, Scotland 6 South Africa 5 (third-place match).

Women: Scotland 10 Wales 9, Scotland 3 Canada 23, Scotland 0 South Africa 23, Scotland 2 England 24, Scotland 6 Wales 5, Scotland 1 South Africa 16 (third-place match).