Clarita race to victory in Bentley Royal Windsor Cup
By Diana Butler
Chris Mathias stepped forward for the second time in his playing career to receive the Bentley Royal Windsor Cup from HM The Queen. His team Clarita has previously added their name to this prestigious trophy in 2012. However this year’s final was particularly significant as Guards Polo Club is celebrating its Diamond Jubilee and the Royal Windsor Cup was the first trophy to be played for in that opening season in 1955.
In the 2015 final, Clarita overwhelmed Momin Sheikh’s Bridge House of Twyford team 16-7 on The Queen’s Ground. However the many spectators and Bentley’s VIP guests, watching from the Royal Box Terrace, could have been forgiven for expecting a closer game. The score was 8-6 at half-time, after both teams produced a strong and competitive performance. The final two chukkas told a very different story though. Clarita’s Chris Mackenzie and George Meyrick, a Guards Polo Club Ambassador, combined brilliantly to create an unassailable lead. Their skill in the latter stages of this 15-goal battle was in winning the line-outs and then successfully running the ball to goal.
Such great play was rewarded in the post-match presentations when HM The Queen, accompanied by Stephen Reynolds, Bentley’s Regional Director for the Middle East and Asia Pacific, presented the talented, young South African player, Chris Mackenzie, with the Most Valuable Player Award. He also received the Bentley Best Playing Pony prize for the impressive Prospect, a 10-year-old South African bay mare. Chris was accompanied by his three grooms, Nico, Derek and Paul, on receiving this prize and all three grooms were introduced to HM The Queen.
It should be noted that the final score does not reflect the competitiveness of Bridge House of Twyford, whose strong game plan produced a competitive match that was a pleasure to watch. In fact Bridge House of Twyford, one of 17 teams that took part in this year’s tournament, the leading 15-goal tournament in the UK, were the only team to be unbeaten going into Sunday’s final.
The sub final, for the Mountbatten Cup, was an altogether different affair. The two finalists in last year’s main Royal Windsor final, Alan Fall’s Mad Dogs and Simon Arber’s Four Quarters Orange, found themselves against each other again, but this time in the sub final. The Mad Dogs came out on top this time around but only just. They won the match 2-1. This is believed to be the lowest scoring result ever in a medium-goal game!
Despite some really fast play, both sides failed to covert runs into goals in several chukkas. At one point in the sixth it looked like this game would go into extra time as the scores seemed stuck on 1 goal each! Thankfully Jack Richardson, another Guards Polo Club Ambassador, converted a penalty in the fifth chukka to bring this match to an end and ensure that Alan Fall received the trophy from Lady Tatiana Mountbatten, the daughter of the polo-playing Marquess of Milford Haven.
This eventful day of polo concluded with an elegant carriage driving display. The British Driving Society had hosted their annual summer show in a neighbouring part of the Park and the impressive class winners paraded past Club’s Royal Box. HM The Queen and the Club’s founder and President, HRH Prince Philip talked with the winning drivers and present an array of rosettes.
Clarita: Chris Mathias (0); Freddie Horne (3); Chris Mackenzie (6); George Meyrick (6). Bridge House of Twyford: Momin Sheikh (0); Daniel Otamendi (5); William Emerson (5); Peter Webb (5).
Mad Dogs: Alan Fall (0); Benjamin Crowe (1); Jack Richardson (6); Alejandro Novillo Astrada (8). Four Quarters Orange: Simon Arber (0); Alec White (4); Matt Perry (5); Tom Morley (6).