Sept. 26th, ’04: Double The Fun - It was double the fun for some in the sun and double the trouble for others.  It was for sure fun for the players today as they knew at the end of the rainbow there was a bronze, not a pot of gold, but better a Rich Roenisch bronze.  And THE WINNERS WERE:

Monteverde won the 4-Goal finals. Yes, Ellen Greenhill did it again. She may be a party animal by dark, but a polo patroness by day. Ellen and her team sat down on the Hawaiian connection and beat ‘em up like it was Sat. night at the fights. They doubled the score and went home with the big one.

In the 8-goal was won by Leather CPR and they had a down and out brawl with Figi's Gypsys. It could have went either way, but it was a big goal by Darren Zuzow that led to the final blow to win it all in the best game of the day and the best match of the weekend. It was the Surfer (Diego Cossio) vs. the Missile (Miguel Torres, Jr.) and they did have a battle, but the support crew was unable to do it when the cold hand was dealt to the Gypsy's.  No matter who Suzanne Figi took out or who hit.  The best play by CPR was to foul and then knock in as the Gypsy's were so cold on penalty shots it was b-a-d.  They missed 3 from 40 on in and 3 from 60.  It all adds up to make 1 and you tie to make 2 and they win. Polo is like that and that’s why we play it.  Darren played well and he must have had the right pants on as he is the 2004 Spreckels Cup 8-goal champion.  They did it well as the Missile was humming and Papa Torres did the delivery and Tomas did his job very well. For Gypsy it was a very good performance as young gun Jared Sheldon played  hard and well, but he did not shoot any penalty shots. Don’t feel too sorry for them as there were 8 tournaments this year in San Diego and Ms. Figi owns 6 of them.

IT WAS A GREAT DAY FOR A VOYAGE. It was a perfect day for a Voyage and it was a very nice day for Voyager as they did a tap dance on the The Bridges to win the 14-Goal Spreckels Finals.  It must have felt like the water was over the bridge from 1 minute on to the Fat Boy (George Daou) no longer Fat, but drowned George as the Voyagers washed the Bridges away in the first and led by 6 early in the 3rd and by 5 at 1/2 time.  It just continued throughout the remainder of the game. Jeff Blake it and the Fast-etta (Mariano Fassetta) was there to pick it up and deliver.  The deliveries were made often and in a hurry as they blew down the Bridges by 5 and only had a little sweat in and a sweet trip to their second Spreckels Cup for Silent Chris Maloney.  Voyager has won the last 4 high-goal tournaments in the place where the Surf meets the Turf. His wing may be in a sling, but he is swinging bronzes this Sunday night.

Well done to Josey Stuart, Mariano Fassetta , Jeff Blake and Alvero Tadeo and the king of the day MR. Chris Maloney.

See ya where they play polo.

Sept. 24, 04: Santa Barbara – It’s still moving as well and it’s full to the brim as they allowed only 8 teams in.  They are finished with their first of the Fall season which saw the Klentner Group jump on the trophy wagon on Sunday. Justin Klentner, a new comer this year, continues to make it happen. He has a young gun Mariano Gutierrez running and old timer from the CasaBlanca clan Tim Rudy hitting it up to him.  They finish the deal with David Flynn who had one of the best shots JN had ever seen the other day. He cleared a goal at a dead run and necked it to the boards, but the stopped the Nicoma squad of Ladins minus 1.  I hear Mrs Ladin suffered a broken collar bone, a season ending problem. Her daughter Courtney was ready to go, so they did not skip a beat as the Lawman Matt kept them in the running for the finals which they lost by 1 to the Klentner group. They start the second one this Saturday ,so there will be a full slate of games this weekend.  If you do not want to drive south come on over to Santa Barbara and see those ponies run.

See ya where they play polo.

