2016 Lagos Polo tournament: All Lagos affair

 photo credit: klearpics

The sprawling city of Lagos once again, lived up to its billings as mammoth crowd enveloped the Lagos Polo club, Ikoyi as the 2016 NPA Lagos international polo tournament was consummated on Sunday, 21^st  February, 2014  after two weeks of exciting polo actions. It would be recalled that, the 2015 edition went moribund due to turnaround maintenances on the Ikoyi facility. However, the polo club resumed for action as Lagos socialites thronged into the Ikoyi facility to witness the 2016 edition of the tournament which was staged into 2 phase.

The first week of the tour saw polo teams from Lagos, Kaduna, Kano and nearby neighbour, Ibadan, all vying for Oba of Lagos cup, Dansa cup and Lagos open cup respectively.

The first stage of the 11-day tourney produced Kola Karim led shoreline as double champions as they clinged the Open Cup and Oba of Lagos Cup after beating Lagos Caverton and Lagos Ashbert respectively. In the Dansa Cup category, which produce fierce challenges, Lagos SAO Polo emerged the winner as they beat Lagos STL 5-41/2 in the finals. Ibadan Megamound and Lagos Ark Polo also win the Dansa and Open Subsidiary finals of the dual phase tournament sponsored mainly by GTBank and MTN.

The second phase which was the conclusive stage of the tourney came to an exciting end with Lagos Fifth Chukker winning the prestigious Majekodunmi Cup following a 15-7 victory over Lagos Ironclad/Trojan.

The day's other title clash in the 11-day tournament, mainly sonsored by MTN and GTBank, saw Lagos Aerovote defeated Lagos Zippy 5-3 to emerge champions of the Low Cup.

The Majek Cup played before a full crowd that include Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote, GTBank Managing Director, Segun Agbaje, among other dignitaries, saw Fifth Chukker (Adamu Atta, Babao Lawal, Manuel Crespo and Julio Nolito) opening the score through Crespo and he doubled the lead with a 10 yarder to close the chukka.
The second chukka was identical to the initial as a combination of poor finishing and desperate defending prevented further goals but it was Crespo, an eight goaler, again, who scored the games next two goals for a 4-0 lead.
Eduardo Menendez got Ironclad (completed by Tobi Edun, Kunle Tinubu and Frankie Menendez) off the mark with a 40 yarder right at the start of the third chukka but Crespo responded with another goal for a 5-1 lead. It was soon 6-1 as Crespo who was later named the MVP for the Majek Cup, scored a reverse shot to punish an uncleared ball by Ironclad. 

Eduardo scored to make the score 6-2 but Crespo was on hand to make it 8-2 with two more goals and it was 8-3 by the end of the fourth chukka as Eduardo scored a goal to keep his team on the game. The scoreline was 10-5 as Crespo and Eduardo and Tinubu scored in the fifth chukker. The last chukka witnessed more fireworks from Crespo, who spearheaded a magnificent display for a 15-7 triumph for Fifth Chukker.
With all the players fired up for glory, it was equally a great battle in the Low Cup between Aerovote  and Zippy.

Yerima Yusuf almost scored inside the opening 10 seconds but his long shot was cleared as Zippy held on to their two-goal handicap advantage.

With no field goal recorded in the opening chukka, the second chukka got off lively with Leroux Hendriks scoring to extend Zippy's lead but Martin Juaregi hits back for Aerovote taking the scores to 3-1. 

Amodu Umar finished a team play to reduce the deficit before Juaregi puts the ball over the line but the goal was not given due to an infringement on the line by the Argentine four-goaler.

Umar tied the match picking a long grounded pass from Juaregi and the match was delicately poise into the final chukka.

Juaregi, named MVP of the Low Cup, scored to keep Aerovote's nose in front for the first time in the match and he was on hand to widen the advantage for a 5-3 final score.

The first game of the day saw Team A (Tade Oyinlola, Adamu Yaro, Kenny and Ade Laoye - substituted by Lolu Agoro) beat Team B ( Muyiwa Shonubi, Seyi Oyinlola, Femi Oladele and Jamilu Umar) 4-3 for the Chagouri Bowl exhibition game sponsored by IHS.

The cup sponsors are Union Bank, Chapelhill Denhams, IHS, Arbico and Dansa.

The two-stage tournament was co sponsored by Interswitch, CS Clobal Partners, Eko Atlantic, Old Mutual, Samsung, Southern Sun, Veuve Cliquot, W8 Advisory, Lagos State Government, Pepsi, Brand Communication and Blowfish. Ebony TV and Hello Magazine are the media sponsors.

The complete story will be available in the fifth edition of poloplus magazine come April, 2016.
compiled by Christian Ogbonna and Lukmon Ologunro.