‘Space and Style’ won the 2016 Samsung Kenya International six-goal polo tournament that was staged at the Nairobi Polo Club over the weekend. Royal Salute finished second.
The James Murray-captained ‘Space and Style’ comprised of Geoff Morely (1), Jenny Camm (0) and Chloe Spoerry (0) ended the tournament unbeaten, winning two of their matches and drawing one. The tourney was closely contested with winners being determined by fractions (F) on 10 of the 12 matches played.
Played over three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), and on a round robin format, Space and Style’ won their first game 4F-4 against Samurai. They also garnered a slim 6F-6 win over Royale Salute and drew 6-6 against Samsung on Sunday. After losing their first game 4F-5 to Royal Salute on Friday, Samsung (Buster Mackenzie 5, Jonathan Stichbury 1, Harry Stichbury 0 and Nikki Ngugi) failed to beat ‘Space and Style’ to defend the title.
Although the game flowed up and down the field in the duel pitting ‘Space and Style’ and Samsung, few balls crossed the back line between the goal posts. Jonathan scored first for Samsung in the first chukka before Morely equalised as Mackenzie notched a goal for Samsung to reclaim the lead with 2-1.
The second and third chukkas were somewhat marred by fouls from both sides and Kenya’s pro player Murray scored the second and third goals for ‘Space and Style’(2-3) as Mackenzie hit in Samsung’s a goal in the third chukka. Morely countered with two goals to settle the game at 4-5 for ‘Space and Style’.
The last chukka of the game was marked with terrific speed and tight defence with both outfits gunning for the coveted Six-goal trophy. Mackenzie’s double was not good enough to secure a victory, given Spoerry scored one in this chukka, ending the game 6-6.
MICT (Lorenzo Soriano 1.5, Rowena Stichbury 0, Jadini Nzomo -2 and Amani Nzomo -2) beat Sandstorm (Dom Grammaticas 1, Cindy Voorspury 0.5, Karim abbany -1 and Louise Roumeguere -2) on goal aggregate to win The Fat Hippo Cup.
Eugene Ngumbao, who turned out for Samurai, was feted as the most Valuable Player of the tournament as Murray-owned South African-bred mare ‘Blue’ was the Best Played Pony for the second year running.
“Blue is a wonderful pony and this weekend she has been superb on the pitch. I raced her severally in this tournament. She got the speed for the game,” said Murray.