Sept. 24, 04: California Polo Is Moving - Well I have been out of town getting my butt kicked at the French connection, so I missed the big action in CA.  I have been catching up mostly by here say, but it sounds like things are smoking around the golden state which is more brown  than gold.  They say the rains are coming. There are some big surprises in San Diego Polo. Not who is winning in the 14-goal Spreckels Cup, but the lack of participation in one of California’s most prestigious tournaments in one of the nations favorite cities to visit.  The San Diego Polo Club is right where the surf meets the turf.  Anyway, polo is that way, fickle at times, but a lot of people are missing out. The fields are good and it is the place to be. A paradise for families with 5 of the nations most popular parks.

The most popular team around is again going to the finals to defend his title and his opponent is the same one he had last year. Voyager is back in the finals and they have a brand new line-up from a year ago.  They have young gun Alvaro, a 1 goal warrior and he is running the gauntlet for Mr. speed Fast-Etta.  He seems to be doing what he does best flying down the field with a ball to goal. He has a very quiet gun behind them and his name is well known in polo, it’s Blake as in Jeff Blake.  He has been doing what he does, winning polo games. The big stick in the back is Silent Chris Maloney, who seems to be in every finals in the state lately.  The funny thing about this team is that Silent Chris has to talk as there is no one else to talk on this team. Alvero is hard to get a word out. Fassetta is almost never heard, just seen and Blake has been quiet for 25 years, so Chris has to talk to know who is going where, but it must be working as they are undefeated this month with 1 to go. It must be sign language I guess because they do not smoke. On the other side a new name and an old face as Georges Daou comes back to the field as The Bridges.  He has a fairly new crew as well. He has the Surfer (Diego Cossio) is still cruising the winning line with the 8-goal. They have Pedro Orellana, an old teammate of the Surfer’s who sometimes plays in Argentina, sometimes Canada and sometimes California.  He is always mounted and ready to go.  They have an old teammate of George Daou in the form of Topo Mendez, so it will be interesting.

In the 8-goal it was apparently a House burning as CasaBlanca, the defending champs, were buried on the weekend.  Not once, but twice as Lady Susan Figi continues to dominate Dudley's crew in 2004.  Twice in the desert and again in San Diego.  It will be a very young gun named Sheldon in between classes running for them his name is Jared.  Jared has the Surfer (Diego Cossio) behind him and the manager behind him and his name is Bray.  This team boggies with Figi the Gypsy's demon on horseback behind Bray facing new blood in the Surf area. Leather CPR, who has been in the finals often this year somewhere or another in the Governor’s Cup and other Leagues in Indio and SB.  They are now in San Diego.  Their leader is Darren Zuzow is a big supporter of polo and a upcoming power of the game. He was a major supporter of the World Cup Team who let him down a little.  Darren brings some young guns to the field with speed to burn.  He has the “Missile” Miguel Torres, Jr. and another gun from Argy land Tomas.  They have Poppa Torres to run the show, so be there on Sunday.  There will be action and it will be party time.

See ya

Sept. 19th, 04:  Brazil Is A World Power In Polo - It was a match like no finals in the last three World Cups. It was a war to the finish and the Brits never stopped coming.  From down 3 in the 3rd and they tied it up with 20 seconds to go in the first 1st half. They rallied again in the 6th to tie it up again. There was trouble with the organizers with no decision on what horses could be used in overtime as the FIP has promised horse loaner’s that their horses will only play 7 minutes each. So overtime happened, well nobody knew what to do.  There were about 12 people who had an opinion, but what do we do . . . as usual nothing.  They got on horses with time left and fought it out for 6 more minutes with Brazil getting some added opportunities from South American umpires, but in the end it was Calabas ending it all as he did 3 years ago. He has more game savvy than anyone else here.  Calabas rode the youth moment, but in the end it was his brain and game savvy that laid the trophy in the hands of Brazil.  The young Brazilians played very well and were the main reason they got this far. They have a famous name already Diniz, so we will most likely hear much more from them. The English team is young as well with no old campaigners, but they were so disciplined they just did not go away. England had played Brazil in the first game of the World Cup and did it again in the last and final game.  The results were the same, but not the games. It was Chile winning the bronze over France as the umpires set the French number 4 player down for the chukker allowing Chile to get a 3 goal lead with 3 against 4 players.  France never did recover. The big news of the day was that it took 14 games, but he French did figure out how to time a polo game. The Chantilly Polo Club is a beautiful place,  but there are some very unusual people in the area. However, there are some very nice people as well. That’s the sad part, they have to live with the others.

