England falls to USA in Townsend International Polo Cup – Arena Polo (Part 1)
John Gobin scored six times and had an assist to carry US Polo Team to a convincing 15-9 victory over England in the historic John R. Townsend International Challenge Cup being contested at the Empire Polo Club in California. The players of USA displayed
speed, pace and command in overwhelming the visiting troika in the arena polo.
History
It was the fourth edition of the Townsend International Polo Cup, which had been played for the first time back in 1923 in United States of America. Only two teams, US Polo Team and England Polo Team partook in the crucial match, which is being contested
at the arena. Unfortunately, only three editions of the tournament have occurred so far. It was organised respectively in 1923, 2004, 2008 and the recent one in 2011.
Teams
The USA Polo Team was comprised of John Gobin, Tommy Biddle and Shane Rice as regular players, while Billy Sheldon as coach and alternate contender.
The England Polo Team consisted of Chris Hyde, Ryan Pemble and Sebastian Dawnay as regular participants, while Tarquin Southwell as coach and alternate player.
Match Summary
It was a fine day in the desert in which more than one thousand people witnessed the game under the shadow of chilly winds. The strikers of USA delivered an outstanding game on the field and methodically took English team down in the four-chukka of play.
It was a 26 goal handicaps tournament where both sides were at his best to show their skills. The resilient defender of the US Team through his artistry game kept the English strikers far away from the goals.
At the start of the game, the USA players wasted little time to ascertain that arena polo was started in their country back in 1876. They carried out numerous attacks and established their dominance on the field.
Tommy Biddle, the skipper of the US Polo Team, marked three goals and put his team ahead on the score-board. In a counter-offence, Ryan Pemble and Sebastian Dawnay scored one goal apiece and brought their team into the score net. The first round of the game
concluded with USA sitting on ahead with a narrow one goal lead, 3-2.
The second set of play was quite hard hitting and both sides fired back-to-back goals in a bid to acquire the lead in the game. A penalty-goal of USA was accompanied by a field effort from Biddle to expand the USA lead up to three points.
However, the strikers of English team were not sitting around, as Pemble and Downay marked a couple of shots which moved perfectly into the goal-post. In the very next minute, Gobin of USA stormed on English side and ran up another three goals to stretch
the lead up to five points. But, another England goal went up on the score-board from Chris Hyde to close out the period with USA hanging on to a commanding three goals lead, 8-5.
The trio of USA has not made any changes in the game plane and contested the chukka in same offensive way.
Article continued in England falls to USA in Townsend International Polo Cup – Arena Polo (Part 2)
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