The fifth day was like a nightmare here in Indio, CA. The wind blew close to 70 mph and the mercury was close to 40 degrees F. You really could not say anything nice about the 5th dayof the New Year, but in 12 hours it was like we were in another world far away. Saturday, Jan. 6th was a beautiful clear sunny day. It was polo time and away we go with no wind, no cold weather and no dirt. Just plain old-fashioned polo. It started at 10 a.m. In the 8-goal it was the return of the Super B’s Bilo Zarif and Bolko Kissling (Casa Sombres/Summerland). They were not exactly buzzing yet, but they had a couple of The B’s came out smoking with the Aussie Midget and the Palomino (Jason Crowder) behind them. In the first half of their first game Casa Sombres/Summerland fell behind by 4 to Casa Blanca. Then the hive started buzzing and blew by the Dudley-powered Casa Blanca to win by 2. In the game next door it was bad news for McPOLO as Dan Walker tore a bicep muscle on his mallet arm in the second chukker. It was all over for them as the Big Mac (Fred Mannix, Sr.) and Smokin’ Joe Henderson followed a Small Fry down the field as Julian Mannix proved he could be the next Canadian Rocket. Mcpolo minus Dan Walker were smoked by Fish Creek. Just across the road it was the Wolfman (Ashton Wolf) taking on the Ore Pac men and getting by them in OT as Rancho Amistad got a big Win on Opening Day.
It was a long day for True Choice as Rockin’ Robert and camp were a bit manhandled by Zippy (Bill Ziering) and his Rancho Santa Fe squad. Rancho Santa Fe gets a big Win on Opening Day. In another game, it was Mr. Smooth (Curt Hughes) and his little team called Generation Motors giving last years January Champs (Fish Creek 2) a head start. In a different match a French Twist named Ms. Anier and a Obie Twin (Tomas Obregon) blew by Fish Creek 2 in the final chukker for a win. In the return of the Gray Ghost (Dempsey Mork) as the Man from La Mancha and a long and tall Ms. Shelley Geiler led the charge as the game changed to Manno vs. Manno and honey Mike beat his honey Jessica. La Mancha took the Win over a hard-riding Pope man (Ed Pope) and his Aspen Oaks squad. I missed out on 2 games as they were in the Dog house literally. That is about 3000 dogs next door at Empire Polo Grounds and I do not know those results, but there were 2 games over there and I will get those results soon. It was and is the Weekend of the Red, White and Blue Balloon Festival, but it was just plain-old Dirty brown on Friday afternoon. There was very little action on Friday. I am not sure where the Balloons were all day, but they showed up for the party last night which is one of the biggest in a while for the Club. They may have run them off as it was the 50th Anniversary and the weather was nice, but $150 lobster and a glass of wine may not be the way to keep people coming back. Even if the Lobster comes from the Sultan Sea. It was a good time and there was some crazy Lady throwing butter, so who knows. It was a good day for the kick off of ’07.
See ya ..