The“Candido da Rocha Memorial Cup” was donated by Dr.Oladele da Rocha Afodu an ex-Oxford University and ex-Cambridge University Polo player. He is the first and still the only African polo player to have played in either or both University teams.
Dr. da Rocha Afodu’s maternal grandfather was the late
Candido da Rocha, born in Bahia, Brazil on October 3, 1867 to
Joao Esan da Rocha and Louisa Angelica da Rocha. Joao was of
Ilesha (Yorubaland) extractions.
Candido attended CMS Grammar School, Lagos and became
“Head Boy” in his final year at the school. Candido da Rocha
was a highly respected and very wealthy merchant and
financier in Lagos. He had a great passion for horses and
founded the Lagos Racing Club in 1891. He owned a horse
named “Vampa”, that won all racing distances. Vampa was a
male horse and his most memorable win was the Lagos Cup,
presented by the Honorable Humelever, the son of Lord
Leverhume, proprietor of UAC on his visit to Lagos in 1921.
Candido da Rocha died in 1959. At the time of death, he had
twenty descendants, however only Dr. Oladele da Rocha Afodu
developed an interest in horses.
Sometime in the mid 1970’s, Dr. da Rocha Afodu presented the
Candido da Rocha Memorial Cup for competition, to be played
between the Lagos Polo Club (where he has been a member
since 1958) and the Ibadan Polo Club (where he had been a
member between 1960 and 1962, when he practiced as a
Doctor to the University College Hospital, Ibadan). He has been
the most senior Nigerian polo player of the Lagos Polo Club and
he is also the first Nigerian polo player from the whole of
Southern Nigeria
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