Match Report for BEDS Tournament

There is always much enthusiasm surrounding this tournament, and every year it produces some spectacular polo, an invariable mix of weather, as well as a lot of good banter between each university. This year was no exception, and the weather was perhaps some of the best for many a year.

And then there are the matches themselves! On Friday, the first teams into the arena were the Intermediate section, with Edinburgh and Bristol taking up the challenge. Edinburgh emerged victorious after a close fought game, and set the standard for our own team to follow. However, it seemed to be a bit high, as the St Andrews team were beaten both times, but strongly asserting their presence by getting on the scoreboard, with a fantastic goal by Tom Fieldhouse against Bristol as well as against Edinburgh.

Next up were the Beginners, and this time St Andrews were first in the arena against Edinburgh. Out they came with guns blazing, putting 2 goals past Edinburgh in quick succession, with Ed Bellamy and Dani Ward strongly making their presence felt. Our team then took a break to watch Bristol play against Edinburgh, which ended in a 1-1 draw, and left the team wondering where they could penetrate the attack. Out they came, and duly fought hard, but ended in a 2-2 draw. In spite of this, St Andrews were top of the table in this section, and having asserted their presence, were in a strong position for their remaining matches the following day.

Finally the Novices took their turn. Edinburgh and Bristol were up first, and Edinburgh took the game to Bristol and ran out the winners 3-1. Bristol stayed on to then play against St Andrews, who took the game one step further and punished Bristol 4-1, with Tom Locker stepping up to the challenge and controlling the game. The stage was set for an epic finale to the day, but Edinburgh were having none of it, and put 5 goals past our brave novice team.

Saturday saw the opening matches of the Open section, raising the level of polo hugely amongst all the players. Edinburgh was on first against Bristol, and it was a close fought match. Bristol was given a half goal start, and the first chukka went almost from end to end, with Edinburgh edging ahead by 4-3½. Bristol had all the work to do in the second chukka, but Edinburgh's defence held tight, and mid-way through the chukka, Edinburgh scored again.

But Bristol didn't drop their heads and kept up the fight, although they were unable to score again.

Next the beginners came back for the second time, and this time St Andrews put their foot down, beating Edinburgh by 1-0 and not letting anything get past them. Edinburgh then faced Bristol, with an enormous task to challenge for the lead, and thrashed Bristol 4-0. St Andrews came back out with only one thing in their mind - a win at all costs, and, through wonderful teamwork and excellent finishing skills, put 3 goals past Bristol.

Then came the second Open match, Durham vs St Andrews. With a 6 goal arena team, some looked upon the game as a damage limitation exercise, but with a handful of errors, and a little bit of bad luck, the result became inevitable. St Andrews were given a 4 goal start, and by the end of the first chukka, Durham were already ahead by 6-4. Giles Turcan set off like the wind at the start and hammered the pressure against Durham who held up magnificently against all the attacks. However, the second chukka was a different story. A catalogue of errors allowed Durham to put goal after goal on the scoreboard, save for a consolatory effort by Ralph Anderson at the end. Durham ran out the winners 12-5.

To end the day, the novices played again, with the bar set quite high for St Andrews to take the lead. Edinburgh pushed it even higher with a 5-0 win over Bristol to start, leaving the task seemingly daunting. St Andrews then played Bristol and won 2-1, and with the win boosting their confidence, came out to face Edinburgh for the final time. They took the bit between their teeth and fought courageously to a 3-3, at first putting the pressure on. Edinburgh fought back and were able to score 2 goals, then suddenly came a third. But the game wasn't over, and suddenly St Andrews scored again with seconds to spare, unfortunately not enough time to get one more.

Sunday saw the remaining matches of the Intermediate section and two gritty finals in the Open section on the most beautiful, sunlight autumn day. Edinburgh came out first and in a fast paced game put 4 goals past St Andrews, in spite of some very valiant efforts by Alex Reid and Stuart Hartley in maintaining the defence. St Andrews were fired up by their play and took the game strongly to Bristol, who having previously won 7-1 were taken aback by the ferocity of the St Andrews attack, who put 2 goals past them. But Bristol didn’t give up at all, and responded with 3 strong goals as the clock ticked down to the final whistle. Finally, Edinburgh came out to face Bristol, and without any hesitation, put 6 goals past them, with Dougie Munro running away from all three Bristol players and punishing their goal at every opportunity.

So came the first of the Open finals, St Andrews vs Bristol. Bristol were given a 2 goal start, but St Andrews didn't let it daunt them. With some superb marking by Rachel Keller and magnificent attacks by Giles Turcan, St Andrews piled on the pressure and levelled the scores to 2-2, but Bristol managed to get a cheeky goal past the defence and lead 3-2 at the end of the first chukka. Not to be outdone by this, St Andrews took the charge straightaway at the beginning of the second chukka with Ralph Anderson scoring perhaps the quickest goal of the tournament in the opening seconds. 3-3, and all to play for. Bristol were heavily pressured, and began to make mistakes and the penalties were awarded, but much to the disappointment of the crowd and St Andrews, none were put away. Bristol came back and put one more past the St Andrews defence, which valiantly replied with another goal to draw the scores level. However, a result was needed, and penalties were called. St Andrews went first, Giles Turcan stepping to the fore. His penalty went wide as cries of dismay came from the crowd. Bristol stepped up but were unable to reply. Next was Rachel Keller for St Andrews, who gave no quarter and smashed the ball right into the centre of the goal. 1-0 St Andrews! The pressure was on, and Bristol fluffed their second, as did St Andrews! Bristol stepped up to take the final shot, which just rolled wide, leaving St Andrews the winners by 5-4.

Finally, Durham came onto the pitch ready to take on Edinburgh, last year's winners. Matt Cudmore was the main target of the Edinburgh team, and he was completely marked out of the game by Tessa Johnson. However, this left Alec Houston free to run rings around the Edinburgh team, as he picked up on every loose ball to run it back to goal. Each goal of the match was answered by the other team, and since Edinburgh had a 5 goal start, Durham had all the work to do, ending the first chukka 8-5 in Edinburgh's favour. But Durham were not to be outdone, and both Alec Houston and Robbie Wilson slipped their defenders to set up goal after goal, putting 6 goals away in succession. Durham ran out the winners by 11-8.

Thus the challenge has been set for next year, and hopefully the standard of polo will continue to increase across the board.