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Adam Deane takes Johnny
Coddington to task
& More 2015
he month of March brought thundering hooves
and lightning pace to the polo fields of Barbados
as the Cheshire Polo Club made their annual visit
to the island for the 2014 Hyundai Cheshire Tour. Amidst
the excitement of the running of the 2014 Sandy Lane
Gold Cup, equestrian prowess took centre stage as
horsemanship and polo skills were on display in a four
game series which pitted the visiting Lime sponsored
Cheshire Polo Club against the Hyundai Barbados team.
Some of Barbados’ finest companies lent their support
to the continuance of this four decade old Cheshire
tradition. The sponsors for the 2014 tournament were
title sponsor Hyundai with LIME, Courtesy, Evian,
PBS, Mount Gay, and Mix 96.9 FM.
Speaking at a media briefing at Courtesy Garage,
Howard Taylor one of the Cheshire stalwarts who has
been making the pilgrimmage to the island for over 20
years, said that “we have brought a cadre of players all
of whom are from the Cheshire Polo Club, this is the first
year we are fielding only players from Cheshire and did
not have to subsidize with players from another club.”
With eight players of varying handicaps to pick their
combination from, Cheshire has afforded the organisers
the opportunity to give more members of the Barbados
Polo Club a chance to play against them.
Leading the visitors this time around was 4 goaler
Oliver Taylor a fixture on the island during the season,
Vicky Deane on the ball with Richard Gooding in
support for the Hyundai Barbados Team
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he was ably supported by Charlie Walton, Johnny
Coddington, Henry Smith, Maxine Farnsworth,
Steve Jones, Lucy Taylor and Fergus Scholes,
who made up the rest of the touring party. Fergus
had made his way to the Caribbean in a rather non
traditional way, having rowed across the Atlantic.
This member of the Cheshire team had just completed
an epic journey to the islands, in a row boat, with
three other polo players. Scholes had teamed up
with Bobby Melville, Henry Brett and James
Glasson for the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge
and won their division as they completed the 3,000
nautical mile rowing feat from La Gomera in Spain
to Antigua in 48 days. (Read all about this in this
year’s “Postcards from the Edge”)
The four match tournament began on Sunday
March 2 with a 7-Goal contest at the Barbados Polo
Club at Holders, with the Hyundai Barbados team
of Jaime Dickson, Adam Deane, Marc Atwell and
Rhys Odle defending the home turf. They squared
off against Oliver Taylor, Charlie Walton, Johnny
Coddington and Henry Smith. A slightly wet field
did damper the polo festivities and the first game of
the evening was cancelled in order to preserve the
turf for the first of the four historic clashes.
The visitors held the early reigns of the game, and
launched wave after waves of attacks. Even though
they notched up the first two goals in the first chukker
thanks to Charlie Walton and Johnny Coddington,
one wondered if they would live to regret a number
of missed opportunities in the opening moments of
the game on the slightly damp field.
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