This polo season seems to have gone so quickly this season, it doesn’t seem long since March when I was bringing the fat and fluffy ponies in from their winter break and soon it will be the end of season...:(
But it’s not over yet! September brings an action packed month which is full of lots of exciting tournament still to play. I decide to stay local for the month of September, even though I had great offers to play all over, Leadenham, Rutland and Kirklington, but Noemi is feeling tired when I play her, she still has bags of enthusiasm but I can see on an evening she is really tired in her stable and she likes cuddles much more!
A happy Anna & Top Tottie pony Noemi
The past few months has been mixed with many highs and a few lows! Not having Roxy & Chalita has been really sad. On the positive, i would never of found Brazillia and she is just getting better and better and I’m really enjoying her, each time I play her she gives me more and more on the pitch, so I’m really happy to have got her up to match fitness for this weekend in the ladies so I can play her in two chukkas.
The White Rose Ladies Tournament is always a big event at my home club, it’s always a great chance for me to captain a team and hopefully lead it to victory. We always get to know the team’s last minute so there’s never much preparation in terms of speaking to team mates, etc. Being ladies polo its always hugely competitive but I didn’t want to inflict any pressure on my team and told them just to have fun, after all I won it last year – so it’s always nice for others to get the opportunity who aren’t as fortunate as me to have played so many away tournaments this season, but I still do want to win! The teams had been drawn by our polo manager,Tony, always there’s some element of are the teams fair? Ladies who have often played together throughout the season sometimes get drawn together – and the amount of polo experience in one team sometimes also adds up too within a team so there’s always some interest in his thinking which keeps it fun and always challenging!
Hard ride offs to win the Ladies Cup
After two hard games, it came down to the last 30 seconds, being three goals down, we kept on fighting, with a penalty in the 32 second, a 30 yarder, which usually I am confident with, on Brazillia I had never hit a penalty on her! It went in!! within 10 seconds we had scored again, as i shouted to my team mates to get back for the next throw in a defining moment changed the game, the ball came to the boards, we were all riding off, when the pink team played fouled, play continued but she had to move and give me the advantage (this was the defining moment), Brazilia and I’s heads went down and we hit it as hard as we could towards the goal, we got it in the goal mouth and then their player knocked it out of the back line, awarding us a penalty, there were 8 seconds left on the clock as we wound up to take our second penalty Brazillia and I high on nerves, adrenalin and excitement I know this was the shot to win or lose the game, we hit it right in front of the goal mouth and Julie scored! Defiantly the best win by far, this win was won purely on great team work, skilful play and the desire to win and never give up. At the prize giving I was also awarded the MVP award, most valuable player, so a big celebration was had that night and this had to be the best win of the season by far! Well done, Gillian, Joan and Julie, I thoroughly enjoyed playing with the ladies and very happy I have my name on the trophy two years running – here’s to 2012!
Ladies Champions; Team Tottie
This week I prepare for the Yeo 2X2 Cup, which is an in-house friendly tournament organised by the club where I am based, the idea is each team is to have 2 girls and 2 boys to make up the team. The coach picks the teams so we get the text on the Friday with the draw and there were some really strong teams in the running... I write down the teams and that evening make a plan! We get drawn the hardest team on the first day was a bit unlucky, I was playing with my friend Angus who I won the Yorkshire Open with & Gillian who I had least weeks victory in the Ladies Cup with so that stood us at a slight advantage.
The chukkas, were fast open and at time a little fraught! Everyone wanted to win so badly and we had to really fight each chukka to remain in attack! We had a good long chat before the chukkas start and each know what we have to do and start as we mean to go on, I combine really well with Angus, he talks a lot, so I always know where he is on the field, it comes in really useful when I have to play backhands and can hear him it really helps with the positioning of the shot – one little game play like this proved to be very important, with him having complete trust that I would hit the back hand (pheww I don’t think I missed one!!) gave him a good clear break and was very hard to catch, the team work great with angus turning on the ball and having Gillian for back up and hard marking was great. David the eldest of the club members at a magnificent 69 years of age was our fourth member and proved to be great value to the team, he scored a cracking goal from the 60 yards and a slicing under the neck shot on his pony Susie gave us a whopping lead of 51/2 goals going into the final chukka! The final chukka the other team has a comeback but only of two goals, we started to tire and couldn’t keep the huge goal difference, we managed to score a great 31/2 goal difference which was fantastic over a team we shouldn’t of really beat. I’ve really loved the challenge this season of captaining a team and nearly always leading it to at least the final! Sadly on this occasion it wasn’t enough to get through to the final as one team automatically got through in the first round and the other team had another goal difference, usually it goes on goal difference so we should have got the place but sadly we played for third on the Sunday and won & drew our two games and had a lovely weekend with great company from the Yeo family & Stephi’s yummy feast for lunch!
