The tournament played over the weekend of the 4th – 5th July was the very low-goal Pollard Cup, set-up in the 1980’s by Mrs Caroline Pollard (now Mrs Caroline Fisher) in memory of her late husband. The tournament was set-up to develop and encourage the low-handicapped players and originally didn’t allow any players above a 0 goal handicap to enter. This has evolved over time as the membership has changed, but in order to honour the wishes of Caroline, who kindly provided the prizes, a new rule was instigated to prevent any players above 0 goals from scoring any goals. The teams rising to the challenge were as follows:
Knowle (-1)
Anna James (-2), Lottie Lamacraft (0), Kevin Lamacraft (1), Tom Lamacraft (0)
Southfield (0/-3)
Kevin Greenleaves (-2), Mark Goddard-Watts (-2), Roddy Stanning (3), John Yeoman/Kay Thorner (1/-2)
Vamos (0)
Mike Owen (-2), Rob Andrews (-1), Glenn Sherriff (3), George Amor (0)
Horner (-2)
Tim Hawkins (S), Mark Williams (0), Geoffrey Persey/James Baillie (0), Paul Youngs (0)
Blackwater (-2) / Black Ice (-3)
Jon Dudd (S), Roger Float/Jess Andrews (-1/-2), Diego Patuto (1), Kevin James (0)
Play started on Saturday at 2:30pm with a match between the two -2 goal teams: Blackwater and Horner. Horner raced into the lead with 4 goals in the 1st chukka, but Blackwater fought back in the 2nd chukka by scoring 2 goals. The match remained close in the 3rd chukka, but it was in the 4th chukka that Horner started to increase the gap with a final score of 8-3 in favour of Horner.
The second match was played as a 6-chukka Round Robin/American tournament between Southfield, Knowle and Vamos. Points were awarded for a win (2 points) or a draw (1 point) at the end of each 2 chukka match, with the winner having either the most points, or the most goals if points were tied.
The first 2 chukkas between Southfield and Knowle did not produce any goals to either side. However, Knowle came out as the winners as they started with ½ a goal on the scoreboard due to the handicap difference. The second set of 2 chukkas between Southfield and Vamos resulted in a score of 2-1 in favour of Vamos, meaning that at this point Southfield were out of the running for the final. The final 2 chukkas were played between Vamos and Knowle to decide who would be going through to Sunday’s final. Knowle started with ½ a goal on the scoreboard and scored 1 goal in the first chukka. Vamos then scored a goal in the second chukka resulting in a tense final chukka. However, no more goals were scored and Knowle were the winners with 1½ goals to 1 by the final bell. Knowle’s two wins meant they qualified for the final against Horner.
Sunday’s matches were just as eventful, with Kay Thorner substituting for John Yeoman, James Baillie substituting for Geoffrey Persey and Jess Andrews substituting for Roger Float. Roger had acquired an injury on the Saturday and so asked to step-down on the Sunday. As such, his team changed from ‘Blackwater’ to ‘Black Ice’ as Jon Dudd took over as patron and provided the shirts.
The Sunday started at 2:00pm with the 6 chukka subsidiary final. The first 2 chukkas were played between Black Ice and Vamos. Black Ice were a -3 team against the 0 goals of Vamos and started with 1 goal on the scoreboard. Both teams had obviously sorted out their tactics bearing in mind the rule change and many goals were scored in the space of the 2 chukkas. George Amor played a strong 0 goals to overcome Black Ice, but Black Ice didn’t go out without a fight. The scores were 3-2 and 4-2 to Vamos at the end of each chukka. Blackwater then stayed on the pitch to compete against Southfield, who were also a -3 team on the Sunday. The goal scoring reflected the even handicaps and the score was 1-1 after both chukkas resulting in a draw for each team. This meant that Blackwater with only 1 point for the draw and no points for a loss, were not the winners.
The final 2 chukkas were between Vamos and Southfield to decide the winners. At the start of the chukka, Vamos had 2 points for a win, whereas Southfield only had 1 point for a draw. Southfield had to win the chukkas to win the subsidiary final, whereas Vamos could either win or draw to beat Southfield.
Southfield started with 1 goal on the scoreboard due to the handicap difference and went on to score another goal in the first chukka. Vamos also scored 2 goals in the 1st chukka to finish the chukka 2-2. Vamos then went on to score 2 more goals in the 2nd, and final, chukka and looked to have it all sewn up when Mike Owen’s horse span round and he landed on the floor! The first-aiders were there in a second but Mike was okay and remounted to play the rest of the chukka. Despite Mike’s unglorified dismount, Vamos won the 2 chukka match with 4 goals to 2 and as such, won the subsidiary final.
The second match was The Pollard Cup final between Knowle and Horner. Horner were determined to avoid a repeat of last week’s final when Knowle won.
Horner started with the advantage of ½ a goal on the scoreboard and all players being eligible to score goals. Knowle were handicapped by the fact Kevin Lamacraft was unable to score any goals as a 1 goal player, however it was clear as the match progressed that the teamwork of the players cancelled this out as a disadvantage.
Knowle scored two chukkas within the first chukka, but after that the strong defence prevented any more goals from reaching their destination. The score was still 2-½ in favour of Knowle at half time. Both teams were surprisingly strong with both Tim and Anna playing their no. 1 positions for each team and being backed up at every opportunity. James Baillie put up a good ‘0 goal’ performance considering how little he has been able to play this season, and was backed up by the accuracy and speed of Mark Williams and Paul Youngs for Horner. Knowle, meanwhile, had the formidable combination of Lottie and Tom being backed up by Kevin Lamacraft. Tom, in particular, was playing above his 0 goal handicap and Lottie effectively took out her Horner opponent at every opportunity. The 3rd chukka provided more excitement when Horner scored their first goal of the match to bring the scores up to 1½-2. This score was maintained in the nail-biting 4th chukka, but towards the end Knowle managed to find the goal posts and score 3 consecutive goals to win the match and the tournament. The final score of 5-1½ did not reflect the strong performance by Horner and their step closer to beating Knowle in a final!
Knowle were delighted to take home the battered Pollard Cup for another year, and also with their prizes of the rather inventive ‘Chocolatiers’. The second place prizes were even more interesting with a bottle of wine and some sort of spray contraption for a bottle awarded to each team member.
Many thanks to all those who helped out, but in particular: Nick Harrison-Sleap for providing top class commentary (yet again); Jilly Kelly for helping with some of the time-keeping (again!); and also to Sophie Morgan for organising the goal judging!
