Complacency costs the 2^nd team dearly.

Southampon 2nds: 16 – 21 Basingstoke firsts

Last Sunday the second team travelled to Basingstoke for the Hampshire league handicap tournament. Half of our players had already played to exhausting games for the 1sts and so we were up against it. This didn’t stop the first quarter being the best in SUWPC history, at least in my 4 year memory. Remembering this was a side who did the double on our firsts last year, we were scoring for fun. EVERYONE got on the team sheet, with screamers, stags, back shots and of course komodo dragons flying in. The highlight has to be Lawrences hat-trick. Not content with a lovely lob from the half way, he backshotted from his goal line and thinking it could get no better scored a Zlat from a 2m throw!

Unfortunately our tired legs began to show with us being broken several times ending the first quarter 15-5.

I think the only explanation for what came next was that as a team we became complacent. The next 3 quarters went by with Basingstoke scoring 16 for only 1 in return, a lovely shot from Drew from a man up. The reasons for this were many not only did they have a great pit man who left myself, rodger and perry on 2 majors quite early on (Perry’s mention of failing his final 105kg squat only seemed to give them more confidence) but also that tired legs meant they were able to break with alarming regularity.

The match finished 21-16, Again this is a tournament we have failed to make it past the first round but that is invariably won by the top teams in league 1 questioning whether a handicap tournament can work in polo when a better team can dominate a lesser team so easily.

Man of the Match – Drew, despite Lawrence’s hat-trick

Major kings

Perry -2
Ben -2
Rodger -2