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The Winners of the Cups presented at The End of Season Lunch are as follows:

Most Promosing U21 Player

Charlie Scott

Most Improved Player

Chas Taylor

Team of the Season

Sciurus-Pilara

Groom of the Season

Nacho (for Jendens)

Los Bandidos based around Nino Maldonado and James Purvis, with Catriona Baker providing the firepower up front, for the third time this year were fighting it out for the Final against village rival Robert Carter of Bad Company.

The previous day, on the shortened Lake ground, saw horses flying from end to end. In particular Los Bandidos's first match against Longhorns where the score ended 14-4.5. In the Round Robin - Airmiles, Hoes Farm and Bad company battled it out for the place in the Final. Bad Company with the up and coming Charlie Scott easily beat off the other teams. The shock came though when Kim Richardson, Bruno and Sally Howes beat Bakers Farm by 1.5 to put them into the Sub Final along with Airmiles!

SO the Final - Los Bandidos vs. Bad Company! From the start Bad Company seemed to have the upper hand with Jason bashing the ball from at least 60yards straight through the goal many times, however, Nino wasn't far behind doing the same for his team. In the last chukka things changed. Bad company slightly panicking put a few goals wide and made some silly fouls infront of goal. Los Bandidos took this as their opportunity and with many backhands from the reliable Angus to Nino, Los Bandidos for the third and final time this season came out the victors! 9-7.5.

In the Sub Final Jendens found it hard to conect with the ball until the final chukka, but it was too late, Airmiles with 3 goaler Titico were unbeatable.

The final of the Sothebys, Savills and Lycetts 6 goal on a glorious August Bank Holiday Monday was between Parke Bradley’s Silver Fox team and Hickstead/Novate. The final of the Credit Crunch has set the scene in the morning and the crowds turned up in their hundreds to watch the game. The Silver Fox team was based once again around Bauti and Caio Sorzana with Parke Bradley at the front and Nick Dann playing exceptionally well off –2 at the back. Hickestead/Novate had big-hitters Bud Sorby and Jack Kidd in the middle and John Bunn and Chas Taylor either end working hard. In the semi finals Silver Fox only just beat Tony Lorenz’s TLC Polo team whereas Hickestead/Novate won 9-1.5 against Complete Music.

Hickstead/Novate went into the final as the in form team but the Silver Fox team had one this trophy in the previous two years so it was never going to be an easy one. This was immediately evident as the Silver Fox team immediately went in to the lead, Bauti releasing his brother to run it in from half way. The Sorzana brothers were on fire steeling the ball from the opposition and almost scoring at will. The Hickstead/Novate seemed to be the cause of their own downfall as they had a few decisions go against them and then became frustrated at the umpires. They gave away an unprecedented 3 technical penalties. Luck was certainly not on their side as Hickstead/Novate ended up losing 8-2. Parke Bradley was delighted to pick up the trophy for the 3rd year in a row and the Champagne definitely seemed to flow for the rest of the afternoon.

The sub final also seemed to be a bit of an upset but the TLC team didn’t perform after their near loss in the semis and lost out to Alistair Coply and Martin Costellos Complete Music team. It is without a doubt the best sub final to win as the trophy is almost as good as for the winner.

Di Arbuthnot of ROR and Piers Plunkett of Lycetts came down to award a prize to the best retrained racehorse. Bud Sorby got the prize and went home with a new bridle.

The final of the Credit Crunch League was between Jendens and Flying Foxes. Both teams had reached the final as undefeated winners of each league. There were some definite similarities between the two teams, which were evident in the final. Both teams were made up of eight young players playing to a better standard than their handicaps might suggest, they were well mounted and rode well and most noticeably, unlike many players, they weren’t just drawn to the ball. Watching the game on Monday I happened to be sitting next to a well informed argentine professional who commented on the fact that the marking in the game was better than he had seen before in low goal polo, let alone 0 goal. However, I don’t think we will be seeing these two line-up in the 0 goal next year once the handicap committee has got hold of them.

