TOURNAMENT REPORT

FIP WORLD CUP SNOW POLO TOURNAMENT:

South Africa played Argentina in the first semi final of the FIP World Cup Snow polo tournament. Argentina were instructed by the organising body to change their team line up due to an irregularity of one of their player’s handicap. He was substituted by a 6 goal Chilean so SA were under no illusions as to the enormity of their task.

The first two chukkas was all Argentina and it looked like the SA boys were shell shocked and out played in all departments. It was evident that Argentine wanted SA to play them at their game and ran the boys ragged resulting in a half time score of 4-0 to the Argentine. After a constructive team talk, South Africa came out firing in the third and brought the score back to 4-3 with no reply from the South Americans. A missed penalty opportunity would have squared matters - nonetheless it looked like SA could pull off an upset. 

Conditions in the last period were tough with the snow having become slushy making running polo difficult. Argentine scored giving them a two goal lead again but SA soon pulled this back and kept the pressure squarely in their opponent’s half. The Kings of polo eventually broke the shackles and managed a run away goal effectively sealing the match.

Losing so narrowly to the best polo playing nation in the world was no disgrace - South Africa is definitely becoming a force in world polo.

The second semi final between Hong Kong against England was won by the home team setting up a final between the Argentine and Hong Kong.

Sunday 3rd February dawned with heavy snow falling making conditions for the final difficult - especially with so much extra snow on the pitch. The organisers tried desperately to compact the snow using two big snow cats fitted with compactors at the rear but the snow was relentless and fell throughout the day. The encounter between the two teams never reached its full potential and ended with Hong Kong edging out Argentine by two goals.

England played South Africa for third and fourth place respectively with the Brits winning the encounter by two goals.