Report by: Peter Gallagher (Media Sec)
Game: Southampton Men’s 1^st vs. USW (25/10/17)

Fresh off Wednesday’s win at home, SUWPC’s finest were eager to get another win and brought more than a full team, whereas USW only mustered only 8 players. So, it was always going to be a long game for them. The first goal of the game happened in the blink of an eye from Brian Culley, with three more to follow in the first two minutes of the quarter from Anton, Ali, and Brian scoring his second. The quarter played on, goal after goal being scored for our boys with two for Tom and a five-meter shot off a foul for Me. Luckily, USW didn’t seize their best opportunity at a goal with Anton being sent out and we ended the first quarter 9-0 up.

Following such a successful quarter, there was even mention of the elusive ‘Stag’ from Chris before the second quarter began… but we all know that’s never going to happen. Chris’ confidence was evident, scoring two backshots in the first two minutes; the second from five meters with Horlock looking on with the smile of a proud Father – Chris then subbed and decided it was time to retire from the pool as he’d reached his prime. The rest of the quarter brought goals from more of the team – Gautier, Jason, Neil, and Mark, ending the first half with an impressive 16-0.

As the third quarter rolled around, USW – with their team of 8 – were getting tired and their play began to slow. Unfortunately, so did ours. We became more reckless and took two majors – One for Me and Chris – which USW took advantage of, scoring their only two goals of the game, that we replied to with three goals. Amazingly, Phil King in goal got a major! Despite having our goalie sent out, we set up a solid defence as we thought that letting two goals during the quarter was enough charity with the scores for the quarter ending 3-2.

The final quarter was even slower than the third, with USW somewhat accepting their defeat. We ended up scoring another three goals in the final quarter with Sam getting his first of the match, bringing us to 11 out of 13 players scoring a goal and a final score of 22-2.

A special thank you goes out to David Evans and the Southampton University Photographic Society who took some incredible photos of both the Men’s and Ladies’ matches as well as USW for making the long journey to play us at 9 at night.

Polo love,
Peter Gallagher (Media Sec)

Final Score: 22 – 2

Player of the match: Chris Laurent

Goals:
T.Bragg – 2
A.Wakeling – 2
P.Gallagher – 2
G.Le Calvez – 1
J.Atwood – 2
C.Laurent – 2
N.McLoughlin – 2
A.Stephan – 3
M.Tuddenham – 1
B.Culley – 4
S.Wilmshirst – 1

Majors:
P.Gallagher – 1
P.King – 1
C.Laurent – 1
A.Stephan – 1