He's 18, a first-year undergraduate and, like many of that unrestrained ilk, looking forward to a particularly merry Christmas.

For Scott Carpenter, however, there'll be no alcohol, a tightly- controlled diet and just two days' break before he starts intensive training again. "It's now what you'd call a typical student lifestyle, you don't really have days off at all," he says - Scott Carpenter is polo mint.

This year he became the first player in the National Water Polo League's 50-year history to score 100 goals in a first division season, beating the previous record by 15.

Already he's a Great Britain international, is tipped to lead the team in the 2012 Olympics and has turned down opportunities to train in Australia and in Long Beach, California.

"The essentials of water polo are strength, endurance and co-ordination," he says. "You have to be able to tread water and stay afloat for an hour while someone's climbing on top of you."

His grandfather was an ABA boxing champion, his father was also one of Britain's top water polo players and the only other man to score 100 goals in a season - but on both occasions in the second division.

"Scott's just 18 and better than I ever was," insists George Carpenter, who at 49 plans a maiden Channel swim. "He's a marvellous talent and already being talked about as the best player Britain has produced."

Scott's elder brother George, 20, is also a junior water polo international, but now plays rugby for Newcastle Falcons and was tipped for English under-19 and under-21 honours until being forced out for two years with a succession of knee and back injuries.

Now fully fit again, he hopes soon to make his mark. "He was a very good water polo player, too, but didn't like being coached by his dad," says George senior. "He thought he was being asked to do what others weren't."

Dad, who formed the Newton Aycliffe-based Sedgefield Water Polo Club, still sometimes plays alongside his younger son in Northern League games. "Scott tells me I'm an embarrassment, but I can still do it," he says.

"I wouldn't say he was an embarrassment, just a little bit past his best," insists Scott.

George Carpenter senior, Scott's grandfather, was 40 when he borrowed £200 to start an electrical and decorating business from a garage in Evenwood, near Bishop Auckland.

When he died 14 years later, the Darlington-based family firm had 26 shops throughout the North-East and had owned several Grand National runners. His son has since pulled out of the retail business.

"Nobody wallpapers any more, it's too much like hard work," says young George, who lives in Tudhoe, near Spennymoor.

"They just throw a tin of paint on the wall as a last resort and it doesn't look like it's ever going to come back."

His son, reading business studies at Manchester, will be home on December 23, fly off with the British squad on Boxing Day for a five-day tournament in Holland, be back on New Year's Eve but return to Manchester, and to intensive training, a couple of days later.

Scott, 6ft 4in and 13½ stones wet through - which, quite often, he is - reckons to spend almost as much time in the gym as he does in the water.

He plays for National League champions Lancaster, who won all 18 games and are Sedgefield's sister team, and is attached to the Polo Olympic High Performance Centre in Manchester.

"Quite a few people are saying nice things about me, but there's still a long way to go," he says. "The Olympics is quite a realistic ambition because basically we have a free pass with being the hosts.

"As a country we're improving all the time, but still have quite a long way to go before being on a par with countries like Hungary and Serbia, who have full-time professionals.

"I've had to give up a lot of things both socially and academically and no doubt I'll have to give up more, but I still thoroughly enjoy what I'm doing."

His dad hopes to achieve a 30-year ambition by making his Channel crossing bid in 2008, sponsored in aid of research into cystic fibrosis, from which his brother's children suffer.

"I'll have to put on some weight to withstand the cold. It goes right through you if you haven't a bit of excess beef, but I'm confident I'll be able to make it."

Scott shares his optimism. "It's obviously very tough, but he's determined. Like almost all the family, so long as my dad's in the water, he's happy."

Last Tuesday's column got its teeth into Pukka Pies, recorded that the company founder is now worth an estimated £35m, added that even the England supporters' ensemble is called the Pukka Pies Band. The Non League Paper now reports that Unibond League side Stocksbridge Park Steels marked last Saturday's game against Ossett Albion with a special programme devoted to the club's ten-year association with the piemen. Pukka punch, or what?

Since the Arngrove Northern League is a religion all of its own, talk at Chester-le-Street's match with Sunderland Nissan on Saturday turned to the new Bishop of Oxford.

The appointment of the Rt Rev John Pritchard, presently the Bishop of Jarrow, had been announced at a press conference last Monday. "He's supposed to be your mate and the Echo missed it completely," someone complained at the match.

It's true. Bishop John is a man who mixes humility, lucidity and great personal charm but who, for all his learning, may never have expected to find his translation announced in the Backtrack column.

The Church Times, happily, provides a peg. In the North-East, the bishop told last Monday's media gathering, he'd supported Newcastle United. In the diocese of Oxford, he'll change allegiance to Reading.

The other talking point at Chester-le-Street wasn't just that Nissan have accelerated to a surprise eight-point lead at the top of the ANL first division - other motoring puns may be inserted here - but that much-travelled team manager Wilf Constantine claims both in the team pen pix and on the website to be 46. Mr Constantine, Hartlepool lad, is 53.

AND FINALLY...

last Friday's column sought the identity of seven England internationals who'd played for both Sunderland and Newcastle.

They were meant to be Stan Anderson, Len Shackleton, Chris Waddle, Ivor Broadis, Barry Venison, Ernie Taylor and - the really hard one - Albert McInroy, a Houghton-le-Spring born goalkeeper who won a single cap in 1927.

Don Clarke in South Shields was first to point out that Alan Kennedy could be added to the list.

John Briggs in Darlington today invites readers to name the three players who've scored in successive post-war FA Cup finals.

It's the annual round-up on Friday.