The British high-goal season began at Cowdray Park on Sunday 21 May, and the home-based El Remanso team set a marker for the summer by beating Murus Sanctus 11-8 in the final of the Trippetts Challenge, played for the James Wentworth Stanley Memorial Cup.
An all-English quartet
Seven teams entered the 2017 tournament, which is the first high-goal event in the UK calendar and a useful warm-up for the Queen’s Cup and the Gold Cup. El Remanso is Charlie Hanbury’s side, made up entirely of English players: Hanbury himself, Ollie Cudmore, James Beim and James Harper. With a combined handicap of 21 goals, they started the final with a one-goal advantage on the scoreboard.
How the final went
Cudmore scored almost straight away, Ulloa replied for Murus Sanctus, and by the end of the first chukka El Remanso had five goals on the board. Cudmore added a second early in the next chukka to make it 6-2, before Corinne Ricard, the Murus Sanctus patron, scored the first of her three goals. Harper then ran the ball from end to end for a goal that sent El Remanso into the break 7-4 ahead.
Beim and Hanbury extended the lead to 9-4 in the fourth chukka. Ricard pulled a goal back in the fifth, and Beim struck a 60-yard penalty to restore the five-goal gap at 10-6. Cudmore made it 11-6 in the final period, and although Ricard completed her hat-trick and Ulloa converted another penalty, Murus Sanctus could not close the gap. James Beim’s pony Kimberley took the Best Playing Pony prize, and Clare Milford Haven presented the cup to Hanbury.
Elsewhere at Cowdray
- Spring Cup (four goals): Maize Dulce came back from 5-2 down to beat Madams Farm 6-5, with Derreck Bratley scoring four goals in the last chukka.
- Barrett Cup (eight goals): Andrew Swaffield’s Alcedo trailed early but won 8-6½.
A team of four Englishmen winning the first big event of the summer is a nice storyline, and with the Queen’s Cup and the Gold Cup both to come, it will be interesting to see whether El Remanso can keep it going against the Argentine-heavy teams.
Sources: Sussex Express
