Polo and More, Barbados 2014 Issue 9 | Page 73

& More 2015 such as “A Night at the Races”, which was staged at various hotels on the Island and consisted of the showing of thoroughbred horseracing on film. Guests of the hotels were invited to wager on these races; this provided entertainment to tourists and revenue to the Club.” A Night at the Races” for some years was the Club’s main method of fund raising. Since the Club has found many other novel ways to raise funds, including a charity Golf tournament and most recently a polo tournament. With funds raised from these projects, its outreach extends much further into the local communities where they work. 2014 was the second running of the Rotary West Polo Challenge, and Scotiabank once again stepped up to the plate as the title sponsor. Also in support were sponsors Solaris Energy, Platinum Bay and Columbus. The 300 strong VIP enclosure had a Mardi Gras theme and the colourful greens, purples and gold, the traditional Mardi Gras colours, were the perfect foil to the some-what inclement. The main match of the afternoon saw title sponsors Scotiabank Barbados take on Platinum Bay, a team of visiting players from the UK. This Final was the culmination of a 3 match series between these two teams. The visitors and Barbados equally had one game under their belt, so whoever the winner was of this final game, would also be the series champion; with Silverware at stake, the pressure was on from the get go. Starting with a ½ goal advantage, the visitors threw down the gauntlet and got off to an impressive start scoring a goal within moments of the throw in; as they took the ball from off the boards for an easy conversion. Barbados was keen to not let the advantage get too far ahead of them, and kept the pressure on. With a ½ goal in the game a winner was assured at the end of regular time. Alex Cole scored the go ahead goal for the home side as the pace heated up; he made light work of a 30-yard penalty awarded to Barbados in the dying moments of the first chukker. But Platinum Bay responded with a 30 yard conversion of their own. Barbados again got some breathing room when Cole stepped in again to crack home a 60-yard penalty high over the defence to give Barbados their fourth goal. The tough battle in the third chukker saw the teams attempts at goal missing their mark repeatedly, until CB Scherer of Platinum Bay got a close range penalty and made sure he closed the advantage once more. This was the only goal of that chukker, and once again only a ½ goal separated the teams; this pesky ½ goal kept haunting Barbados would it end up being their nemesis. The fourth and final chukker saw Platinum Bay come out all guns blazing, as CB Scherer scored again for them at the start of the chukker, Barbados now had some work to do if they intended to take away top honours. They eventually found the answer in the form of the new President of the Barbados Polo Club Wayne Archer, who turned in an impressive last chukker performance to be the winning catalyst. His tally started when he pounced on a ball driven down the field by Oliver Williams; with two more touches of his mallet he sent the ball sailing through the uprights. However with only a ½ goal advantage in their favour 5-4½, the Scotiabank Barbados team could not breathe easy just yet. Archer gave them some breathing room when he put his second goal of the chukker home. This goal ensured there was no come back for Scherer and his Platinum Bay side. As the clock ticked down, they seemed to have lost that intense gusto that had carried them through the first 3 chukkers. Barbados was like the wind eventually that sucked the wind out of their sails. Scotiabank Barbados ran out the eventual winners 6-4½ Above: The interior collage of the Mardi Gras themed VIP Marquee Above: The victorious Scotiabank Team of Alex Cole, Oliver Williams, Wayne Archer and Roddy Davis with their Platinum Bay opponents and friends 71