The Polo Report by Steve Crowder

May 31, '03: At Dawn

Well New York has Funny Cide the Walkers have AT DAWN. They have one thing in common they both won their last race and hopefully many more. Danny Walker has always had fast horses on the polo field. Some wild, some broncos, some big and some little, but all fast. Well Linda is his wife and she has always seemed a little laid back and quiet raising children and being a Banker's wife. Well that is not the way it really is. She raises race horses for real races too and her stable is called P T S RANCH. They have a couple of race horses she decided to keep from Danny's polo string and its paying the piper. In its second start which looked like Danny trying to get out of the throw in sideways, AT DAWN also looked like Danny's Polo horses at the end line. It was flying to the front and California turf was flying behind it just like Danny flies down Holden Field. Linda blazed them all at H O L L Y W O O D P A R K on Friday night. Well done! It was a fantastic time.

May 31, '03: LiSLE NIXON FINALS AT 3 P.M.
It was a Walker kind of day on Friday, May 30, 2003. Danny Walker and the Surfer (Diego Cossio) helping Big Nick and The Texas Stick (Chris Nevins) get to the finals as they slid by the Grants Farm Team who already had seats in the finals. It all ended in O.T. as the Surfer put it home and it was Dan Walker blowing by the field in under 30 ticks to tie it up and send it to O.T. Well they get to do it all over at 3 P.M. come Sunday afternoon this time its for the big silver jug and it will be the place to be.

May 27, '03: Buschwhacked - It was a Buschwacking as Andy Busch (A.B.) scored the same amount of goals as the Gehache team on Sunday at 3 p.m in the Santa Barbara 12-goal tournament. It started out wrong for A.B. after 1, it was 3-0 after 2, 4-3 after 3 5-4 and then the Busch factor came to be. Grant's Farm destroyed the Boys in red from then on and won by 3. Faste-etta (Mariano Fassetta) was on fire and Mighty Mike Matz was doing his job A.B. was nailing them easy and often to clinch there way into the finals next Sunday.

In the 1 o'clock between the 2 first round losers it was cellar time for Springbok. They did need Patron Jeff Kazmark as he sat in the stands supporting a shoulder support for his broken wing. His 4 Argies were no match for the boys in yellow, the Rug rats of Mansour. They never saw the upside losing by as many as 8 at times and finishing in the cellar losing by 5 even though the Cabazon (Mariano Gonzalez) sent his 0's to the big guns and had a snack on the sidelines and let the Palomino finish the genuine a_ _ whipping. Springbok is out and Mansour needs a little luck to get to the finals to play next Sunday at 3 p.m.

See ya there

May 24, '03: A.B is Back - It was Andy Busch and the Mighty Matz doing a dance on the Rugrats on Friday. They started off with a 5 to 1 lead and never had to look up as the Champs of the last tournament had a bad day in the Busch Gardens. Fast-etta was rockin' and the other boys poured it on often and hard. It was a very different game that followed, as the Stonnington Group came roaring back from a 5 goal deficit and poured it on the Argie's from Springbok and took them to O.T. Danny Walker blazed past young Sapo to drive the nail in the coffin. The sad part of it all was Boss man Jeff Kazmark was hurt in a fall and will be out for a while with a broken collarbone. It will be a hard blow on the Club as they only have 5 teams as it is and this does little to help things as Jeff is one of the Club's biggest supporters and probably the most popular player. So get well quick JK. Sunday it is Stonnington Group taking the day off and the 2 losers on Friday trying to stay out of the cellar. Gehache with the Ambassador taking on A.B. and the boys. See you there as we're still the only show in the state next week. The fires light all over the Golden State let us know your schedule.

May 19, '03: Lysle Nixon was said to be tough and he would be proud of the man who has worn his title most of the last decade, Mariano (Cabazone) Gonzalez. He is the man as either Mariano or the Palomino (Jason Crowder) have won the last 12 of 14 , 12 goals played in Santa Barbara either together which most have been and it was that way again yesterday. Jeff Kazmark's hopes were sent down the creek early as M.G. never missed a penalty shot. The Rug Man (Ben Soleimani) won his second tournament of the early season in Santa Barbara. Unlike Friday when Mansour trailed most of the first 42 minutes , on Sunday they trailed only once in the finals 6 to 5 and it lasted about 26 seconds. Then the boys in yellow plastered the board with 4 more goals to cruise away to a 2 goal win . In the 6 goal it was Alyssa Barlow and Mr. Flynn sneaking by The Ladins in a very close game as Matt Ladin took off from his bar exams to sub for the Palomino who was in both finals, but held for only 1 as the Rugman wanted a full power team. Matt played brilliantly coming from the desk to the green on unknown horses and the Lady's did their job. Unfortunately they just fell one short in the last 30 seconds. It was a great day for polo and it will return next Friday, so see you there. Tuesday is also the next game for the Millarville squad in the U.K. as they seek the Prince Of Wales Cup.

