The first series of matches for the 2007 polo season were played at the Kingston Polo Club on Sunday, January 14th for the Doc Masterton Trophy. This is a fun tournament where the teams are drawn out of a hat. We ended up with 7 teams on the day with some 27 players taking part. It was the first formal tournament for some of the players that came into the sport in 2006 and a few horses that had spent the off-season being trained. As always with this tournament, the atmosphere was very relaxed and fun was had by all. There were thrills and spills on the field and the weather went from boiling hot for the first match, to quite a heavy rain in the second and pleasant sunshine for the third!
The first match pitted father against son when the Red team of Dennis Lalor, Jorge Donovan, Joel Azan and Michele Subaran took on the White team of Paul Lalor, Lesley-Ann Fong-Yee, Sam Wates and Pieter Barrow. The White team got off to a quick start with goals from Sam Wates and Paul Lalor in the 1st chukka, but the Reds countered in the 2nd when Azan scored. The whites dominated the 3rd chukka as Fong-Yee scored twice and Paul Lalor once to put them in a commanding lead going in the last chukka. Donovan converted a 30 yd penalty and Sam Wates converted a 60 yard pentaly in the last chukka for the Whites to win by 6 goals to 2.
The second match was a Round Robin between the Red Ponderosa team of Mark Wates, Craig Russell, Rachel Turner and Jonathon Dougal, the Grey Stresscon team of Kurt Chin, Jason Wates, Steven Laing and Tarik Felix and the Blue Rough Riders team of youngsters Dominic Chung and Adam Lake alternating, Simon Brown, Paul Chin and Paul Lalor and Alexander Melville alternating. The Stresscon team dominated the first section scoring 5 goals to Ponderosa’s 2 with Jason Wates and Felix each scoring twice and a goal from Kurt Chin. Mark Wates and Craig Russell scored for Ponderosa. The second section of the Round Robin was very even but the Rough Riders came out on top with a goal from Paul Lalor while Ponderosa were held scoreless. The Stresscon team also dominated the last section of the Round Robin with a goal each from Felix, Jason Wates and Kurt Chin while the Round Riders were held to one goal by Paul Chin whose horse slipped and fell with him in the 3rd chukka. Luckily both were fine and continued playing with no delay.
The final match of the day was between the Yellow ICWI team of Alexander Melville, Shane Chin, Justin Samuda and Anna Dougal and the Blue Coyaba team of Doc Masterton, Tommy Martinez, Jason Wates and Randy Mair. This was a very competitive game with Coyaba taking an early lead with goals from Martinez and Mair, but ICWI came right back with a goal from Shane Chin. Coyaba owned the 2nd chukka with another goal from Martinez and one from Jason Wates, and Mair opened the scoring for them in the 3rd chukka. ICWI came back with goals from Melville and Samuda to close the gap. However, Jason Wates escaped at the end of the chukka and scored again for Coyaba. In the last chukka Shane Chin’s horse slipped and fell, but he was not as lucky as his brother as he hyperextended his knee and had to retire from the game. Craig Russell substituted for him and scored the last goal of the game but Coyaba held on to win by 6 goals to 4.
When the scores were tallied up at the end of the Day the Grey Stresscon team emerged the winners of the Doc Masterton Trophy by having the highest goal differential of +5 goals. They also scored the most goals, 8, and Jason Wates and Tarik Felix were the top socorers of the day with 3 goals each. The Hon. Dennis Lalor, President of the Jamaica Polo Association and the Kingston Polo Club thanked John Masterton for his contribution to polo over the years and asked the Mexican Ambassador, Her Excellency Rosaura Rueda-Gutierrez, to present the trophy and the replicas to the winning team. Prize Giving was followed by lunch and the usual après-polo festivities that continued into the late evening.
The next tournament on the 2007 Polo Schedule will be the visit by the Wild Boars polo team from Cowdray Park in England, the Final of which will be played at the Kingston Polo Club on Sunday, Feburary 4, 2007, followed by the ICWI International Ladies Tournament on Sunday, February 11, 2007.