SUPA Tri-Nations

Over the 24 – 25 March, Polo Wicklow hosted a SUPA Tri-Nations tournament, which saw England, Ireland and Scotland compete to take home the title. Polo Times heard from Alice Walsh, part of the SUPA England team, “The teams played against each other twice over the two days, adding pressure to each chukka. The level of polo was so clean that it meant the umpire only interrupted the game a couple of times per chukka. On the first day, Friday 24 March, England started the tournament against Scotland. There were plenty of tough ride-offs as the Scottish showed off their strong riding abilities, however we managed to win 4-½, setting us up nicely for the next day. Afterwards, we played Ireland and we won 4-1 in an open game with plenty of clean runs back and forth down the arena.

“On the second day, each team fought extremely hard and the level of polo stepped up even further. Our first game against Scotland was great to play, James Whiteford defended well shutting us down whenever we tried to get away. The Final between England and Ireland was incredibly tense. Ireland had a strong, well-rounded team that worked like clockwork and being on their home ground, the crowd was cheering them on. Two penalties executed beautifully by Jock Thompson, alongside three field goals brought the Irish up to a dangerous 5 goals against 6 with two minutes to go. It was a nail-biting experience, however I scored a penalty shot which was shortly followed by a lovely nearside backhand by Sam Boreham to secure the win for England, 7-6. Team England maintained a high level of effort which shone over the days.” Full team lists plus more details from the weekend will be included in the May issue of Polo Times.