See ya

May 17th, '03:It was high noon at Santa Barbara as the shootout between Gehache and Mansour started. It was a day of goals. Gehache led by the chukkars 5 - 1 , 7 - 2 , 9 - 6, 11 - 8 , 13 - 11, then it happened. Mansour came to the top and it was 14 - 14. The final bell rang and guess what? The boys in yellow and the mighty Mariano (Gonzalez) kept them in the game. Mariano flipped a pass to the Palomino (Jason Crowder) and they were on their way to the finals. Now there is a problem. The Palomino has 2 finals to play. The Ladin Lady's Doreen and Courtney are also in the 6-goal finals which was delayed with the Palomino. They may have a substitute play with the pretty lady's as the Rugman (Ben Solemani) wants full power. We will see at 1 p.m as the 6-goal finals start. Be there for a day to run. There will be fireworks in Carpinteria.

From across the pond it was Jr. Mac (Frederick Mannix, Jr.) and Macho Man (Julio Zavaleta) winning their first game in the Prince of Wales, one of the high-goal tournaments in the U.K.

See ya

May 17th, '03:Well maybe its not the Gold Coast, but it takes Gold to play here. It's all about Silver and it started today, 1 week late, but its underway. &Mac246;It was a pure gold day for Springbok as they were the Golden Boys today. Jeff Kazmark and his boys hung on to beat Grants Farm by 1 in the first 3 and then survived a scare by Stonnington Group and put the last one on the board. Springbok will be headed for the big silver come Sunday at 3 p.m. Their foes will be decided Sat. in a delayed match between Mansour and Gehache as they see each other at 2 p.m. In the 6 goal it's the Ladin Lady's taking on the Golden mane of Alyssa and her boys powered by Mr. Flynn and Prime Source. They will do battle at 1 p.m. on the main ground. The good part of it all is we are in action after a week delay due to the heavy dew 2 weeks ago. We are off the rock pile and on the sand so we shall see. It should be fun come Sunday no matter who it is. See ya ( at Polo )

Across the big pond Millarville was delayed by bad weather and will start this weekend hopefully. --Steve Crowder

May 13, '03 -Well it was a very boring week in May to be in Calif. Polo. At Eldorado Polo Club they are closed (Indio) and San Diego won't get started until June. They are not open for a while in Petaluma and in Santa Barbara it was so wet we could only play at Field 10. It rains much harder at the condos, so we had to have road polo on the rocks on Lambert Road. Maybe 10 days of wind and sun and we will be able to start this Friday if there is no mist. It should be a tough tournament when it starts. The teams are:

Gehache Mike Shellar Alf. Gianico G. Casset G. Holden	Stonnington Group N. Stonnington D. Walker D. Cossio C. Nevins	Grants Farm B.Uherititze M. Matz M. Fassetta A. Busch
Mansour B. Solemoni J. Crowder M. Gonzalez J. Stuart	Springbok R. Zeda A. Von wernich S. Casset J. Kazmark

Get ready to roll as they will all be on fire soon as San Diego, Petaluma, Jackson Hole, Denver and many more hit the big time and the world of Northern polo comes rolling out of hibernation. 1/2 of the Wolf Pack Mighty Mac Frederick Mannix and the Macho Man (Julio Zavaleta) start tomorrow in the Prince Charles just outside London. GOOD LUCK.

Crowder Polo Report Archives '02-'03

June '03 | May '03 | April '03|March '03|Feb '03|Jan '03 |Dec. '02
|Nov. '02|Oct. '02 | Sept. '02 |
Aug. '02 |July '02 |June '02 |
May '02 |April '02 |March '02 |
Feb. '02 | Jan. '02

May 6, '03 Mayday. Yes it is May in the desert and its history to the 2003 Eldroado Polo Season. It was a very good season in Indio, CA considering everything else going on with the economy and Iraq. The desert was still smoking. There were new players, new winners and there was a tragedy as we lost the First Lady of Polo just as it was over, Sue Sally Hale. That was a very sad note to end the season on! The fields played great in Jan. & March. George did a hell of a job as there were over 1000 games played at Eldorado this Winter. That adds up to 192,000 hooves tearing up that grass, but it did not. February was bad with the frost and those fine balls A.J. bought were the only down side. They cost less, but it took 3000 more so figure out the math on that equation. It was a great season no matter how you look at it.

Fish Creek, without Macho Man (Julio Zavaleta), won with the Palomino (Jason Crowder) and Fast-ETTA (Mariano Fassetta). They crushed Mercari in the 14-goal, but it was one of the few times the Canadian Freight Train would see the down side of a tournament. Bad Brad Schlei would come in and kick butt for the bronze in January. As they shot the Antelope early and often to thrash them.

The Gringo Challenge by Steve Crowder. - I really believe in the young North American polo players. I believe the top 6 players under the age of 21 in North America can beat any under 21 team in South America on split strings. 4 Games in South American and 4 Games in North America. Same umpires, same horses. All we need is some sponsors. We will beat them. If tied we will flip for home of the 9th game. WE ARE NOT RUNNING !! - Steve Crowder