POLO.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18912, 29 January 1927, Page 16

POLO.

ORBELL CUP SERIES.

YESTERDAY'S MATCHES. Yesterday, the second day of the Christchurch Polo Club's tournament, the opening series of the Orbell Cup games were played off at Hagley Park under ideal weather conditions. The competing teams and their handicaps were: — Christchurch A: Tahu Rhodes, D. Gould, B. M. D. Johnson, and G. Grigg (scr). Pareora: A. S. Elworthy, L. H. Orbell, H. Orbell, and D. Orbell (7 goals). Amuri: R. Gould, C. Macfarlane, L. Jamieson, and L. Macfarlane (10 goals). Christchurch B: R. M. Johnson, C. Deans. V. de Crespigny, and Vivian Stewart (15 goals). Mr G. Gould and Mr A. S. Elworthy were the umpires, and Mr J. G. Macdonald acted as timekeeper. Each game comprised six ahukkns of eight minutes each. Pareora (22 goals) v. Chri&tcliurcli B (15 goals). Tlic-rc was good polo in this match between Pareora and Christchurch B, but only in spells. For the most part the game was sticky, although the ball was running well. H. Orbell scored the first goal of . the match for Pareora, and then a strong attack, which looked as if the southerners would score again, was spoilt by a drive too far past the goal- The South Canterbury team continued on the attack, and two further goals resulted from their pressing tacti s. One was scored by Derek Orbell, and H. Orbell notched the other. There was no incident in the second ehukka, but shortly after the hit-off L. Orbell was dragged from his horse through his stick becoming entangled with that of an opponent, and the game was held up for a minute or so until he had recovered from his daze. The third chukka opened with Pareora knocking at the Christchurch goal. The Greens pressed hard, and fro a return shot L. Orbell took possession of the ball and nicked it between the posts. L, Orbell repeated this performance a few minutes later by chasing the ball downficld and scoring with a long shot. After a spell of play during which the Southern team were attacking strenuously, Pareora were awarded a fvee hit near goal, and A. S. Elworthy slipped the ball neatly through. L. Orbell registered another goal just before the call of time. At the end of the chukka Pareora were two goals behind the Christchurch tally. The dividing points wero made up in the first thrco minutes of the fourth ehukka, the second goal being scored by H. Orbell from a melee round the goal. H. Orbell scored again within a few seconds of time. The fifth chukka opened with Pareora attacking, and, Christchurch had added no points to their handicap. The southerners rushed the Christchurch goal several J .imcs, but many shots went wild, and only three goals wero scored in this chukka, despite the fact that the opposition had weakened. Straggling play predominated in the final chukka, and Pareora scored three goals with little difficulty, making the final score 22 goals to 15. 1 Christchurch A (18 goals) v. Amuri (14 goals). Amuri opened the first chukka of this game with a goal, and from then until the end of the game the pace was a fast one. Christchurch played better polo than they did even on the previous day, and their combination was splendid, while individual players showed up in brilliant flashes of play. Christchurch did not take long to get their revenge, and Johnson piled up three goals in rapid succession. The last of these was a beautifully clean drive from well outsido the posts. Amuri scored again before the chukka ended. Good polo was played in the second chukka, with hard galloping and sure hitting by both teams. The only goal in this chukka, so good was the defensive play of both teams, was one scored by Christchurch. Christchurch were awarded a penalty for crossing early in the third, and D. Gould goaled from the free hit. Shortly after, Grigg scored from a melee around hia opponents' goal-posts. Securing the ball well up-field, Johnson made a brilliant rush for the Amuri goal and scored a neat goal from a long hit. Another brilliant movement was that of Rhodes a few moments later; he dashed up the field at a gallop, lost the ball to R. Gould, but Johnson recovered it, and another goal was added to the Christ' church taly. D. Gould scored twice towards the end of the chukka. The fourth chukka opened with a splendid-ly-judged goal by Rhodes, and thei goals scored by Grigg and D. Goulc made Christchurch one up. Rogei Gould equalised by a clean goal scored from a quarter way up the field. Rhode; shone again at the opening of the fiftt chukka. He secured the ball from the hit-off, galloped after it, and scored wit! an accurate drivve. The_ Christchurcl team hovered round their opponents goal for several minutes before John son was able to score, and on tn< return, goals were notched by Grigg am Johnson again. D. Gould scored a nea goal at the close of the spell. The sixtl was a hard-fought chukka from the hit off to the bell, and only two goals wen scored, one for each side. D- Gould am Grigg were responsible for Christ church's goal, Gould-centring well an< Grigg shooting the ball through, an< then E. Gould scored for Amuri. Th Christchurch team were "four goals u] at the finish. The final will be played this after noon.