kneppcastlepoloclub

The Format of the may 3 a side was to be two leagues of three, played as two round robins on saturday morning. The winners of each league would go through to the final. Second placers to the subsidiary final and so on. The first round robin was between three of our longest serving teams: Jendens, Bakers farm and Longhorns. The first two to take to the field were Bakers and Longhorns. This was a tight contest with Longhorns leading all the way until with 2 minutes to go in the final chukka Caio broke free on two occasions after some very cunning blocking form Mark Burrell and Park Bradley. Longhorns were replaced on the field by the undefeated Jendens team, allbeit with a changed line up. Bakers had their tails up after their narrow victory over Longhorns and charged into the lead early on. Even the Jendens stalwart Kim Richardson could not contain the flowing bakers attacks and they ran out winners 3-1.5. The second place decider between Longhorns and Jendens was a tense one. Jendens were 1.5 goals ahead until a fiercely struck penalty from debutant Artie Martin brought the men in red back in range. However, it was a case of too little too late.

The second round robin was not quite so action packed but nonetheless made exciting by some great polo being played by two of our younger players Will Batchelor and Peter Merriam. Polo Inc seemed to be the whipping boys and girl(our very own Emily Webb) first losing to Bad Company 5-2.5 and then put to the sword by La Calorada 7-0. Jamie Murray however remained defiant and was unfortunate not to come away with a few goals to his name. The surprise came in the final game when Bad Company seemed to fold under the La Calorada pressure and lost 2.5-0.

At 10.30 on sunday morning the natural irrigation system was turned off and Bakers and La Calorada came onto Perrets 2 to contest the final of the season's first 3 a side. Bakers searching for their first tournamentwin  in what can only be called "a while". They got off to a great start with Caio cancelling out the handicap diference within 30 seconds with a long range effort. For the majority of the next four chukkas the scores were even. But late on in the game when the La Calorada concentration faded, the Bakers tactics paid off. Parke and Mark worked hard all game blocking and making space for their play maker and in the end they came away with a deserved two goal winning margin.

Jendens got back to winning ways in the subsidiary final with Kim finding some of his previous form to edge out Bad Company 9-6 in another high scoring game.