HPA Christmas Club Nationals at
Royal Berkshire Polo Club
By Victoria Elsbury-Legg
This Sunday (14th December)
saw the sun shining over Royal Berkshire Polo Club for the Finals of
the HPA Christmas Club Nationals. Play started at 10am with the
Subsidiary Final of the 13-15 Goal with team RCBPC – Hedonism Wines
(Yevgeny Chichvarkin, Tim Bown and Max Charlton) up against
MHF-Eclipse (Ed Banner-Eve, Alec Banner-Eve and Adolfo Casabel). In
the end it came down to a three goal difference, with Yevgeny
Chichvarkin’s Hedonism Wines team riding out of the Arena the
winners with a score of 23-20.
With barely a moment to breathe the
Banner-Eve brothers from MHF-Eclipse and the patron of RCBPC-
Hedonism Wines, Yevgeny Chichvarkin, were jumping onto fresh mounts
and heading back into the Berkshire arena to meet each other once
again in the 11.15am 6 Goal Final. Playing alongside Alec and Ed in
their new (and it would seem lucky) green Black Hound shirts was
patron Jonathan Tidswell-Pretorius. In team RCBPC- Hedonism Wines,
Nick Beitner and Roy Prisk joined Yevgeny Chichvarkin, but despite
the success of his team in the earlier game and some great play from
the team in white, it seemed the guys in green were focused on a win
with team Eclipse maintaining the lead throughout the match. Chukka
one ended with Eclipse four goals ahead at 5-1, by half time it was
9-5, in chukka 3 the scoreboard read 13-8 and by full-time it was a
smiling Eclipse team trio who headed to the presentation with a score
of 16-9. Prizes were awarded by Olly Hughes from the HPA, with MVP
being given to Ed Banner-Eve.
At 12.30pm the 13-15 Goal Final rounded
off play at Berkshire, in what also continued to be a beautiful sunny
quintessentially English winter day. Once again commentator Jan Erik
Franck announced the teams, this time it was the turn of; RCBPC –
Chopendoz (Ed Morris-Lowe, Leon Allen and Roddy Williams, who was
replacing an injured Jamie Morrison) against RCBPC – Black Eagles
(Jonathan Munro-Ford, Sergio Baselli and Chris Hyde). In what
provided to be a close match, by half time Black Eagles (wearing red)
had a two goal lead at 11 – 9 over the team in Black. At the end
of chukka three it was 17-14 to Jonathan Munro-Ford’s team, who
finally provided just too much for RCBPC-Chopendoz as they finished
the match with a four goal lead and the winners at 23-19.
Prizes were presented by Greta Morrison
with MVP going to Chris Hyde, and Best Playing Pony to Paz, a 17 year
old mare owned by Michael Bickford and played by Roddy Williams who
was led up by her groom Kerri Dyte.