The “Wild Boars” polo team based at Cowdray Park Polo Club in England played their Final match at the Kingston Polo Club, Cayamanas Estates yesterday (Sunday, January 22nd, 2006) morning. Blue Mountain Coffee (Europe) Limited and their local partners Langford Brothers Limited arranged the tour so that the owner of the team, Mr. Britt Shaw could combine his passions for coffee and polo. The team and their guests stayed in Discovery Bay and played some “pick-up” chukkas at St. Ann Polo Club on Wednesday, January 18th, then played their first match, which they narrowly won by 1 goal, at the Kingston Polo Club on Thursday, January 19th.
For the Final match the “Wild Boars” team of Britt Shaw, Enrique Avendano and Santiago Gastambide adopted Lesley-Ann Fong-Yee to face the Kingston Polo Club squad of Jason Wates, Paul Lalor, Jorge Donovan and Alexander Melville. The teams started out with no handicap despite the visitors being slightly stronger as they were given the benefit of the doubt for playing strange horses on a strange facility.
As with Thursday’s match the game started out slowly in the first chukka with both teams not quite settled and neither team managed to score. Things improved slightly in the second chukka, with the Kingston team pressuring the visitors for most of it. Melville opened the scoring to put Kingston ahead. Play sped up and was very even in the third chukka. Gastambide evened the score early in the chukka but Donovan countered for Kingston. Gastambide then converted a Safety to end the chukka with the score all tied up. The fourth chukka was the thriller as Kingston jumped ahead as Donovan scored again and then Gastambide miss-hit a defensive shot and scored and “own goal”. He then converted another penalty to close the gap but Donovan also converted a penalty to keep Kingston up by two goals. However, towards the end of the chukka Gastambide scored again, followed by a goal from Shaw to tie the score again. The last chukka was fast and furious and both teams pulled out all the stops but it was the “Wild Boars” that scored when Shaw converted a 5 yard penalty in the latter part of the chukka. Kingston came back and were actually running to goal with the ball when the bell rang to end the match with the “Wild Boars” ahead by 6 goals to 5.
The Hon. Dennis Lalor, President of the Jamaica Polo Association and the Kingston Polo Club presided over the Prize Giving ceremony, welcoming the visitors and thanking the Langfords for putting the tour together. He then introduced Mr. Alec Hamilton, benefactor and a former President of the Kingston Polo Club who wanted to make a presentation to the Club in memory of his late wife Sarah who died of motorneurone disease in 2001. On behalf of the Club, Mrs. Paddy Masterton received a picture of the Princess Royal done by his sister-in-law Basha Hamilton, an internationally renowned artist, to commemorate the visit here last year by Princess Anne.
Mrs. Masterton and Mrs. Janette Langford presented both teams and the umpires, Mr. Mark Wates and Mr. Juan Humbert, with their prizes and the winning trophy to Mr. Britt Shaw for the “Wild Boars” team. Lunch was served after the prize giving ceremony and the usual swinging polo party, which lasted until nightfall, followed.
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