To jubilant roars from the home crowd, Thailand’s Mobile
Easy elephant polo team clinched victory at yesterday’s King’s
Cup Elephant Polo Tournament, an historic first ever win for
Thailand.
It was an electric game of gladiatorial duals and tenacious
play and with both teams perfectly matched, this was a game
with no underdog.
As soon as they were out of the blocks, it was the Thailand
team which seized the upper hand, Omsin Pratummalee racing up
the field, past Sandalford’s resolute and steadfast Nick Bowen
in defence, and scoring a decisive goal after just 28 seconds.
With the handicap advantage this catapulted the Thais into a
2-0 lead, an advantage which, less than 2 minutes later,
Pratummalee extended to 3-0.
Two wide shots on goal by Sandalford’s Greg Johnson, seemed to
confirm the Australians bewilderment but, as the Mercedes Benz
team found out in Saturday’s semi-finals, the Australians’
ability to surge back into the game should never be
underestimated. With Bowen defending like a Trojan and captain
Peter Prendiville playing his trademark under the trunk shots,
the Australians suddenly rallied, dominating the final minutes
of the first chukka, three goals by Johnson in rapid-fire
succession bringing them, at 3-3, firmly back into the game.
Having proved their resilience, the Aussies started the second
chukka with a psychological advantage, the Thais goal cushion
having been defiantly deflated. A change of squad by Mobile
Easy, saw elephant polo rookie, Argentinian Churo Pelligrino
replace Aktanai Chuthinthranond in defence, leaving Tom
Claytor and Pratummalee to increase the pressure up front.
Like men possessed, Pratummalee and Prendiville battled for
supremacy, three sticks breaking in as many minutes. A penalty
against Sandalford gave the Thais a precious early goal,
Claytor then executing a superb finish, flawlessly knocking
the ball between the posts to gain a two-goal advantage. A
beautiful riposte by Johnson once again brought the
Australians back into the game 5-4 but with Claytor and
Pratummalee using every ounce of their experience to convert
under pressure, Thailand had regained the critical 2-goal
upper hand by the 7th minute and this time they were not going
to give it up.
A fabulous half volley strike by Peter Prendiville in the
dying minutes of the game narrowly missed the goal but as the
seconds ticked away, the Mobile Easy team’s delaying tactics
held the visitors in limbo, denying them any purchase on the
ball. When the final gong rang out across the field, it was
the Thailand team who punched their sticks in the air in a
victory salute: the 6-4 victors of an epic game.
In the afternoon’s earlier Anantara Gold Cup match for third
place, Mercedes Benz met Scotland’s St Andrews House in a game
of huge shots, Oliver Winter and Alistair Archibald hitting a
symphony of pitch-long explosions. The final score of 10-4 to
the Germans belied how close the game had been. The first
chukka had seen the scoreline increase in ping-pong fashion,
Archibald and Winter alternating goals to end the first half
3-3. Quite how the German team managed to pull off such a huge
win, was almost as astounding to the players as it was to the
crowds watching. Five minutes into the second chukka, Winter
and Hugo Goetz pushed the pedal to the metal and blitzed the
Scottish goal, scoring 6 goals in 5 minutes.
Completing the final placements at the 2004 King’s Cup
Elephant Polo Tournament, Chivas Regal beat American Express
Thailand to take 5th place; Mullis Capital took 7th place with
a win over Bangkok Bank ladies; the All Blacks came a
respectable 9th after beating Element Australia; DBS Ladies
took 11th place after defeating the Screwless Tuskers; and
British Airways Cavalry beat Kuoni UK to take 13th place.
