Last weekend a midst all the commotion surrounding the Pacific Coast Open the Santa Barbara Polo club also held its annual Dean Mullins Memorial Tournament. The Dean Mullins tournament is a 2-6 goal tournament which is usually for the club members only however this weekend it was opened up to anyone who wanted to make the drive. This open invitation was met with great enthusiasm drawing players from all over the Los Angeles area and California Polo Club. Since the tournament was only one day, it was made to be a round robin meaning the team with the best record after three, three chukker games takes home the trophy.
In the first game the Red Menace took on Chino Loco. This game started out quickly with Henry Walker taking the ball out of the throw in and scoring to put the Red Menace on top. However unfortunately for the Red Menace this turned out to be the first and only time that they were ahead in the tournament. Chino Loco tied it up soon after that and then in the second chukker established their dominance scoring 3 unanswered goals to put them up 4 to 1 going in to the last chukker. The Red menace went down fighting scoring two goals in the last chukker but it just wasn’t enough, the final score was 5 to 3 in favor of the Chino Loco.
Chino Loco carried their momentum from the first game into the second game taking a 1 to nothing lead over the Green Machine after the first chukker. In the second chukker it looked as if Chino Loco might run away with it thanks to two quick goals by Domingo Questal and Max Duarte however Glen III Holden and Jeep Holden made sure that this was not to be answering with 2 goals of their own. This led to a very exciting last chukker, Chino Loco opened it up with a quick goal however thanks to two assists and one goal by Patrick Uretz the Green Machine snatched the victory from Chino Loco by a final score of 5 to 4.
The final game pitted the Green machine against the Red Menace and although the Red Menace had lost once already they still had a chance to win the tournament if they could beat the Green Machine by more than 3 goals. In the first chukker it looked like it was going to be a close game with the Red Menace holding the Green Machine to only 1 goal making the score 1 to 0 at the end of the first. However the inability to put goals on the scoreboard that plagued the Red Menace in the first chukker turned fatal in the second chukker due to three goals by Glen III Holden and great defense by Patrick Uretz and Jeep Holden. Going in to the final chukker the score was a very anticlimactic 4 to 0, neither team scored in the last chukker leaving the final score at 4 to 0. This meant that the Green Machine lived up to their name and were crowned the victors of the Dean Mullins Memorial tournament.