It’s been a really busy couple of months for me which has been great! After Leadenham, I had a quiet few weeks before the Charlie Phillips cup at my club, it’s part of the Summit Cup and its always a great weekend with a great fancy dress party on the evening – this year the theme was medieval! Again its friendly tournament where I get the chance to captain a team, I was drawn a great team and t was the first opportunity for me to wear the Tottie shirts! – I was playing with three boys who seemed delighted to be playing in pink!
Our team but didn’t quite get it together in the first half of the match and lost out on the Saturday with a comeback in the fourth chukka which was too late in the game, making Sundays game playing for third and fourth, this also meant I got the opportunity to enjoy the party because I had a late game on the Sunday – that’s one advantage of not being in the final! On the Sunday we had a great game and worked really hard as a team, just missing out on Sundays game by one goal, I haven’t had two losses in a weekend for a very long time, so it’s back to the stick and ball field this week to practise for the Castle Howard cup in a few weeks I really want to get my name on that trophy and start winning!
Castle Howard is upon me and I’m really excited, it’s also my birthday weekend so it’s a great time to be with friends and play polo my best friend Sarah is coming to watch me too so I’m really excited because she’s never seen me play ! I was drawn a team what was of a lower handicap than most other teams, we had to win not one game but two games on the Saturday to get a place in the final on the Sunday at Castle Howard, we were playing two really experienced teams on the Saturday so we knew we had our work cut out, we were playing strong players who has played with each other previously, I worked well with my team mate Riki and together we formed a strong team and worked together well, we won both our games and had secured a place in the final – girl power it was an amazing win over the two games, Chalita, Roxy & Noemi were brilliant!!!
I didn’t get much sleep on the Saturday night as I was so excited! I knew I really needed my sleep but I really was thinking about the game, and how we could play it and win it. I decided to tell my team to always follow the line of the ball rather than hard marking and always claim the right to the line (in polo this is basics but it was the most important thing to do, I also said that if at any opportunity you get the ball – hit it and run, don’t tap it or slow down take a chance an open the game up, this is what we did played as hard and as fast as we could and it lead us to a 10-4 victory over a very good team with an exceptionally good player captioning their side – I cannot tell you how happy I felt!
It was a superb atmosphere – the crowd were shouting and screaming every time as we went for goal – they were all shouting for the ‘tottie girl’ after the match I was asked to ride over to the marquee to meet with some of the people in the hospitality area, they said it was an absolute pleasure to watch me play, they had never been to a polo match before and I made the game so very enjoyable. I was touched and actually had a tear in my eye! It was great to receive such lovely praise, I did have one of the best games probably I’ve ever had, but I strongly believe you are nothing without your horses, and for that I thank my superstars Roxy, Chalita and especially Noemi.
I washed the horses off, gave them a hay net and bandaged their legs – Cottage Craft & Tottie gave me some of their leg wraps and super hot pink bandages, the pads are great as they have towelling in the inside so it absorbs the sweat, it just gives them extra protection too whilst they were stood after playing a hard game.. so my three were pampered princesses for the afternoon.
To top off the day we were awarded with our beautiful prizes of engraved whiskey glasses and of course the Cup – I was then awarded the Most Valuable Player Award – the weekend just really could not of got any better for me – I still have a huge smile on my face now!
I start preparing for the Findlay League Cup at Rutland in a few weeks – so I will keep you updated
Bye for Now
Anna xx