Simon Holley and his talented Asprey London team retained the Autumn Nations Trophy on the last day of the 2011 season. They defeated Stefan Sund’s Lost Boys 6-3 in an exciting final on The Queen’s Ground which produced some great polo over four chukkas. In fact, Asprey London’s Chris Hyde, who was later named The Polo Magazine’s Man of the Match, described the entire tournament as “the toughest 12-goal tournament we have played this year”. 

There was not much to choose between the two teams in the first half of the game, but Asprey London dominated the second half. Hyde successfully converted a penalty just before the bell which gave Asprey London a two-goal advantage going into the final minutes of the game. With the Lost Boys failing to find the flags in this fourth chukka and Hyde scoring once more, it was enough to ensure that the Autumn Nations Trophy could remain on Holley’s mantlepiece for another year.  

Chris’s team-mate Jonny Good stepped up to receive the Best Playing Pony prize for his English Thoroughbred mare Minnie, whom he had played in the first and fourth chukkas. This retrained racehorse is no stranger to the presentation arena at Smith’s Lawn though, as back in July she was given the Best Retrained Racehorse Award of  Cartier International Day.

The subsidiary final went to Mo Sheikh’s BHC Polo, who defeated Spencer McCarthy’s Emlor 5-4.

Asprey London: Simon Holley (0); Jonny Good (5); Chris Hyde (6); Edward Morris-Lowe (1). Lost Boys: Stefan Sund (0); Matt Perry (2); William Emerson (5); Peter Webb (5).

BHC Polo: Mo Sheikh (0); Nick Pepper (3); Roddy Williams (5); Juracy Santos (4). Emlor: Spencer McCarthy (2); Martin Fiol (4); Nacho Gonzalez (6); Alex Jacob (0).