Zim Open Polo is back
IT was a carnival atmosphere and the theme for the dress code — Mid-Summer Night’s Dream — was befitting the occasion as the Titan Law Zimbabwe Senior Open Polo tournament ended its three-year Covid-19induced hiatus.
And the theatre of that Mid-Summer Night’s Dream was the traditional home of polo in Zimbabwe, the Thornpark grounds, on the outskirts of Harare, and the colourful event was spiced up by the presence of a host of captains of the corporate world.
Rarely does local sport bring together the movers and shakers in the manner that this Zimbabwe Senior Open tourney did.
As if on cue and for legacy purposes, it needed a team led by the sport’s most popular family, with more than 20 years of polo — the Meikle brothers — to claim the honours as PT Chemicals emerged the 2022 winners following a 10.5-5 goal win over Carbon Africa Green.
Just like all sporting disciplines, polo had been put on hold when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, forcing a suspension of sport during the lockdown period.
The lockdown restricted players to some home-based practice sessions only.
However, last weekend, some of the best that local polo has to offer was on show.
The energy in the ponies and the players put into perspective how much the Zimbabwe Open had missed and the two finalists Carbon Africa Green and PT Chemicals gave a show for the archives.
Four teams took part in the tourney, which ran from Wednesday to Saturday, with the other sides being Seedco and Valley.
Gareth Meikle, a 29-year-old farmer, who traded his rugby boots for polo after featuring for the Young Sables, anchored a PT Chemicals
side that was not short on experience. He is currently playing off a 4-goal handicap.
His brother David Meikle, who played at Number 3, is also a 4-goal handicap. He captained the team that also had Zimbabwe Open debutant Andy Baker (1) and Ross Stoddart at 4.
Baker is predominantly a polocross player, but has transitioned to polo this season while Stoddart, a Raffingora farmer, has, just like the Meikle brothers, been playing the game since the tender age of 11.
Although it was Carbon Africa Green and PT Chemicals who eventually battled it out in
the final, there was no mistaking the joy that was among players, spectators, sponsors and the organisers to be out enjoying the greens of Thornpark again.
Gareth Meikle put their excitement into perspective.
“It’s just great to be back. I think we had been out of it for a while, we have had some quiet times. I think this season we are back in and we are really enjoying,’’ Gareth said.
He revealed their excitement at playing some international action.
“Two weekends ago, we played against Zambia. It was our Select team and not a full Zimbabwe team but going forward we should be having the likes of Kenya and Uganda coming here to play the full Zimbabwe side,’’ said Gareth.
David, a veteran of many battles for club and country, also weighed in and spoke about how they had to take care of the horses even as the sport had been forced into suspension by Covid-19.
“Obviously with the long lay-off, horses have to be cared for in that time . . . these are players, they are athletes and good attention has to be paid to them.
“Because of the three-year lay-off, horses that were coming to the end of their careers lost those couple of years and took an early retirement,’’ David said.
David, however, indicated that the quality of the game had not suffered despite the years of inactivity.
“Of course, with Covid-19 it meant that people had to stay at home and we were lucky enough because we live on the farms where we stay with our animals, so we regularly took the horses on a ride and practised some polo with the ponies.
“So I wouldn’t say there was any drop in standards and as was witnessed here, it was a weekend of great polo and we have an exciting new generation of players that is also coming up,’’ David Meikle said.
After the seniors set the tone, it was the turn of the juniors to put the icing on the cake with some fine young talent being on show in the Junior Open at the same venue.
Titan Law Zimbabwe Senior Polo Open results at a glance:
Valley Irrigation 8.5 - 8s Carbon Green, PT Chemicals 9 -6.5 Seed Co
PT Chemicals 7.5-7 Valley Irrigation, Carbon Green 12-9 Seed Co
Saturday
Valley Irrigation 10 vs Seed Co 5.5
PT Chemicals 10.5 vs Carbon Green 5 Teams:
Carbon Green Africa
Alex Watson (Captain) Benjamin Brown, Marek Kanigowski, and Tim Fennel
Robert Meikle (Captain), Jono Passaportis, Richard Brown and Chris Aitchinson
Chemicals
David Meikle (Captain), Andy Baker, Gareth Meikle and Ross Stoddart
PT
Seed Co
Valley
Sipho Spilsbury (Captain), BJ Bowen, Thomas Wood and Ian Taylor
The winners of the tournament were PT Chemicals.