Massive
infrastructural upgrade of the venue notably of which was the field
which is now lush-green necessitated the tournament to be put-off last
year but polo faithful were made to savour the return of the top-rated
tournament as they were treated to high-class actions.
The
first match of the day between Lagos STL and Ibadan Megamound was
postponed till Tuesday noon for technical reasons but it was fireworks
from then on as Lagos Powerhorse and Kano Titans size-up to hit the
ground running for the tournament which will hold in eleven days
sreading across two
weekends.
Powerhorse
started the Dansa Cup match with a two-goal up due to their handicap
inferiority but the Titans pecked them back with goals by Khalifa
Ibrahim and Hassan Fayad, who replaced Gambo Usman. Abba Bashir Dantata
shots Power horse to the lead once again not but the lead was wiped off
in a jiffy by Khalifa, a +2 handicap to close score in the first of the
five-chukka match 3-3.
Khalifa
took a stranglehold on the match as he scored all the four goals of the
second ckukka to give the away team a commanding 7-4 lead. He
continued to run the show scoring agoal each in the third and fourth
chukkas. The final chuka saw fellow+2 handicap Cantata scored a
brilliant individual goal for Powerhorse much to the delight of the
neutrals but it was Khalifa who took the praises as he closed the game
with a belly shot for a
12-4 win for the Titans.
A
memorable day for Kano teams was completed by Kano YY Sublime, who
defeated Lagos Tavia/Ironclad 12-4.5 goals in Match No 3. This time, it
was Manuel Crespo show as the +7 handicap Argentine scored 10 of his
side's goals in the Open Cup game.
Bowale
Jolaosho hits a low follow-up shot for the opening goal of the match
but it turns to be a goal that sparked YY's fury as Crespo converted two
60 yards kicks and topped it with a low shot just before the bell
sounds for the end of the first chukka.
Martinez
Jauregui, a +4 handicap, forced himself into the scorers list to
register the away team's seventh goal after Crespo had scored three more
goals in the second chukka.
The
enormity of the
task for Tavia/Ironclad was made Herculean as two more goals in the
third chukka widens YY's lead with the most memorable action of the
chukka saw Jauregui rode-off Marambio Cruz for Crespo to walk into the
goal for the coolest of finishes for a 9-2.5 goal lead for the Kano
side.
The
last match of the day, which was also in the Open Cup saw Caverton and
Ark Polo going neck-and-neck with scores at 4-4 as at the fourth Chukka
of the fourth match but Santiago Cernadas finished off a move which he
initiated to give Ark a slim advantage heading to the fifth chukka of
the all-Lagos encounter which ended in 6-6 to force sudden death.
Ark
will considered theirselves unlucky as Kayode Awogboro shot just before
the bell for what would have been the winning goal but it came off the
goal post.
That provided South African Enrique Leroux to ne the match winner as he converted a 40-yard 'golden goal' for Caverton.
Alongside the postponed STL and Megamound match, four matches are on the card on Thursday.
By Lukmon Ologunro
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