Vikings sail to victory
Sticking to the game plan works a treat for Cowdray Vikings
AFTER the Gold Cup and the Queen’s Cup, the 18-goal Indian Empire Shield tournament is one of the country’s most competitive polo tournaments. With 13 teams entered, the two finalists — Cowdray Vikings and HB La Forge — each had to play at least five matches to reach the final.
Quick off the mark, Cowdray Vikings’ seven-goaler Juan
Gris Zavaleta scored almost immediately. HB tried to equalise, but Zavaleta worked with twogoaler Ollie Cork to continue the fight, making the score 2-0 within five minutes. Despite good interlocking play from
HB’s Ignacio Laprida and Mark Tomlinson, another goal from Cork put the Vikings 3-0 up at the end of the first chukka.
That left HB desperate to win the line-up, but Jack Richardson and George Pearson didn’t let them through. Then, a big hit from Laprida up to 15-year-old one-goaler Luke Wiles allowed HB to score their first goal. By the end of the third chukka, thanks to some great drives from Laprida and a penalty to the Vikings, the score was 5-2.
ROCKET FUEL
THE half-time break must have given the HP boys some rocket fuel. The play became more open and two penalties taken by Laprida were successful, making it 5-4. With two minutes remaining in the fourth chukka, HB still had everything to play for. Richardson then fought back and scored for the Vikings, as did Tomlinson for HB, reclaiming the one-goal gap.
Sadly for HB La Forge, that was as close as they were going to get to winning. They played hard, but couldn’t quite regain their momentum. Two more penalties to the Vikings and some fantastic play between Pearson and Cork left the final score at 9-5.
“We were three goals up in the first chukka, which was a great start,” said Richardson.
“We had a bad four minutes in the fourth chukka, but we kept at it. It’s never good when the opposition start to put up a challenge, but we had a specific game plan, to which we stuck.”
The most valuable player was awarded to the Cowdray Vikings’ Cork, while Tomlinson’s 12-yearold Argentine thoroughbred Pelusa — who played in the second and the fifth chukkas — won best playing pony.