Eleven teams travelled(some more than 9 hours) to one of the oldest club
in the Pacific Northwest to compete in the Circuit Governors tournament.
Five teams of 5 to 6 goals vied for the beautiful perpetual trophy. The
other 6 teams were divided into 2 flights of play. Governor Rob Petersen,
Catlin Dix, president of the Spokane Club and John Babin were the superior
hosts for the 2 days of play on July 16 and 17th. The Governor’s Cup is
one of the most coveted victory in the Pacific NW Circuit. Robert
Lin-Ke-Chow, USPA umpire, Gratia Brown and Susan Stovall were the
organization for the event.
Pacific Northwest Circuit Governor’s Cup Winners
Tentnology – l to r Nicolas Maciel, Gery warner, Governor Rob Petersen,
Felix Llambias and George Dill
A draw of the 5 teams was for a head on game and then a round robin for
the others. Tentnology of Vancouver with Gery Warner,former Governor
George Dill, Feliz Llambias and Nicolas Maciel played Cedar Creek with
Governor Rob Petersen, Segundo Bengolia, Curtis Lindahl and Brandon
Alcott. Tentnolgy has the experience of playing often together and Cedar
Creek had just put their team together. At the end of the first chukker
it was 5 to 1 for the Vancouver foursome. Cedar Creek came alive and at
the end of the 2nd chukker it was 5-3. The sidelines was cheering for
the underdogs and it seemed to make a difference but not enough as at the
end of the game score was 7 to 5 – Tentnology. High scorer for Tentnology
was Macial with 4 unreachable 60 yards penalites and three from the
field. Bengolia led the Cedar Creek with 3 and Lindahl had 2.
Winners of Flight II – Seattle 2 -l to r – John Eicher,Todd Randle,
Governor Petersen, Jonathan Garnica and Cameron Smith
The round robin,always a difficult competition as the teams only play each
other for 2 chukkers, ,Dix Farm Spokane with mother and daughter – Suzy
and Catlin, Jason Larvik and Francisco Guinazu played Seattle . Cameron
Smith, John Eicher, Rodrigo Zabala and Randy Thompson, Spokane winning
the first go-around 4 to 0, Spokane then chose to stay up and played the
LaGrande – a young team of 3 lawyers Lindsey and Logan Joseph, and Ryan
Prather and one businessman, Lucas Reid – all of the team under 30.
Spokane going to the finals against Tentnology on Sunday.
Winners of Flight III – Old & New School – Sayge
Ellington-Lawrence, Curtis Lindhal, Governor Petersen, Rory Babin and Quinn Evans
Both Flight II and Flight III had 2 days of round robins with Seattle –
Cameron Smith, Jonathan Garnica, Todd Randle and Rodrigo Zabala the winner
over Whidbey – Randy Thompson, Sheryl Sick, John Eicher and Jason Larvik –
and LaConner -George Dill, Shane Flock, Felix Llambias and Carlos Zamora
.Best playing pony for the flight was Porsche owned by George Dill.
Flight III had a hot young team of Interscholastic players – Sayge
Ellington-Lawrence, Rory Babin Quinn Evans led by former Junior polo
player, Curtis Lindahl. This team was not to be beaten leading both days
by winning the event. New players to Spokane in this division were Bryan
Lee, Mike Mora, Mackenzie Braun, Cody Smith, William Babin and Phil
Damiano, who had just started polo 3 weeks ago. Best playing pony for
this flight was Cabby owned by Curtis Lindahl. All blankets were donated
by Governor Rob Petersen.
Team organization for the USPA Pacific NW Circuit were Rob
Petersen, Susan Stovall ,USPA Umpire Robert Lin-Ke-Chow, former Governor
George Dill and Gratia Brown
Finals for the USPA Governor’s Cup pitted 2 competitive teams of
Tentnology led by Maciel (4) and Dix Farm – Spokane captained Guinazu ,
First chukker – Spokane was on the scoreboard. Second chukker both
teams had 3 goals and at halftime the score was 4 to 3 – Spokane.
Tentnolgy had a team meeting and changed their tactics and in the 3rd
chukker – Maciel and Llambias scored 4 goals to Spokane’s one. Fourth
chukker Tentnolgy’s Maciel came alive with 3 more goals ending the finals
score 10-5 in favor of the Warner, Dill, Llambias,Maciel foursome the
champions For Spokane Guinazu scoring all 5 goals. Maciel had 7 and
Llambias had 3. MVP went to Macial and Best Playing pony was awarded to
Zelaya, ridden by Lllambias and owned by George Dill.
Best playing pony for Flight II – Porsche – owned and ridden by George
Dilland Best playing pony for the USPA Governor’s Cup – Zayela – ridden by
Felix Llambias and owned by George Dill – Cabby was named for Flight II –
ridden by Curtis Lindhal(not shown)
The consolation for the Governor’s Cup was won by the Cedar Creek foursome
of Lindahl, Govenor Petersen, Bengolia and Brandon Alcott. The season
for the Spokane polo club runs from May to middle of September. They have
2 regular size mature polo fields and stabling for 100 horses. Please
contact John Babin – babin72@sullivanbabin.com.