The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder

Poway wins the USPA interscholastic Regional playoffs at Indio, CA today. Due to rain, a wet ground and a beautiful day, no one was in a hurry.  The winning team was made up of 4 youngsters from Poway and probably Billy Sheldon, who is always ready to move on and the Coach of ths team.

The game had some bad moments early as El Dorado’s Tony Uretz was injured early in the first chukkar and had to be carted off to the medics. That provided a big hole for El Dorado as Tony was the only player here with tournament experience as Jessie Bray was in Florida trying out for team USA.

That may not have been enough to stop the Poway crew anyway as they were hungry and the Fire was in their eyes . Tony was replaced by brother Hank and the game went on and it was close the first 1/2 as El Dorado held the lead until just seconds left in first 1/2.   It ended all square at 4 all.  After getting the drag run and the rakes pulled it was as good as it was going to get and away they went but somehow in the long 1/2 time it was no doubt a very good time for Billy reorganized the team as Poway came out on fire with perfect rotation and constant pressure causing El Dorado to foul often. It was also a little wild at times. Young gun Harrision Samaniego did a “High-ho-Silver” on a gray horse, but came up smiling and ran straight to the goal.  Samaniego and young Miquel Questel dominated the game the last 2 chukkars with booming, but straight shots with a lot of help from both Hollie and Austin, who constantly fed the ball to the two of them and made amazing saves throughout the last two chukkars. It was a long game, but a good one and well attended as it was about the only action early as rain had delayed all outdoor polo.

El Dorado had a good showing as young Scott Cunningham is a force in the future for sure with daring speed and he is very aggressive. Cunningham will be a player to reckon with. The loss of Tony put a lot of pressure on Cacho Galindo, but they never quit so it was a lot of fun for all.  Now Poway looks East as they head there to defend the title won by El Dorado last year.

GOOD LUCK: Many thanks to the people who made it happen!  Yes it was wet on one end but it was fair as each team had to deal with it an equal number of times. Many thanks to HITS for coming up with the venue to make it work and to the many people who pulled in from allover So. CA to compete it does make the future of polo just a little bit brighter. THANKS FOR THE SHOW ALL OFF YOU!

Down South in the big tournament it was Lyndon Lea’s Zacara winning the 20-goal and ERG winning the Subsidiary. Mateo Gonzalez is head Horseman of Zacara and also had “Best Playing Pony” in the finals.  Jason Crowder is on the ERG team, so we had some connections from the Desert Polo World competing there. This week the Hawks with the Mannix machine take on one more foe to play for the first 26-goal finals. I think it is on Wed. so good luck to them as well

See ya