The 2007 MPC Season is underway with two 6 goal season openers this past Sunday. 8 Goal (7 teams) and 6 goal (7 teams) will continue this Sunday.
Play Ball
Click here for June 6-Goal Team Lineups and Schedule.
Click here for June 8-Goal Team Lineups and Schedule.
Sunday Polo and Monday Rain. I was told that if I could arrange it, the accomplishment would be reflected in my compensation package. Sooo Tracy, could you make that call to Duke and John for me? We played Sunday and Monday was an “all-day just what the field doctor ordered” soaking rain.
We played all 4 weekend days during Memorial Day weekend, but play was focused on getting the bucks out……of the horses(bucks never stop coming out of wallets), and getting them fit for a long summer of play. Memorial Day’s tribute to our fallen is usually accompanied by falling rain, but not so this year. 4 holiday days, four days of polo
6-Goal/4 Chukker
Sunday’s openers kicked off with Bruce Colley’s Supersize facing off against Don Langlois’s Buena Vista. Don has some new ponies, some new pros, and a new farm. Now all he needs is a new elbow. The Doc has already given him more shots than he’s had chukkers. I think Sylvia needs to start crushing up some bute in his morning wheaties. So Don took a coaching position while his team’s pro Maxi Crotto, son Maxito Langlois and Hannah Buchan took the field.
Bruce Colley was joined by that famous long ball hitter out of Greenwich, James McBride, Felix martinez and Chris Green. McBride hit a shot from just inside the 150 yard mark in the saturday fundraiser and scored with only a single bounce. Those are the life memories in polo that make all this absurdity make sense…well…at least to us players.
Maxi Crotto came out strong in chukker one with 3 goals to a single score by Martinez to put BV up 3-1 after one. The second chukker was all supersize as McBride and Martinez teamed up with two goals apiece to go up 5-4 at half.
The second chukker was the last chukker that McBride got a clear look at the goal as BV hooked him up with a prom date by the name of Hannah Buchan. Hannah may have been the prom date, but she took James to everywhere, but the ball. The woman can ride and she’s got the ponies to get anywhere at a lightning pace.
So Bruce, Felix and Chris hit the dance floor for SS and scored 5 goals in the final two chukkers to BV’s three. Maxito Langlois, our youngest player of the season did awesome and found the goal posts in the fourth chukker. Felix Martinez was took top scoring honors with 6 goals.
Sunday-Game II was a round-robin, 6-Goal
For those of you that struggle with how three teams play one polo game, lets keep it simple. Each team plays each other for two chukkers in a mini-game.
The first mini-game was one of Mashomack’s most noted names, John Klopp’s Smithfield Farms up against one of our new entries, Philip and Tracy’s Mactaggart’s Hawk Hill Farm. Smithfield cleaned up in 2006 and is our defending Eddie Moore Champions. However, with all of those victories behind them, this day was a special one for John Klopp. The reason, two sons by the names of Adam and Jake joined dad John and SF pro Julio Ezcurra, The Mactaggarts have Julio’s brother Ernie Ezcurra along with Maxi Minnini to help guide them around the field of play.
he first game was a thriller, ending up in a 3-3 tie, which gives them both a win in the round-robin.
The coin toss put Smithfield back up in min-game number two, chukkers 3 and 4 against the third entry, Ramirez Financial. RF was Sam Ramires, Andres Erbheti, Faud Malik, and Manuel. SF kicked it up a notch. Father Klopp and son Adam both scored twice in chukker three and Adam again in the 4th to take RF 5-2. John Klopp hit a goal from about 100 yards out, Adam had a great cut shot, a near-side carry and a straight on power shot for his three tallies. Son Jake was out in his very first performance and did awesome. So John Klopp, win or lose is living his dream.
he final segment of the round-robin was Hawk Hill and Ramirez Financial. Hawk Hill won easily with seven tallies while holding RF scoreless. The real noteworthy news item was that Philp Mactaggart out on the field for his tournament debut came out of the match with two scores. Ernie Ezcurra was high scorer with 5 tallies in the round-robin. So congratulation Hawk Hill for your first victory…nice precedent. Now is the really tough decision. Do you retire while you are on top or do you go double or nothing? With two young Mactaggarts interested in some polo lessons, I think Hawk Hill is going to be around Mashomack for a very long time.
Mashomack/Millbrook History and a little help with Umpiring
Chris Green helped me umpire the round-robin and did a great job. Chris has offered along with Millbrook founder Eric Rosenfeld to help do a few chukkers of umpiring. Some 30 years ago when I was GM at the Ox Ridge Hunt Club in Darien, CT and running the polo there, I started retiring a few of the school polo ponies with Eric and DeDe. Eric said he would give them a good pasture in exchange for he and a few of his friends to stick and ball a bit. Thus was the birth of Millbrook Polo..which later became the Mashomack Polo Club. Welcome back Eric !!
A Lot Going on at the Club
What’s Happening at Mashomack Polo? An easier way to say it……..would be…… what isn’t happening? New barns, new paddocks, expanded irrigation well, new water gun, new teams, new training arena, enlarged fields in back and…… oh yeah, lets not forget the brand new, lazor graded, newly soded, full size, regulation polo field. Should be ready in 4-6 weeks. Mashomack polo has also leased the Ten Mile Field to be able to accommodate all the new players and teams.
Ciao
TFG