Santa Barbara Polo Club closed out the fall season with a well attended “Last Chance Cup.”
Teams from several outside polo clubs competed in the weekend tournament as well the local members.
Teams entered in either a 0-1 goal flight or a 2-4 goal flight. The 1 goal flight proved extremely popular, as five teams vied for the title. The first playoff games ended with Kissling and Kissling winning the round robin playoff, helped by the ace penalty shooting of ten year old Conrad Kissling. Kissling and Kissling also proved lucky at the coin toss, squeaking by a Santa Barbara team that tied them on net goals. In the other playoff game, Wrightway I vanquished their sister team of Wrightway II.
On Sunday, Kissling and Kislling got off to a fast start in the 1 goal flight final, scoring three unanswered field goals, but Erik Wright nailed his penalty fours to bring his Wrightway team back in to contention. However, once again young Conrad Kissling fearlessly converted a penalty 3 for the go ahead goal for Kissling and Kissling, final score was 7-5 in favor of Kissling and Kissling.
The 4 goal flight had two teams entered, so to keep things interesting the score was kept over both four chukker games, essentially playing an eight chukker game. In the first day of play, the Will Rogers team dominated Barrossa. Will Rogers jumped out to an early 4-1 lead behind goals from Domingo Questal and Bolko Kissling, and Andrew Bossom added another goal en route to a score of 8-6 in favor of Will Rogers at the end of the first four chukkers.
However, in the second round game on Sunday, Barrossa quickly tied things up behind two goals from Jared Sheldon. The teams alternated goals for the next two chukkers. In the 3rd chukker Jared Sheldon got on a speedy horse named Bigote (Spanish for mustache) and went end to end to end to score two goals and give Barossa a lead for the first time in the two game series. Barossa never looked back, getting a goal that chukker from Erik Wright and Jeff Graham, as well as another Sheldon goal, for an insurmountable lead going into the final chukker. The final score was 17-11 in favor of Will Rogers.
Polo will resume next April, as the club will celebrate its Centennial season in 2011.
Teams
2-4 goal
Will Rogers: Andrew Bossom, Leigh Brecheen, Bolko Kissling, Domingo Questal
Barrossa: Erik Wright, Jeff Graham, Gina Padilla, Jared Sheldon
0-1 goal
Casa Lago: Jacob Deutsch, Zander Deutsch, Alejandro Barojas, Jared Sheldon
Kissling & Kissling: Bolko Kissling, Conrad Kissling, Ernesto Flores, Ardishir Radpour
Santa Barbara: Jeep Holden, Glencito Holden, Toby Mayer, Bowen Farrell
Wrightway I: Erik Wright, Jim Wright, Carlos Rivas, Dan Deibel
Wrightway II: Manny Rodriguez, Don Pugh/Vineet Rajosi Sharma splitting, Katie Graham, Christine Vermes.