History of San Giljan ASC

The Second World War had just ended in 1944 when the founder of our club Guzi Tanti gathered a group of young boys during the summer months with the purpose of starting a waterpolo team. Some years later, precisely on the 3rd October 1948 the first Annual General Meeting was held at City of London Bar and the club with the name of Balluta Waterpolo Club was officially established. During that winter the young enthusiastic boys led by Guzi Tanti made a huge effort in setting up a waterpolo club by the sea to be ready for summer. In fact, during the following summer of 1949 the club under the name of Balluta W.C. took part in the ASA competitions for the first time and played in the Second Division League.

On the 3rd July 1949 Balluta W.C. played the first ever match against Valletta United and we lost with the score of 2-0. However, in the second match played against the same opponents, Balluta W.C. won with the score of 8-1 and thus were given the opportunity to play in the first division the following year.

In the summer of 1950, Balluta W.C. played in the ASA first division league for the first time and finished second in the league beating Neptunes 6-2, Sliema 7-1 and Sirens 6-2. We only lost to Valletta with the score of 2-3 and the latter were crowned Champions. In 1951 the club finished in second place once again and for the first time we won the Junior Competition.

In 1952 our boys were determined to go a step further and managed to win the Double for the first time in the history of the club, overcoming the challenge of Valletta who were trying to win their third consecutive league. During this year the Kitty Kola Knock out Competition was held for the first time and our club won this competition, beating Valletta 3-2 in the final after two replays. During that time, if a final ended in a draw it had to be played once again and it took three matches for Balluta to beat Valletta in the final and land the first double in the history of the club.

In the following years Balluta W.C. kept growing and winning more honours both at senior and junior level. One year surely to remember is 1963 when the club won the double at senior level and the U/18 league without losing a match. This year was also of great importance for the club since it was the first time we participated in matches abroad and the team played matches against JUG in Dubrovnic, Jugoslavia and also in Italy.

On to the 16th June 1974, a historical event took place for the club when during an extraordinary general meeting the members of the club unanimously decided to change the name of the club from Balluta W.C. to San Giljan W.P.C and the reason for this was that Balluta had become a parish which was physically outside of San Giljan. Some years later the name of the club was changed to San Giljan A.S.C. (aquatic sports club) to incorporate other disciplines such as swimming apart from waterpolo.

This is how it all started, a group of young boys from San Giljan led by the vision of a great man known as Guzi l-Pritz.  More than 70 years have now passed and in the meantime many Giljanizi and ‘adopted’ Giljanizi have contributed in one way or another for the club to keep growing. Let us continue writing together more memorable pages in the name of this glorious club known as ta Werwer, ta Balluta u tfal ta San Giljan.