Mon 9th Mar 2015England triumphant in The Bryan Morrison Test Match The highest handicapped Arena International to date played between Ireland and England
The All England Polo Club, Hickstead played host to the highest handicapped International Test Match for The Bryan Morrison Trophy on Saturday 7 March in glorious spring sunshine. Supporters for all the teams turned up ready for a battle in the John Bunn Leisure Arena, with many chosing to sport wigs, fancy dress hats and even inflatable leeks and daffodils for their chosen team. The proceedings began with the 12 goal match between Wales Clogau and Ireland. The Welsh team (Ricky Cooper, Roddy Matthews and Roddy Williams) had a mountain to climb against the competitive Irish team (Richard Fagan, Niall Donnelly and Mikey Henderson). Both teams met at Horse Guards Parade last summer (Wales had a slightly different line-up with Pete Webb instead of Roddy Williams) where the Welsh were triumphant but it wasn’t to be this time. The game ended with a score of 20-9 to Ireland. Mikey Henderson had a great game and was awarded Most Valuable Player and his 15-year-old mare Smartie won Best Playing Pony. Hannah Henderson spoke to Polo Time’s about the pony at the presentation “ She has power, agility, great to handle and has a huge heart. Mikey likes to play her with the hand-break up and the accelerator down! She also played a lot in Megève this winter. Hopefully she will be playing with me in the summer.” The main match of the day between England (Johnny Good, Jamie Le Hardy and Chris Hyde) and Ireland (Ryan Pemble, Seb Dawnay and Richard Le Poer) began with great anticipation especially since the earlier game had boosted the Irish hopes, especially with the crowd gathered by the clubhouse. The game began with speed and skilful flair from both sides, but it was Dawnay who opened the scoring with a goal seconds out of the lineout. The game then looked to go down a very technical route with whistles, technicals and tumbles occuring. England trailed behind on the scores until the first change of ponies when Hyde managed to get the ball in the goal despite a strong cross-wind and the first chukka ended 4-3 to Ireland. The second chukka was very technical and ended with 9-5 on the scoreboard to Ireland. England really made the best of the third chukka to close the gap with some hard-fought plays to make it 11-9, but they still hadn’t managed to make it into the lead. Going into the fourth and Ireland had no opportunity to relax, with England coming out of the pony lines guns blazing showing that experience and skill were the winning formula. A couple of Penalty 1’s and a few two pointers from Hyde changed the game around to an English win of 18-13. Jamie Le Hardy was awarded Most Valuable Player and Richard Le Poer’s 13-year-old, bay mare, Dig Deep won the Polo Times Best Playing Pony. A full report will feature in the April issue of Polo Times. Photograph: England raise The Bryan Morrison Trophy for the sixth time. By Lucy Wilson.
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