The final game of the Mike and Claudia Uretz World Gym 6 Goal tournament at the Eldorado Polo Club, played on Sunday February 10, 2013, was a contest between two unbeaten teams coming out of the qualifying round. On the one side, Dan Horn’s Palm Desert, without the injured Horn, and on the other, Canadian Reg Whyte’s Thermal aggregation. Both teams had actually made some significant changes after the January tournaments. With Horn out, Malia McCoy stepped in and Hank Uretz was added to the Palm Desert roster to assist Danny Walker and Federico Wulff. For Whyte, Emma Stachowicz came in along with Nicolas Maciel to work with Fergus Gould. Obviously the changes worked out for both.
Having to give up a half goal at the start, Thermal put early pressure on Palm Desert that led to two super penalty four conversions from Maciel and with Gould adding a field goal, Whyte and his farmhands were off to a great start leading 3 – .5 after the first.
Palm Desert developed some momentum of their own early in the second as they started to push back. With 5;16 left in the period, Maciel was injured and after some time, it was determined that he shouldn’t return. With Maciel out, Bryan Middleton stepped in to help and found out that his first job was to watch as Danny Walker converted a penalty two opportunity – a result of the Maciel incident – and Palm Desert had one on the board. With Middleton in, and on unfamilair horses, Walker and Wulff took advantage and scored field goals and the second was over, with the Horn Group up by the handicap difference at 3.5 – 3.
Palm Desert continued the aggression in the third and were rewarded another open goal try that Walker easily converted and the lead was now 1.5 goals. With Middleton and Gould having played together in January, it was only a matter of time before he and Gould would find comfort working together and Gould was then able to convert a Middleton pass and the Palm Desert lead was, at ‘halftime’, only the handicap award (4.5 – 4).
With Gould and Middleton now finding a rhythm, they were able to press Palm Desert and converted an open goal opportunity from about five yards to get the lead back by a half point. Palm Desert came back however as Walker scored on a penalty three attempt and McCoy scored a beauty because of a quick and aggresive move to return an imperfect Thermal backhand. Not fazed, Gould later grabbed a pass from Middleton and, from 100 yards out was able to fight off Wulff while taking a very circuitous and impressive nearside route to goal and scored from 30 yards well left and only several yards from the end line – a play that in hindsight should have been the announcer’s ‘play of the day’. Middleton then converted a safety from about 65 yards from goal and the period ended with Thermal leading once again at 7 – 6.5).
In the fifth, Middleton converted another open goal attempt to complete the scoring and Reg Whyte, the 2010 Governor’s Cup Winner, and his Thermal farmhands were the winneres of the 23rd annual World Gym Tournament by a count of 8 – 6.5.
World Gym 6 Goal Tournament – Eldorado Polo Club
Thermal (6) – Reg Whyte, Emma Stachowicz -1, Fergus Gould 4, Nicloas Maciel 3, Bryan Middleton 3 (sub. for Maciel).
Palm Desert (5.5) – Danny Walker 2, Malia McCoy .5, Hank Uretz, Federico Wulff 3, Dan Horn .5 (inj.)
Tony Gregg