Roxy and Chalita have managed five weeks of box rest and have improved, Roxy is back 100% now and it trotting up sound and super happy also rather barrell like, Chalita did a little more damage so is taking slightly longer, both are doing really great so on Sunday I let them out! As you can imagine they went wild! The weather was gorgeous and I spent the full day out in the field with them.
I also spotted myself & Chalita in Horse deals – about my fantastic Sponsorship with Tottie so I was very pleased with that little mention - we even had a picture of us both printed!
I’ve also seen all the new Tottie 2011 Winter collection so I’m very excited about that.. The colours are gorgeous and my favourites so far are Alison, Kelly & Molly! I cannot wat to see the accessories too!
My last tournament of the season approaches and I can’t believe it’s the end of September already!
The Amigo/Goodheart tournament is one where you enter in pairs, its a new tournament so its a really excting one to win, the cup dates back to the Army polo and hasn’t been played for since 1984! Which was the year I was born?!
But..Disaster strikes, when Brazillia cut her face really bad, creating a hole in her face under her eye, so her polo season was cut short and i was gutted not to have her for my last game, staying positive, Roddy my friend who’s a vet sad she will need three weeks off and lots of TLC, So my great friend Scotty kindly lent me his horse, me Julie, which I was thrilled with because Julie, because she is in the same yard as mine so I’ve always given her treats and fed her on an evening throughout the season, she’s a lovely horse but at 16.1hh she’s big!
So I play with Paddy and we get paired with Beth Graham and Saul Wilson, we draw a very hard team on the first round but manage to win by two goals, giving us a place in the final – Julie was fantastic –I soon worked out she doesn’t like to be checked she just likes to play fast – which makes sense as Scotty a 0 goal player – plays very hard and fast so I know if I want to do well and give her a good game, we have to play full on, the team we are against in the final are tough and defiantly was the strongest team drawn, we had a great first round and it was key not to be put off by the other stronger team but to stick to our tactics of the first game, the other team, hit hard, played hard and were determined to win, I’m not sure if they thought they thrash us – possibly, but luckily for us, they didnt quite get it together as a team, in which we did, they kept on fouling awarding us penalties, which is probably thinking about it one of my strengths, I don’t get phased and the pressure, I’m happy to step up and do my best and if it doesn’t go my way I'm ok with that. We had one penalty in the first chukka and were up, I said to my team defend but being Sauls first game and Beth wanting to score another goal, we let our defence slip and gave them the opportunity to equalise, the pressure was on, we had to score and we only had 7 minutes to do it. A rather dangerous foul on me and me Julie (we were ok but bothe a bit bruised), awarded us a 40 yard penalty this was it – the chance to win the game... and we did it! Julie was amazing and didn’t not let me down, she gave some incredible ride offs and was sharp fast and strong, even though my mallet was a little short we did brilliantly!
A fantastic win which felt amazing as we were very much the underdogs. Saul and Beth played brilliantly and Paddy and I had great fun and he let me lead the team and very much was a huge part of the win. Sadly I didn’t play in the Tottie shirts I played for Bridge Mcfarland which is a team who have played at every competition all season and never won, so I was very happy to represent another team giving them a win for the season.
The season rounds off with the Children’s Tournament, defiantly the stars of the future! Tottie kindly helped sponsor the children and offered prizes for the best goal of the tournament and the most improved. This year the WRPC Juniors have a fantastic end to their season. The tournament saw 3 teams from the junior club play in a very closely fought 'battle' the black team won of Phoebe Watson, Sophie Graham, Fergus Payne and Jono Scutt(Adult Captain). The standard of polo from all was amazing - I think all us adults are going to have to watch out! Player of the Match went to Fergus Payne and the day ended with a lovely family picnic organised by All the Parents.
There has been a mention that the handicap committee have been impressed with my plays this season and have mentioned my handicap going up, which is a really great compliment but I know I’m not there just yet!, luckily for me I've stayed down this year, but agreed I can manage a team and know what my job is, and have certainley led some teams to win this season that maybe shouldn't of! So it was a great compliment but know I need to work on my horses for next season, I would love to become a 0 goal and that will be my aim for next season.
So its a bye for a little winter break and I will see you all again in November when I start to get the pones back into work for the winter arena season!
Love Anna x