London International 2013

And here is another Polo The Consequences post, its been a long time and now we are reporting the London International held in Bexleyheath. Cardiff had both a men’s and a lady’s team in this year, in the second and third divisions respectively. However as I find it hard enough to remember the games that I play in, there is no chance of me giving any detail of the girl’s games. For that you will have to chat to them.

We drove down (Morgan, Matt, Max and I) on the Friday evening, arriving at Danson Park (the venue) nearing 22:00 and slammed the tent up before heading to the marquee to have a couple beers before bed. This was nice and chilled as we didn’t want to get on it too much due to the professionalism of our athleticism, but the real reason was because of the early morning the next day. Boy did it feel early, with the alarm going off at 07:00 we all got to the car and into kit. With Avon X as our first game, we got warmed up and as though no time had passed the game had begun.

The team

Although this was our first game, we managed to keep our composure with a tight defence and pulled through to a delicious victory. This got us into good spirits and prepared for the following game against Avon B, who were going to be slightly tougher. However when it came to playing them we didn’t perform as well. In fact we were sloppy. Albeit a tight game to start with, we were pushing and not getting things correct, which Avon were taking advantage of. This lead to our first defeat of the day.

An hour an a half break gave us time to reflect on this, and this was achieved by baking in the hot sun. The weather for the weekend was mixed between too hot and drizzle. A mix of bacon buns and chicken fajitas, put on by Meridian Canoe Club, were what got the team through to the Nomad A game. Nomad were clearly the best team in the pool, and this showed as they had beaten both Avon teams with ease. Although we were being shown how to play polo during the game, we managed to keep our basics right and gave Nomad a run (maybe more of a jog) for their money. With a close scoreline at the end, I can't tell you exactly what it was due to my failing memory when it comes to dull sports, we had at least not made fools of ourselves.

Max on the bottom, as he likes it

This run of games put us third in the pool, and therefore in the bottom half to play the rest of the losing teams. When perusing the final pool placings, one could tell that the top two teams in each pool were the elite athletes who were fit and strong. The bottom half of the division was made up of the type of people you would find in a Krispy Kreme five minutes before it closes ordering their twentieth donut whilst crying at their chubby induced loneliness. However this now gave us a chance to win some games and the Saturday evening we were set to play Viking B.

This match was much more up my street, with the game resulting in a victory. This would set us up for a good evening, as what really counts in life is winning the last thing you do so your short term memory is satisfied. During the day the girls team seemed to do well with some victories under their belt.

The Lady's team

Saturday night started with a tasty curry, and was swiftly followed by a few beers. In fact it was more than a few, with Morgan and I up last out of the team. This wasn't because we were having jovial times (although we were), it was because Morgan made a bet that he would be up last and I was there to back him up. However as it goes Morgan folded early, and went AWOL. So I skipped merrily off to bed hoping that tomorrow would never arrive.

However Sunday came crashing down with an almighty bang, and oh how it was not welcome. I felt hideous. Staggering to the car to get changed, every footstep felt as though a hefty german man has giving me a head massage with a mallet. This was not setting me up well for the first game, which happened to be against a team of Canadians. This was an older generation team to put it diplomatically, and therefore were not made up of the quickest players. However what they lacked in speed the easily made up for in technical ability, and this is where they schooled us. 2-0 up near the beginning of the game I think it is safe to say our team may have been feeling cocky. However this gave the Canadians something to exploit, and they did. The game finished with one goal in it and the Canadians ahead. This didn't help the still hungover feeling I had, and back to bed it was. A wake up call came from Max, which felt only about 10 minutes later, but I was told it was a few hours.

Now we were to play Clapham, and this consisted of one of Cardiff's former team:

2 * V for Verräter, because that is what he is twice over

So this was a grudge match of the highest proportion. Cardiff came out swinging and got ahead early. A bit of back an forth, but we kept the scoreline in our favour throughout the first half. With Clapham behind in the second, they pushed hard, but we picked them apart and went on to win.

The weekend was a good laugh, and although it wasn't the best of results I had fun and I'm sure will be back there again next year.