Success for inaugural tournament
On Sunday 15 March, The Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club hosted the National Junior Gold Cup and Silver Cup. In the Gold Cup, Asian Art Juniors trio (Raffi Brucker, Josh Hyde and Findlay Turner) ran the gauntlet against the New Forest Young Guns (Jacob Watson, George Williams and Rufus Burrell Thomas). A fast paced game saw some spectacular tactical play from young Raffi Bruckner on pocket rocket Totti and solid defence from Jacob Watson. Findlay Turner ultimately widened the gap dramatically with a succession of big shot two pointers. Ultimately with team Asian Art Juniors, sponsored by RCBPC patron Chris Brucker winning 13-3 and claiming two weeks training in Argentina with GA Polo Holidays as their prize.In the Silver Cup Final Neogem struggled to gain ground in the first half due to a key player experiencing pony difficulties, making for a difficult second half to recover.
Small But Mighty’s Matti Maldonado and Scarlet Picksey capitalised on this by pushing the goals through at a fast pace. Strong defensive work from Charlie Hipwood, who also scored five goals for Neogem in attack, but it wasn’t enough and Small but Mighty ran out the winners 14-10. The Most Valuable Players were Findlay Turner in the Gold Cup and joint MVPs in the Silver Cup for Charlie Hipwood and Matti Maldonado (Maldonado was the highest scorer of the Silver Cup with seven goals). Lola, owned by Oxford Polo and played by Hector Rogberg was the APSPH Best Playing Pony.
Photograph: Asian Art, winners of The National Junior Gold Cup. By Nicola Blakely