Second Polo Game Draws Crowd

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30289, 15 November 1963, Page 19

Second Polo Game Draws Crowd

The first part of the new embankment was crowded for the first time today when the polo match began. Every vantage point around the ground was taken up, and a cameraman hung from the veranda outside the secretary’s office. Thousands of excited spectators looked ready to adopt polo as the national sport as their heads switched, pingpong fashion, from one end of the ground to the other fallowing the play.. The ground had dried out to an extremely fast surface, and the ball travelled very well. • The Waikato team beat the Hawke’s Bay team by seven goals to two. and the score reflected Waikato’s greater accuracy and teamwork. Experts agreed that Hawke's Bay seemed a bit off its game yesterday and could easily come back very well for the third match today. The first day’s match was drawn. Even laymen could see that the polo ponies—which are clean-bred animals bought from racing stables—were following the game as closely as their riders. They watched the ball like cats after a mouse, and even kicked it in the right direction at times. “Riding off,” or pushing another horse away from the ball, is a perfectly legal manoeuvre which was used to advantage by several players during yesterday’s game. The only rule is that the angle of approach to the other horse must be nearly parallel.

The two polo teams of three men each have 14 ponies with them, and the same ones were used yesterday as on the first day. Frequently the white willow, ball hit a pony's leg, but without any apparent harm. Between the hock and the fetlock, where the leg bone is close to the surface, the ponies were heavilybound and bandaged, and the knee and upper leg is said to be covered with enough flesh to give adequate protection. In the first chukka Archie Kay and Tony Kay each scored for Waikato. Tony Kayscored again in the second chukka and Jock Mackenzie scored Hawke’s Bay’s first goal. Another goal was shot for Waikato by Tony Kay in the third chukka and he shot two more in the fourth chukka. In the last chukka Archie Kay again scored, and Mackenzie shot Hawke’s Bay’s second goal.