Champions!

I developed a fever and when I started shaking on the way to the club I decided to sit out the semi-final against Thai Polo. Hayudin (Halim) played in my stead and had a good game. The guys overcame Thai Polo by a goal. There was the usual second half loss of concentration, allowing Thai Polo to draw level on 6-6, but it was an 8-7 final score in favour of Royal Selangor. Mohamed was also fighting a fever and had played on anti-biotics. He wasn’t certain for the final. Having missed the semi, neither was I. Especially the way I was feeling.

I was really sick on Thursday night. All Friday was spent in bed, trying to sweat the fever off. I emerged only for breakfast and dinner. Even on Friday night I rated my chances as less than 50% of playing the next day. I was feeling pretty awful. I told the team I didn’t think I could play and they should plan the team tactics around my replacement, who would be either Halim or Nattapong. Mohamed however had other ideas. He told us all we were a team, and that if I could play, I should, that we would win or lose as a team. Having got that far, none of us wanted to lose.

Saturday morning I thought I had beaten the worst of the fever. I took some more of the meds in the morning, had another sleep before going to Harald’s lunch. It was quite an affair, with lots of great food. I had to force myself to have half a small bowl of spaghetti. Those of you who know me know how out of character this is, because I usually can always eat.

Nat was kitted up and standing by for me for the final. My plan was to warm up and see how I felt. With live TV, our time schedule got shortened and my warm-up ran straight into the introductions. So I was on. I had hardly had a minute of warm-up, yet I had sweated completely through my clothes. During the intros I was sweating so much I had to wipe the sweat from my protective glasses.

Then we were playing and the adrenaline took over. I said to myself I’ll see how I feel after the chukka, and leading 2 1/2 to 1, I was feeling pretty good. After the second we had a long half time as the spectators did a tread-in. After the third Nat gave me a thumbs up and said “You are doing good.” And I didn’t want to upset the team flow by stepping down then. So it was all the way to the end.

What a final chukka it was. I took Brook out for her second chukka, the second time I had done it this tournament. I knew it would be my last chukka on her at this level of polo. She had already played a massive chukka for me earlier in the game. I needed her one last time. Chino Estrada was firing Indonesia forward and we spent most of the chukka defending desperately. Brook got me to the ball on two occasions that I could make big clearances. This is one horse that has earned her Cool Performer the rest of her life.

The good thing about us is that we defend as a team and when we attack, we attack as a team. It felt great when we scored, because we knew even Chino didn’t have the time to bring Indonesia back from that.

We’d done it as a team. With Shaik, Edham and Mohamed, we are a team without Argy imports. We are a team without high goalers. What we had was team-work and that we really played for each other. When Mohamed asked me if I would play with him in 2007 I really thought he was joking. The season before he had played with Juan Roman, an Argy 4 goaler. I was Juan’s replacement? It took about two months before I started to realise he was quite serious. We played the 2007 season as BRDB but perhaps fittingly, when we won the Thai Polo Open we were called Royal Selangor Polo Club, where we all play our club polo. Mohamed is also President of RSPC and Shaik and I are committee members. We are a team.

Into the Thai Open Semis

Despite the 1/2 goal loss to Singapore we still snuck into the semi-finals on goal difference just ahead of Royal Pahang. There was a lot of drama at the Thai Polo Open on Tuesday as teams fought for a place in the semi-finals.

It was a hard fought game against Singapore. The main umpire, Jason Dixon, who had flown in from UK specially to umpire this tournament, decided to move everything up a penalty after a few incidents in the first chukka. I do mean everything. Something that would normally get moved to the centre of the field became a 60 yarder. If it was possibly a spot hit or maybe a 60 could end up getting called a 40. And it was for the whole match, not matter that we felt we weren’t the ones who started the trouble. We borrowed Nattapong Pratumlee from Thai Polo to stand in for Dato’ Moiz, who could not make it back from business in KL.

Frederico von Potobsky was very lucky not to be ejected from the game, not only for his bad sportsmanship in trying to bait Nattapong who he had knocked over a few years ago, but also for his blatantly dangerous ride-off on Edham. It was the worst ride-off I have ever seen in my life. The umpires called not only a Penalty 1, but instead of a throw-in in front of the goal, they used their discretion to award a further 30 yarder. In my opinion, regardless of the Penalty 1, Frederico should have been sent-off for the ride-off on Edham at the end of the 2nd chukka. Singapore came back to win it, with goals from Frederico in the final minutes of the last chukka, which didn’t give us any sense of justice.