Sept. 18th, ’04: Rematch – Yes, the first game of the championships was England vs. Brazil and so will the last one. It is Brazil with grace and speed vs. England with power and a desire that shows why one of the smallest countries on this planet once ruled the World. They are tough. They have lost to Brazil who now has a better record than Argentina in the World Cups, but I assure you they will not give up.  

In the semis it was Chile, a team of amateurs who are double quick and have fun playing polo. They had it for a while with their quick strikes at goal, but they could not handle the brute power of England who just keeps coming. In the 6th down by 2 it was Chile still fighting and nearly tying the game, but they were stopped just short of it.  As the worst field officials on this planet continued to screw up the clock and make the umpires wonder who really runs the clock. They will not put a timer in the center of the field so if its on the opposite end of clock they do not hear, so they do not stop clock and when chukker is over they often did not alert field umpires, so play would end 200 yards from last official play. It was and is just amazing to me how bad they are. Often umpires have to set up the ball on end line for knock ins because the ball boy through it only part of the way. It is a union kind of country.

In the second game between France and Brazil it was the French team taking a lesson from the USA team. I guess they were never there and never even included in the game. They should have told the ungodly bad timers to blow the horn and start all over as the Diniz boys had them for dessert and ate a lot as they won by 7 over a very good team from France who just had a yanky day today.

See ya

Sept. 18th, ’04: YES WE WERE KICKED IN THE BELLY AND I am the only one with a big one. The US team had a very bad day.  Bad decisions by me.  Bad operations by our team and a very good day for France who blistered the goals to lead 5 to 0 before we hit the board.  It was bad from the outset. We could not make simple plays, we were out of position and missed every opportunity there was. We, in general, sucked. I should have put Joe Barry back in even though he had a slight injury. I had hoped to have him for the Semis, well that was a bad idea. Too many young players, most under 21, and no leader at back and that threw everyone off somewhere he was not supposed to be. Jason and Alan played well, but were always backing the ball and not able to face the play until the 6th, which we did win 3 to 0, but way too late . We tried to hold our own in the first chukker and come back strong in the last 3, but we could not convert in the 4th by missing too many easy chances. The it was the pressure to catch them. Well it was 3 years trying to make it happen, but with no practice and no money it’s a very long trip. We looked like the US basketball team.  Like someone not sure where the other is going. The teams in the finals get support and practice and I know we need this to win. I think I can raise the money to make it work that way without the hope of getting help from our association, who just does not care about these events.

Sept. 13th, ’04: The World Cup Is Warming Up – Yes,  it’s getting hot in Chantilly even though the weather has turned cooler on Monday. It was the USA getting a hold of the Aussies and doing a good job. We playing a bad 4th chukker, but played a strong 5 chukkers around it . The Yanks started a new line-up as Stevie Orthwein, Jr took Joe Barry’s place, as he was injured in the hand in a bad fall on Friday against Chile in a one goal loss after winning by 3 at the 1/2.  We rallied well against Australia, still losing the 4th by 3, but then they put it back on the table and cut them up. It was a very good performance by Stevie Orthwein, Jr. and the Palomino (Jason Crowder) and a lot of hard work by “The Bullet” Chris Gannon.  Chris has the job of taking the big gun on the other team.  The Magic Of Martinez (Alan) started to show up, so we could have some good runs soon. In other action on Sunday it was Chile down by 3 at the 1/2 and thrashed France 9 to 0 in the last 1/2 and winning by 6.  It was a running game .

