If Nick Armitage-Bond ware a rising football star there’s every chance he’d be dubbed the new Cristiano Ronaldo.

He plays out wide and scores loads of goals in his chosen sport... which just happens to be water polo.

He may not be the new Ronaldo – Cristiano will tell you there’s only one Cristiano! -but the 18-year-old is certainly one of the rising stars in a sport he first took up at the age of nine.

Martyn Thomas, who is director of coaching of the water polo section at Cheltenham Swimming and Water Polo Club, said: “He’s got an incredible shot on him. He throws it 70-80km per hour which is 50-55mph.

“It goes like a rocket and he’s becoming known for it’s throughout the country.”

The fact that Nick became a water polo player at all happened by pure chance.

“We’d put him in swimming lessons when he was young,” said his mum Wendy. “He started swimming at the National Star College when he was four but it was a complete accident that he got involved in water polo.

“We didn’t even know there was a sport called water polo!”

Nick’s lucky break came in the form of Phil Spicer, his swimming coach at St Edward’s Prep School.

Phil and his brother John both played water polo for England and Phil had already spotted that Nick was a good swimmer.

“There was a taster session at Dean Close which Nick went to and he just seemed to take to it more than other sports,” said Wendy.

The young Nick also played football for Leckhampton Rovers and rugby for Old Patesians but once he’d dipped his toe in the water it was water polo that was to shape his life.

“He was a natural in the water,” says his proud mum. “He was good at freestyle and swam for Cheltenham and the county and was good at sprints and the longer distances.”

He played his first water polo match for Cheltenham’s under-12s at the age of 10 and by now was under the expert eye of John Spicer with whom he did weekly regional training sessions at GL1.

Nick’s natural talent and desire to succeed supplemented by the excellent coaching available saw him make rapid progress in the sport.

He was given a place on the Great Britain talent development team at the start of 2014 and the following year, at the age of just 16, was given his chance by coach James Ross and played for Cheltenham’s first team. He made a pretty good impression, too, scoring a hat-trick in one game.

He hasn’t looked back since those days. In March 2016, he represented Scotland - his dad Douglas was born north of the border - in the EU Nations in Vienna and six months later he competed again for Scotland in the North Sea Cup in Dublin.

He is also in the Great Britain under-19 squad under coach Sean King, who is keen to develop the squad and get the best out of Nick and the boys.

Water polo may only recently have come into Wendy’s life but she knows enough about the sport to know that her son’s trademark shooting is something to behold.

“He seems to just lift himself out of the water and the ball is in the net before almost anyone has moved,” she said.

“But the characteristic I’m most proud of is he’s a real team player. There are times when he could score but he sets his team-mates up to score, for him the most important thing is that the team wins.”

So, how far can he go in the sport?

“If he works hard he can go all the way,” said Thomas. “He needs to train hard with the Great Britain squad and if he does and we qualify he’ll get the chance to go to the Olympics.”

The last word goes to Wendy, who paid tribute to the support that her son has received at Cheltenham.

“He owes a lot to the club,” she said. “They are fantastic coaches and the older players have always been very supportive of the younger ones coming through. We’ve been very lucky.”