The game itself was end to end. Jendens started with a 1.5 goal head start with Piers Lakin (-1) replacing injured Kim Richardson (1). Jack Richardson started the scoring after 5 minutes of battling running the ball through the goal heading towards the lake. Jendens continued to dominate but couldn’t add to their tally. Partly down to a lack of accuracy but mostly as a result of some strong defensive play from the Flying Foxes in particular Charlie Minns Shearer.

Two more Chukkas passed and the two teams were still swinging hard. Any attempt at goal was blocked or thwarted in any way possible but mistakes were starting to creep in as the £1,600 prize money started to take away from their concentration. With 4 minutes to go Jendens gave away a silly foul 80 yards out which Fred Instone took quickly and ran straight through the posts to put the game to within a half. However, it was not to be for the Flying Foxes as Jendens scored again with 40 seconds to go to put them out of sight. The foxes immediately replied to make the score 4-4.5 but time was not on their side as they only had 5 seconds remaining.

So Jendens went home with the money after the best 0 goal match KCPC has witnessed. Unfortunately the Flying Foxes team went home empty handed. Freddie Instone, however, picked up the prize for the best playing pony with the grey mare he played in the last chukka.

We had 6 teams entered for the 2 goal last weekend and after a team pulling out at the last minute 3 teams for our 8 goal challenge. The 8 goal was to be played as two round robins played on Saturday and Sunday, the teams playing the first half of their games on Saturday and then the final two chukkas on Sunday. Parke Bradley entered a Silver Fox team once again built around 6 goaler Bauti Sorzana, ably assisted by his older brother Caio and 0 goal sensation Charlie Minns Shearer. Mike Bunker and Ralph Richardson played with Ruso Sorzana and young English 4 goaler Richard Le Poer for Hyde Pacific and the 3rd team was The Coombe Titans. Ned Armstrong playing very well off –2 had his usual aid Jorge Tassarra off 5 goals and his uncle Ant Fanshaw (4 goals) as well as young Englishman Matthew Perry.

The Lake ground, maintained by Emerging, was a picture of perfection and led to some fast open polo. Hyde Pacific went in to the final day as favourites leading both their games by a goal with some great four-man polo being played. Coombe Titans were also up a goal against Silver Fox.

 After Saturday’s games every team was in with a chance to win the tournament. The first Game was Coombe Titans vs. Hyde Pacific. Coombe Titans after the first chukka had cancelled out Saturdays margin and were up by a half with 3 minutes to play. However, horsepower in the end was the difference, as Hyde Pacific’s horses were looking fresh while the Coombe string was being stretched by also entering the 2 goal. A goal from Le Poer put Hyde Pacific in the driving seat to take the tournament. They left the ground knowing that they had two chukkas rest and then just had to win their next two chukkas to win the tournament. The Titans and Silver Fox had another tight game, which ended in a draw. Silver fox needed a big performance in the last chukka, as a win would have given them the tournament. But a great chukka from Hyde Pacific, in particular Le Poer on his Ellerston bred mare Celina, in the 4th gave them the edge and they ended up winning by 2. As a result Hyde Pacific came away victorious with Coombe Titans just pipping Silver Fox on goal difference.

Most Valuable Player went to the young Matt Perry who played very well over the weekend and Celina came away with the Falcon Feeds Best Playing Pony Prize.

La Fuerza Verde and Sciurus-Pilara dominated the weekends 2 goal tournament both making it to the final. It took 5 chukkas to separate the two teams with the Lalors having to fight hard to come back from a 3 goal deficit. Going into the fifth chukka they had the momentum and scored the all-important golden goal. Titico Lalor also walked away with the coveted best playing pony prize for the mare he played in the 4th chukka. Grange won the sub final and the Gahan’s took home the wooden spoon.