Another win for another England team
By Victoria Elsbury-Legg
It seems that team England really have the Midas touch in recent weeks where polo is concerned as a third success has been achieved by yet another England line up. First it was a win against ‘Rest of the World’ at Audi International, Chester by Audi England (Tom Morley, George Merrick, Max Charlton and Jack Richardson). Then on French shores the 8 goal England squad (Ollie Tuthill, Freddie and Max Dear and Jack Mesquita) galloped off the pitch the winners over Ireland at the final whistle. This week it has been the turn of the 14 goal England team, George Pearson, Tommy Beresford, Will Emerson and Pete Webb at Beaufort, where they have been competing against Ireland, France and Spain for a spot in Chile in 2015 at the FIP World Championships.
Ultimately it may have been team England who won the coveted spot to represent their Country at the Championships, hosted by the Club de Polo y Equitacion San Cristobal in Santiago in conjunction with the Federacion Chilena de Polo, but qualification was not without a few anxious moments. On Wednesday 24th September, England won their first game (which proved to be a very tight match) 8-7 against Spain, followed on Friday by a second win (8-6) against Ireland (Seb Dawnay, Mike Henderson, Max Hutchinson and Niall Donnelly). On Sunday however things did not quite go to plan for England against France. With England playing well and leading at half time 7-3, France scored six goals in the second half (one of which was the winning goal) meaning a surprise England loss 8-9.
With mutterings of a disallowed England goal (which the umpires concluded was wide) and an Ireland squad cheering on the French, despite England being top of the points table, it meant the results of Tuesday’s Ireland v France game would be the decider as to who would go through to the World Championships.
So Ireland took on team France on Tuesday in a match whose result would decide whether it was Ireland, France or England who went through or whether it would go to a penalty shootout. A straight win by France and they would be through to Chile, a 10-7 win to Ireland would incur a penalty shootout, but if Ireland won by one or two, or three in a low scoring game, or drew with France then England would be heading to Santiago.
In a bizarre twist to the tale (and I’ve been reliably informed, despite a few interesting green hats being spotted in the crowd, there wasn’t a leprechaun in sight), it was Ireland’s gallant 7-6 win against France (the team they had been cheering on when they played against England a few days earlier) which ultimately meant it would be team England who would be packing their stick bags and heading to Chile instead of the French.