Stella Artois Melbourne Cup Polo Tournament
29th October – 7th November
Five teams ventured to Melbourne this year to fight it out for the prestigious Melbourne Polo Cup – two from Perth, one from Tasmania/South Australia, and two from Victoria. With defending champions Garangula unable to make the journey, the event was wide open, with the polo pundits unable to find a stand out team.
Play got underway on Friday 29th October with both Pitchfork and Stella Artois opening their accounts – with the standouts being Ellerston based Matt Grimes and English professional James Harper playing well for their respective teams. The Victorian Polo Club grounds were playing as well as they ever have with 47 goals scored over the two games and an average of 21 goals scored per game for the week.
With a wet week forecasted, there were early concerns that the event may struggle to get through all the games required in between Melbourne’s hectic race calendar – with polo to be played around four of Australia’s biggest race days. However the first Sunday ended up being the only day to be washed out – and rightfully so with some 70mils falling over night.
Throughout the week spectators saw some of the closest polo in recent Melbourne Cup history, with eight of the twelve matches being decided by a single goal. The highlight of these encounters was the play off game to see who would meet Pitchfork in the Subsidiary final. The game played between Riverpark and Tasmania/Piermont was an absolute thriller, going down to the eighth chukka, with goals widened. Having already seen the ambulance on the field six previous times it was no surprise when play was stopped minutes into the eighth chukka after a collision which saw Callum MacLachlan break his leg. After an extended delay Callum was replaced and Riverpark finally found the goals to secure a place on finals day, only to be beaten in the subsidiary final by Pitchfork 13 – 11.
And so on to the Stella Artois Melbourne Cup Final. The Stella Artois team, runners up in 2009, with three amateurs and the English pro were up against Sandalford, Peter Prendivilles team from Western Australia with the evergreen Glen Gilmore the play maker.
Stella Artois got the early jump leading by 4 goals through the third chukka, a welcome start for the team who had its defensive general Gillon McLachlan playing injured after an accident earlier in the week. However never underestimate a fired up Glen Gilmore, who partnered well with young gun Zac Hagedoorn to change the tide and bring Sandalford quickly back to even terms. Sandalford whilst playing well, certainly had the monkey on their back having made the final at Ellerston and Garangula over the previous weeks only to be beaten in both. Here was an opportunity to change the fortune of their east coast tour and they seemed to use this as motivation as they clawed their way back and shot ahead in the 5th chukka, eventually running out winners 12 – 11 in another close finish.
For the Stella Artois team it was probably a case of just not having played enough polo together as a team, but it did show that talented amateurs could mix it with the best in Australian polo
So in the end Sandalford who took all the accolades – Champions for 2011, with Zac Haegerdoorn voted the finals MVP and Glen Gilmores ‘Jackie’ winning the Garry White perpetual Champion pony award.
The Teams:
RIVERPARK (13)
1 Angus James (1)
2 Luke O’Leary (2)
3 Kelvin Johnson (5)
4 Jock Mackay (5)
PITCHFORK (14)
1 Tim Clarke (1)
2 Corrin Gibbs (3)
3 Matt Grimes (5)
4 Greg Keyte (5)
STELLA ARTOIS ( 13)
1 Hamish McLachlan (3)
2 James Harper (6)
3 Gillon McLachlan (4)
4 Sam Kennedy (0)
TASMANIA POLO – PIERMONT (13)
1 Santiago de Estrada (6)
2 Andrew Williams (5)
3 Callum MacLachlan (3)
4 Juan Maiz Casas (-1)
SANDALFORD (14)
1 Zac Hagedoorn (2)
2 Tex Webster (4)
3 Glen Gilmore (7)
4 Peter Prendiville (1)