Under a brilliant blue sky at Lahore today, round one of the preliminary games were played. The weather indeed has changed from the rather harsh winters to a crisp cool breezy, sunny, nearly springyday. The fields are showing new grass and a shade of green can be seen.
Thankful for such little mercies as the brown, dull, winter look of the fields just wouldn't lift the game. It's something else to watch or play a tough game on lush green lawns, a treat indeed.
Game 1 was between Bank Alfalah and Guard Filters. Now you gotta remember that Guard Filter's an all Pakistani team where the Patron (TM +2) is a fair contributor, specially when on the offensive. He's got a decent string of Argentine, as well as local thoroughbred, horses and he manages to keep his team pumped up. Playing for him is the forward half of Pakistan's national side comprising of Ahmed Ali Tiwana and Taimur Nadeem (Timmy). Both young, well mounted and aggressive in defense and attack, both playing of 3 goals. At the tip of this attack is young 16 year old Hamza Mawaz (+2), fast, fiery, talented and goes like a bat-outta-hell on every play. Certainly the future of our polo and has many years to go.
On the other side of the throw-in line were the Alfalah boys. Finalist from last Sunday, trotted in today with two changes to their side. For Naveed it was Sameer Oberoi, and for Waseem Sial came in Hussain Iftikhar. Both better substitutions from last week. Hussain is a seasoned veteran of good polo and has an excellent string of thoroughbred ponies. He's got one of the best near side back handers in the country. Wouldn't even mind taking a knock-in that way as well. Sure has some distance to it. Sameer (+2) on the other hand is fast, hits a long ball and is good with the man. Enough info on the subs for the moment, Raul Laplacette would start feeling left out, as he's the pivot for the bankers. Atif Tiwana, a wily old fox at polo completes the team.
High for GF, they're a running 4 man side. Mark Raul well, make him release, and you have the game in the bag. Play man, one-hit, man polo.
High for BA, the game has to revolve around Raul Laplacette. He's mounted superbly on Naveed's mares. The team needs to make room for him to set the plays. A better team also.
Let's see how the game went.....
As predicted, Raul took control from the start and used the subs very well. Made a big difference to the side, these two players coming in. Although the game started with Hamza scoring on a solo run, Raul quickly settled the affair with a long pass to Sameer and quickly following up with 2 goals in the first chukkar alone. Guard Filter was neck to neck for the first two chukkars but with Raul left alone it was never going to be that easy. He capitalized on every opportunity and scored some fantastic goals, including a 60 yards that he sent out of the park.
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| Hamza hooking Hussain, photo by HRK Niazi. |
Guard Filters tried hard but were just not connecting, they were marked, at times out-horsed and certainly left huge gaps in their defense. Sameer and Hussain both had a good game. By the end, Guard Filter got a bit desperate and some hard bumps resulted in a few technicals. We've got Simon Tosh of UK umpiring all the games and he's a hard man on any foul play. A player each sent out for each team in the 4th chukkar.
Final score: 8 - 4 1/2. Bank Alfalah take 2 points and are on top of their pool. Raul pumped in 5 goals for his team.
Game 2 was to be a cracker of a match in anticipation of Gaston Moore, who, rather disappointingly, couldn't play because of a back problem. Substituting him was Vieri Antinori (6) and with a big player like Gaston going out, it was always going to be difficult for Master Paints (Sufi brothers and Saqib Khakwani) to shine with the same dazzle as last Sunday's. Let me add that Master Paints is a very organized team with a never ending string of Argentine ponies that seems to lengthen every year. A strawberry roan Appaloosa called 'Pindata', played by Gaston, is an outstanding pony, in fact took BPP honors in last year's championship, and that was her first season ! That's just the tip of the iceberg, polo pony-ishly speaking.
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| Gaston Moore on Pindata last Sunday. Photo by Saadia, Pakistan's first female polo photographer. |
Against them were Newage Cables with the two 4 goalers in Santiago Mendivil and Shamyl Alam, followed by Shaukat Malik (Shauki) and Adnan Jalil (AD). Now a lot was expected from this team since they had a bad last week playing together. Shamyl was keen on changing the line-up, rightly so, and one was looking forward to a better performance.
High for MP, big in confidence from last Sunday's mega win. Not a single bad chukker between all the four players, all mounted well.
High for Newage, Gaston Moore is not playing, has to be a confidence boosting factor, mark well and the game should be a clincher.
Let's see how the game went.....
What a thriller that nearly went right down to the wire. 2 goals a piece in the 2nd chukkar, 3 goals a piece in the 3rd chukkar, 4 all in the 4th and finally Newage edging out Master paints to clinch it 6 to 4. Well played both teams. Vieri tried his best on new horses, as he wasn't used to them, but the difference today was Santi and Shamyl. They combined well together with Santi always attacking and Shamyl, almost always solidly defending. We saw some daredevil display of Santi out of the saddle, sitting on the horse's neck and playing a shot.....spectacular!!
4 goals by Santi and 2 by Shamyl with Shauki and AD contributed well with some good runs to gain yardage. Valiant effort by Master Paints all round but it was expected that there will be gaps, specially when a new player comes in.
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| Santiago and Vieri, Photo by H.R.K. Niazi |
Newage riding high on this win and top their pool a the moment. Their next game is a tough one against Pakistan Army tomorrow. They'll treat that as a semi final, cause if the win.... its the final for them.
keep logged in to see how the day goes tomorrow.
cheers,
Agha
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