Driving force behind pool winners making waves: A teacher with an aquatic passion has made a Devon school without facilities of its own a national power for two decades

DON ROBERTS still has high hopes that one day he will be invited on to Mastermind to answer questions about Olympic swimming times from 1900. Actually, this somewhat specialised field is not his favourite subject. But even Roberts accepts that individual and team performances by members of Torquay Boys' Grammar School, 1957 to the present day, might be considered esoteric.

There seems little doubt that Roberts, aged 63, would score very highly. He collects and records every championship time registered by boys at this extraordinary school, which has no pool of its own but is still one of the leading swimming schools in Britain.

Roberts has been the driving force behind the Devon school's success for more than 30 years. As well as leading its swimmers to national success almost every year for two decades, he has built up two formidable water polo sides. Two of his senior team are in the Great Britain under-19 squad, and Steve Margetts, one of last year's crop, won a water polo scholarship to an American university. Roberts, a former maths and chemistry master, also has high hopes for the under-16 team - two players are in the Western Counties squad and may win an England place. One of these, 15-year-old James Payne, could become a top swimmer, Roberts believes.

'He is the best boy in my swimming squad for 20 years,' Roberts says. 'At sprinting, he could easily be international material - but not if he keeps playing water polo.'

The trouble is that Payne, a shy six-footer with a rangy style that is a coach's dream, is addicted to this aquatic version of rugby sevens. He discovered water polo 18 months ago and plays for Paignton as well as his school. His father, Brian, believes that this may be the secret of the school's success: 'Most of them represent clubs as well, and the better ones train at county level, so they get three or four times as much training.'

With no pool and no likelihood of one for some years, keen swimmers are allocated one lunchtime a week for training at the local pool. Water polo enthusiasts have only an hour at the public pool early on Saturday mornings.

Even at schools level, the sport, developed in England as 'water soccer' in 1869, is rough and tough. Payne admits: 'It gets very exciting. It's not unusual for parents to be 'dressing-roomed' (the equivalent of the red card).'

Fouls are an integral part of water polo. One of the best moves is forcing a player's hand down so he pushes the ball underwater - an automatic foul. But like ice hockey, there is an intimidatory side-game. Clever teams will rile an opposing star and try to get him sent to the 'sin-bin', or even dismissed from the game, by subtle niggling.

When you're 15, it is hard not to retaliate if your nipples are squeezed, your trunks pulled down or you are scratched. Though all players have their nails inspected beforehand, it's not unusual to finish a game - four periods of seven minutes - covered with scratches. Other fouls include the Vinnie Jones (serious water poloists all wear cricket boxes) and the reverse head-butt (pretending to flick the water from your eyes, but aiming at an opponent's nose).

At its best, though, water polo is a fast, physical, skilful and tactical game. 'The very best public schools like Grantham play zone defence,' Roberts says enviously. 'We just don't get the time to practise things like that. Now, if we had our own pool . . .'

But he's done pretty well. Though the curse of the staff room ('He will buttonhole you and run through all the times that everyone has achieved over the weekend if you're not careful,' one teacher says), his enthusiasm is perhaps the key reason behind Torquay's success. James Payne says: 'Lots of coaches bawl at their swimmers and think this is the way to get the best from them. Don never shouts at us, but keeps all our times and encourages us.'

Payne will travel with the squad to Barnes, south-west London, for the schools' semi-finals on Sunday. Roberts hopes this could be the year for both water polo teams. But even if they win the finals at Luton in May, he has no plans to retire. After all, there are new boys coming through, new times to record . . .