Tue 24th Jan 2017Joe Barry Memorial FinalLa Indiana defeat Mt. Brilliant
On Sunday 22 January, the crowds at International Polo Club, Palm Beach witnessed a true match of two halves in the Joe Barry Memorial Final. La Indiana, finalists in the 2016 Queen’s and Gold Cups in the UK, formed a staggering and ultimately insurmountable attack upon Mt. Brilliant. Although Mt. Brilliant were the first to chalk up a goal on the scoreboard with a penalty 2 conversion from Jason Crowder, La Indiana railroaded Mt. Brilliant into submission with a staggering seven consecutive goals, with Mt. Brilliant only able to add one more goal to the scoreboard by the end of the second chukka. With the scores reading 7-2 at the start of the third chukka, some may have expected La Indiana to offer some mercy, but the relentless goal scoring continued until the half-time whistle with the scores reading 11-2 in favour of La Indiana. However, Mt. brilliant weren’t about to go down without a fight, and although the scores were more of a trickle than a flurry, their teamwork resulted in a 13-6 score moving into the sixth and final chukka. With all to play for and a seven goal deficit, Mt. Brilliant finally found their stride with four goals from Crowder closing the gap to just 13-10. Sadly for Mt. Brilliant it was too little too late and with no more goals crossing the backline, La Indiana claimed the 2017 Joe Barry Memorial Trophy with a final score of 13-10. After the match, La Indiana’s Jeff Hall commented, “We played really well for three chukkas. We knew that at 11-2 stuff starts to unravel. It’s hard to stay focused even though we were trying to tell ourselves 0-0 every chukka”. At the presentations, La Indiana’s Mike Azzaro was named Most Valuable Player and the Best Playing Pony was named as Africano, ridden and owned by Raúl Colombres. Next-up on the US circuit is the last of the 20 goal tournaments, The Ylvisaker Cup, where six more teams will join the existing eight teams which have already competed for the Joe Barry Memorial and Herbie Pennell Cup. Joe Barry Memorial Trophy Final Teams: La Indiana (20): Michael Bickford (1), Raúl Colombres (6), Mike Azarro (6) & Jeff Hall (7) Mt Brilliant (20): Bo Goodman (1), Jason Crowder (6), Santiago Chavanne (7) & Julian Daniels (6) Photograph: La Indiana, winners of the 2017 Joe Barry Memorial Trophy. By David Lominska/polographic.com |