On Monday it was the Mexican’s pulling the biggest upset of the tournament as they came out fighting.  It was an Escapite kind of day as they showed the defending champs they maybe down, but no where near out.  They jumped all over Brazil from start to finish and shut down the yellow machine from the Amazon.  However, the Brazilians won by 1, 9 to 8.  Mexico now needs to win a 1/2 game makeup on Wed. to get through to the semis with England down by 3, but its only 1/2 time.

Pakistan who has the best team with great discipline and style had a bad day today in the rain.  They played against England and jumped out to a 3 & 0 lead. Then Pakistan had a very hard time in the rain and lost to England.  They are now out of the semis.

All in all it has been a splendid tournament with very nice fields and adequate horses.  The field staff is very bad as the field officials from the timers to the refs have been very inefficient and very inconsistent. The clock is always off and the flaggers with 2 helpers cannot put the ball on the field.  The refs think that because they are from Argentina that they are kings of the hill. Whatever is their desire of the day is the way it is today, but tomorrow is another day. I know there are 8 countries and some rule differences in the FIP, but they are paid to read the rules and its not the Palermo Open or the Pacific Coast Open or even the Queens Cup.  They are all here for the same thing. Anyway, its a great place some awesome people running the show like Faruk, Dorthy and Mr. Holden, so let the good times roll and may the yanks beat the host on Tuesday. 

See ya

 Sept. 10th, ’04: Just 1 Bad Chukker - The USA started like a machine and played super polo for the first chukkers ahead of Chile at the 1/2 -6 to 3. Then the US blew their lead in the 4th with a very bad chukker and let Chile tie-up the game. From then on it was nip and tuck as each team continued to tie. Joe Barry had a bad fall and this did not help.  We should have substituted, but did not and we were unable to score. We had an excellent performance from “The Bullet” Chris Gannon and the Palomino (Jason Crowder).  It was close and we had our chances, but we just did not close the door. We now have to play Australia who had a horrible game against France.  France has a very under-rated team and will be very strong.  The USA plays France Tuesday.  We will have a very hard game against the Aussies who will be foaming at the mouth after yesterday.

In first round action, which all teams have played, it’s been very close except for France vs. Australia. All 1 goal games Brazil over England and Pakistan over Mexico. The Chantilly Polo Club is very nice and the city of Chantilly is so very nice. The horses are okay, but nothing like Australia. It is still a very rewarding experience for all those here. It is very tough polo and the grounds are fine. They have about 10 fields here and they are well kept.  The weather has been warm, but good to date. We hope it stays that way so come over and see us and cheer the Yanks on.

Bon voyage.

Sept. 8, ’04: Action Is 24 Hours Away – It’s only a short 24 hrs. until the quest for the 2004 FIP World Cup Championship begins. It should be good. Mexico takes on Pakistan and England deals with Brazil in the second game. The USA Team is set for 3 pm on Friday against the favorite in the bracket, Chile.  Everyone knows their horses a little now after 2 rides and a practice, so we will all know a little more in about 2 days.

The country side here is awesome. We have seen Paris in a couple of trips and the Arc de Triumphe. No one jumped off the tower and all is frenchy in town. Whitney Crowder turned 13 in Paris. They lit the Eiffel Tower for her, so she is now a high-ender in her mind after a great party at Pené Pero restaurant and a big crowd.  She’s set to lead the cheers for the team USA.

Sept. 7, '04: The Boat Has Landed - The USA World Cup Team is in France as we speak. The team arrived on Friday. We had the draw for horses and rode the horses Sat. & Sun. for a couple of hours in a practice match game. We put a small whiping on the defending champs from Brasil, but it was far from awesome. There were some major highlights as Chris Gannon was a real fireplug in his debut. In the shadows of the tower he was rockin'. The Brazilians know who he is today. The Palomino (Jason Crowder) also branded a couple players with the plastic here it. They are not TEXAS POLO BALLS, so they are softer and not nearly as good, just cheaper, but they did sting a little they said. We will report often as possible. See ya