Guards Polo Club : Snake Bite Return To Take The Title Home

The 2017 runners-up Snake Bite were up against Tashan Polo in this year’s final of the Hildon Archie David Cup, played at the Guards Polo Club.
Maximilian Kirchhoff’s side made their intentions clear from the very first chukka, as they had put the scoreboard to 3-0 in their favour by the sound of first bell.

Tashan made several runs down the Queen’s ground, but failed to convert any of the chances. However, Daniel Otamendi did manage to open the scoring for Vivek Rawal’s side by the end of first half.

The opening chukka of the second half saw George Deverall of Snake Bite create several open spaces for his teammates David Ashby and Matt Perry. The latter added to their tally, but Otamendi pulled one back to keep it an open game. The scoreboard thus read 4-2 going into the final chukka.

In the opening few minutes of the fourth, Snake Bite extended their lead through a penalty. Tashan responded in a similar manner by scoring a penalty, only for Matt Perry to produce a shot at goal with a perfect blend of brilliance and vision. This gave his team a comfortable three goal cushion, with only few minutes remaining. (6-3)

Hamza Mawaz displayed an electrifying run down the ground to score. His effort however had no impact on the outcome of the game as Tashan ran out of time, thus eventually going down against Kirchhoff’s team by 6-4.
David Ashby was awarded the The Polo Magazine’s Most Valuable Player, while his
teammate Matt Perry’s ‘Biscuit’ was presented with the Best Playing Pony rug.

Snake Bite: Maximillian Kirchhoff (0); George Deverall (0); Matt Perry (5); David Ashby (3).
Tashan Polo: Vivek Rawal (-1); James Emlyn (1); Hamza Mawaz (3); Daniel Otamendi (5).

Final Score: Snake Bite (6) - (4) Tashan Polo
The subsidiary final played on the Duke’s Ground witnessed second consecutive Caterham Cup title for Mindi Byrne’s Tex8n Polo. They defeated Alexie Calvert-Ansari’s White Crane in a close encounter, by 9 goals to 8.

Tex8n Polo: Mindi Byrne (0); Kian Hall (2); Nicolas San Roman (3); Fabio Lavinia (3).
White Crane: Alexie Calvert-Ansari (0); Marcus Cork (1); Andrew Blake Thomas (3); Henry Fisher (4).

Final Score: Tex8n Polo (9) - (8) White Crane

Last Updated: 29 September 2022