Sticks, balls and deepest darkest Bristol

The problem with starting a tournament on a Thursday during reading week is that we don’t get a reading week. As such it was a somewhat slapdash crew that converged on Clevedon for the University Polo Nationals. Despite what might charitably be described as an exuberant driving style from one of our players we all made it to the rural side of Bristol more or less intact, though one of our two train goers got a bit of a dent to his wallet when he realised that booking his tickets in advance would have been four times cheaper.

With, as it turned out, neither of our teams set to play until Friday morning all of us set about making the most of our free time. All, that is, except Jon ‘there’s a snake in ma boots’ Matthews who had managed to get himself a job doing what he loves best… shouting at people. The rest of us were more interested in booze, polo and the rapidly growing number of people planning on coming to dinner with us.

As play continued into the night (not set to finish till about 10pm!) we eventually managed to bundle everyone in the car and high tail it back to the hotel for dinner. There, I suspect, the hotel staff weren't best pleased to see a group of close to fifty hungry students swarm shortly before shifts were supposed to end and the kitchen was supposed to close. It’s not often you get that many students from half a dozen different universities congregating and socialising round a table and we were all pretty impressed that Thijs had managed to get so many people there. Actually he was developing something of a rep by then though dubbing him 'the Dutch Sleaze' was probably a bit harsh, still it was definitely not the worst nickname coined for the first time that weekend.

Everyone, well everyone from Imperial, was pretty sedate that night, probably due to the Novices having their first two matches at 9 and 10 the following morning against Reading and then Exeter. The Reading game came and went in a bit of a blur, horses the guys were meeting for the first time were something of a worry and we were pretty lucky that two out of three really got on well with their allotted mounts. In any equestrian sport the horse beneath you is just as important as the rider on top and the lack of a good partnership unfortunately made for a frustrating game for Henry unable to quite make his presence felt on the pitch. However, a lot of positives came out of that match, not least the fact that the guys managed to get a victory and Sverré and Huey really showed how you can step up your game when the pressure is on.

With a change of horse for his second chukka we were all hoping that Henry and the team could really build on this first result and start working together as a three. However, although the team did manage to play better in the second chukka, Exeter were an extremely strong team (actually they narrowly missed out in the final) and were just too much for the lads. Still, all in all a 50% record wasn't a bad first day for the novices and after a long wait while the novices got a headstart on the beer the Lower Intermediate team had their first match, sending Nottingham packing with a sound 5-1 thrashing; Thijs putting away one lovely shot under his ponies neck and two text book taps along the wall while Alex got two lucky shots from range, one from around the halfway line. Jon came out with a duck but had been playing a great game linking up with both other players and interfering with the opposition’s offensive.

Pretty happy with ourselves those of us that weren’t getting our shouting fix or (in Huey the Hedgehog’s case) hibernating headed to the pub for another night of socialising. Again, a huge crowd managed to congregate at a local pub (with proper West Country cider) for a few pints and it wasn’t long until we’d blagged ourselves an invite down to have dinner with the Exeter lot who turned out to be quite an amiable bunch after beating us. I’m not sure any of us realised that we would be heading basically all the way to Exeter for the meal but free sausage and mash is free sausage and mash so none of us were complaining. Well, not until Henry got sucked into a game of fives and ended up having to down two glasses of wine in a row. The usually quite sensible Henry earned the title of ‘English Drunkard’ that evening, which was further reinforced by his unsuccessful attempt to jump into bed upon our eventual return to the hotel. Unfortunately his double vision meant he jumped at the wrong bed and got some pretty impressive carpet burn the following morning. As it turns out, polo is a dangerous sport.

With another early start and rumours of a tactical chunder by one of the Novices that morning I don’t think anyone was in quite the right frame of mind for their chukka against Nottingham and the girls in green took full advantage of our slight greenness around the gills hitting home a bit of revenge after their lower intermediate teams trouncing. Our Lower Intermediate team, with somewhat longer to recover, were well up for our traditional grudge match against ULU that afternoon and the relatively amicable relationship we’d had with them on Thursday night was put on hold until the end of our chukka. This was one of the closest matches I’ve played and we were perhaps a little lucky to squeeze out a 2-1 lead after a couple of fouls were committed against us and then hold it under a lot of pressure until the buzzer went leaving us progressing to the two chukka final against our new friends Exeter.

With an old friend arriving that day to play in the alumni tournament we had a pretty decent crowd when it came to the party that evening. All of us gathered in one hotel room for drinks and dinner before heading away, with Huey (presumably stocking up for winter) managing to have dinner once before leaving the polo ground and then a huge lamb shank in our room as well! The party is always amusing and with several hundred students there the bouncy castle generally doesn’t manage to last that long, however the inflatable assault course and bungee run provided much amusement and the beat-boxing, acoustic trio on stage were surprisingly good for an event organised by a club.

Sunday saw the Novices first up once again with a battle to regain some pride on their hands and to win their last chukka. A final change of horse left Henry with one last chance to find his perfect steed, though with Sverré claiming he thought he was going to vom off the side of his mount I have to say I wasn’t confident the guys would play at their best. Still, I was very glad to be proved wrong and the team played the best polo I’ve ever seen from them. Henry finally found his confidence and, without speeding up a great deal, was finally able to stop worrying about the beast between his legs (snigger) and start concentrating on the playing the ball (snigger more), getting several impressive runs down the wall. Huey again played the most physical game I’ve ever seen from the normally quiet player and Sverré managed to overcome his nausea to cover the gaps between the two players both in attack and defence. Overall they dominated the girls from Harper Adams and came away with a good victory to top off their weekend.

Then it was down to the Lower Intermediate team. Could we pull of the biggest victory ICU Riding and Polo have seen to date or would Exeter continue to storm ahead to victory as they had done in the previous rounds. Things didn’t look good in the first few minutes as Exeter got off to an early lead while we took a while to really get motoring. Their best player, Francois, really seemed to have us pegged at the beginning but we managed to claw our way back into things toward the end of the first half. With only a short break before the second we stayed on or close to our horses and chatted about how to try to counter their play realising that we needed to be better at maintaining possession and being quicker on the turn both in support of each other and to get the defensive plays working better. In the second half we really hung in there, never really managing to get ahead but not falling further behind either. A few fouls not spotted by the umpire might have helped us close the gap but when the buzzer went we couldn’t be disappointed at losing to such a strong team and, despite being about ready to collapse we were the first to congratulate Exeter on a tournament well won with a loud call for three cheers.

All in all this February was the best tournament I’ve been to yet and we were all happy to bring home a little glassware for Riding and Polo. Even if it did say ‘Runners Up’ on it.