TOWN AND COUNTRY POLO CLUB NEWS: DECEMBER 2010
Strong season for Town and Country IC Frith 10 goal team
Hamish Kelly, Richard Rawlings, Andrew Williams and Brendan Fahey, enjoyed a strong season of 10 goal, winning five out of eight matches and two trophies. They narrowly missed getting into the Hector King final, losing in extra time to Marshall on the Saturday, but took home the subsidiary final’s King Cup.
Right: Town and Country IC Frith being presented with Windsor Annual trophy.
Inaugural Women’s Club Challenge to be re-scheduled
Following Glen Gilmore’s excellent women’s coaching clinic in September and a number of warm up tournaments, in which some of the players selected for the Club Challenge played in all female sponsored 0 goal teams, the Town and Country ladies were ready to take on the Kiwis when they arrived.
A welcome dinner hosted by Lisa and Brendan Fahey took place at their home on the eve of the visitors’ first match on Friday 22 October, against T&C White. The Aussie girls emerged victorious and another T&C win was clinched by the Blue team on the Saturday but, disappointingly, torrential rain overnight resulted in the cancellation of all Sunday polo. Arrangements will be made to reinstate the postponed match between Town and Country ICFrith and the South Island ladies.
Left: T&C members Katie Edmeades and Stevey Murphy
Town and Country members selected for Annual Women’s Internationa
Riverlands Polo Club held their largest ever Annual Ladies Tournament in November, with representative teams from the USA, Europe and New Zealand taking on team Australia (and one another). Town and Country’s Katie Grimmond was selected to play for Australia, with fellow club members, Victoria Doolin and Sarah Martin making it into the Europe team (to play alongside Nina Clarkin and Riverlands’ Billie Mascart). Heavy rain once again forced organizers to cancel all Sunday polo, other than the internationals, who were fortunate enough to play in glorious sunshine in the afternoon, albeit on a somewhat soggy field.
Team Europe took the trophy, having achieved decisive wins against all three nations. Sadly, Billie was absent from the presentation following a fall in the final seconds of the game that saw her admitted to hospital with concussion and shoulder damage. (Thankfully, her injuries were minor and she was released the same day.)
Right: Team Europe’s Nina Clarkin with Sarah Martin and Victoria Doolin
Annual Awards Dinner
A well attended annual awards dinner took place on Friday 12 November and celebrated the club’s strongest year so far. The following received accolades:
- Best and fairest: Ed Matthies
- Player’s player: Sarah Martin
- President’s trophy: Rob Ballar
- Most tournament wins: Ed Matthies
- Best turned out string of ponies: Marty Ingham
- Best pony: Dick Doolin's 'Lily'
- Best low goal pony: Marlene MacFarlane’s ‘Whisky’
President, John Patterson spoke about the rapid growth of the club, which he attributed mainly to the dedication and generosity of Lisa Fahey, who has worked tirelessly to enable the club to meet its objectives, serve its members and continue building on its success.
David Everdell entertained guests with a wonderful compilation of photos and video footage of Australian polo spanning the last eighty years. There were plenty of familiar faces and one or two voices: the film was accompanied by a soundtrack of thoughtfully selected tunes and polo commentary from a bygone era. An abridged version of ‘Australian Polo: Constant Evolution’ is available on DVD from David for just $50:
0428-990557.
Left: Marlene and Whisky
