The team from Newport, Rhode Island arrived in the Island on Wednesday, March 1st, 2006 for their annual exchange. They were originally scheduled to play 3 games – a “warm up” at St. Ann Polo Club, Drax Hall on Thursday, a match against a St. Ann Polo Club side on Saturday and a match against a Kingston Polo Club side on Sunday, but the flood rains that hit St. Ann on Tuesday scrapped that plan. Instead they stayed at Toby Resorts in Montego Bay and the Chin family arranged a couple of 3-a-side games for them on their small field at Adelphi.
On Friday they went on the Chukka Caribbean Adventures canopy tour then headed to Chukka Cove in St. Ann for the night. The fields in St. Ann were still too wet to host a match so they swam the polo ponies in the sea instead on Saturday morning and then went on to the Kingston Polo Club, Caymanas Estates for their first match. The Newport, USA team of Johnathan “JK” Kaye, David Bullis, Christer Still and Jacki Shore played and easy warm up game against the Kingston side of Dennis Lalor, Randy Mair, Alexander Melville and John Masterton which the Kingston side won by 6 goals to 4. The visitors got off to a slow start as they got accustomed to their horses and the conditions of the field etc., while Lalor was on fire - scoring three impressive goals for the Kingston side. However, the visitors came on strong in the last as “JK” scored twice to close the gap.
Their final game was played at the Kingston Polo Club on Sunday, March 5th, 2006 at 10:30 a.m. against the Kingston side of Adam Laing, Dennis Lalor, Alexander Melville and Randy Mair. The visitors received a 1½ goal handicap start which Melville quickly knocked off in the first chukka to put Kingston in the lead. However, Shore then scored for Newport, USA team to retain a ½ goal advantage at the end of the first chukka. Bullis then scored again in the second chukka to put the visitors further ahead but Melville and Mair came back in the third chukka to sneak Kingston back into the lead by ½ a goal. The last chukka was a ding dong battle of fast and competitive polo. Melville opened up the Kingston lead early by converting a 10 yard penalty, but Newport, USA quickly countered when Bullis also converted a 10 yard penalty. “JK” then hit a huge 60 yard penalty in the air which Bullis managed to deflect into the goal and put the visitors in the lead with only some 30 seconds left in the chukka. As the clock ran down the visitors looked like they were going to hold onto their ½ goal lead when Kingston got the ball down to their goal mouth and several players overrode it. With less than 10 seconds on the clock Lalor came through to slam the winning goal through for Kingston to win by 6 goals to 5½.
After the game the perpetual trophy was presented to the Kingston Polo Club team by His Excellency Alfonso Silva the Ambassador of the Republic of Chile, and Her Excellency Leonora Rueda Ambassador of the United Mexican States presented the visiting team with some mementos from the Kingston Polo Club for their trip. “JK” then thanked all the Jamaicans involved for their hospitality, their lovely horses and said that they all look forward to reciprocating in Newport, Rhode Island later this year.