Regardless, we are through to the semi-finals, playing Thai Polo today, which should be a breath of fresh air after the last game. Indonesia plays Singapore in the other semi, so we have teams from four countries contesting for the two places in the final on Saturday.

The Thai Open has grown from what was a friendly weekend away at the Mercedes Card B Grimm Cup in 2006 to become the most prestigious tournament to win in Thailand. That seven teams from five countries are contesting for it attests to this. Most have brought their own ponies and have flown in top pros like former England captain Andrew Hine, Argentinean 6 goalers Chino Estrada, Gines Bargalo and Eduardo Anca.

Speaking of ponies, I am very happy with the way my ponies look and play. Djakarta has gone back to Malaysia, returned with thanks to the Millers who so generously loaned him. Trinity is back with Asad’s team Jogo Polo, and Mia is standing by for Yeo Kuo Lee in the Singapore team. But Nata is looking and playing very well for me, as it Brook. The Cool Performer feed project has been such a success that I want you all to know. It’s made in Malaysia and has proven itself without a doubt as a high quality feed, if not the best available. And cheaper than the next best option. If you aren’t using it, you’ve really got to ask yourself why not.

Brook is such a warrior. She had to play 2 whole chukkas on Tuesday as Nattapong had to use my 4th pony as he had trouble with one of his. Brook battled all the way through it, still galloping and taking out ponies long after she had any right to do so. And despite her worn out legs, she has pulled up well. She spent the night in a paddock after the game and with a lot of ice, her legs is as well as can be expected. I exercised her this morning and can’t believe it, she is raring to go again. It is my farewell tournament on her at this level, so I know that every chukka I play on her could be my last. I shall miss her in tournaments as she is such a tough horse with the biggest heart I’ve ever encountered. I shall retire Brook for good at the end of this season. Then we’ll see if we can get some Brooklets from her.

Back in Pattaya

I’m back in Pattaya, Thailand, playing the Mercedes Benz ~ Credit Suisse Thai Polo Open 2008. And I’m back playing with the team I played with all of last season, BRDB. In this tournament Dato’ Mohamed Moiz, Edham Shaharuddin, Shaik Reismann and myself are known as Royal Selangor. We all play our polo at Royal Selangor Polo Club, so we are happy with that. After having been soundly thrashed by Shaik and Mohamed in the SEA Games, I’m happy to be playing with them again and not against them.

In our opening game on Saturday we beat Jogo Polo 8 – 5. Co-patrons Asad Jumabhoy and Quzier Ambak brought in 6-goaler Gines Bargalo from Argentina and borrowed 2-goaler Manuel Cereceda from Thai Polo.

New boys Indonesia sprang a surprise by edging Royal Pahang 5½ - 5 with a goal in the last few seconds of the game. Chino Estrada (+6) and Qublai Alam (+4) stood out for Indonesia.

Harald Link’s Thai Polo made mince-meat of Hamburger, forgive the pun, walloping them 10-4. Andrew Hine and Juan Crespo were the stars for Thai Polo.  Singapore started their campaign on Sunday with a 6 – 4½ win over Jogo Polo, relegating Jogo to the round robin plate competition that starts on Thursday for the bottom three teams.

Today Indonesia plays Hamburger, Thailand plays Royal Pahang and we play Singapore Polo Club. It won’t feel strange at all playing against my SEA Games team-mate Satinder Garcha as he is the only Singaporean on the team. The others are Sattar Khan, now playing very well off 4 goals, Scott McCreary, and they have a very worthwhile Polo Escapee in Frederico von Potobsky, who plays well beyond his +3 rating. At stake is a place in the semi-finals of the Thai Open, which will be played this Thursday, with the finals on Saturday 12th January.

Penang Beach Horses

We took the family for a short holiday to the Lone Pine on Batu Ferringhi beach, Penang over New Years. While we were there The Star ran a story about a boy who was injured by a horse on the beach. It caught my attention as I was there and I wrote something that I had originally thought I would run in this blog.

The horses on Batu Ferringhi are probably in better condition than we can find on some other beaches in Malaysia. Yet there is a need to look after their welfare. We have already experienced stunning work over the Sabah debacle. There seems to be a general reluctance of empowered organisations to actually do anything for the welfare of horses. Neither do they wish to see other organisations that can, do.

As I wrote it, I thought this matter needed the wider attention of the industry, therefore have run it in the news section of Equestrian.Com.My. If you haven’t yet read it, you can find it linked here Penang Beach Horses.