Jonathan Munro Ford’s Black Eagles continued their run of winning form by capturing the Fox and Hounds Social Cup at Guards Polo Club last Sunday. The Black Eagles narrowly defeated Kassem Shafi and Vivek Rawal’s Shalimar/Tashan Polo team 7 1/2-7, thanks to the Eagles’ half goal handicap advantage, which they received at the start of the match. Jonathan received the Social Cup from Mr Haim Perry, the owner of the Fox and Hounds pub and restaurant, situated just outside Windsor Great Park at Bishopsgate and the new sponsor of this popular 10-goal tournament at Guards Polo Club.

There was not much to call between the two teams in the first half of the match with Shalimar/Tashan Polo claiming a slight advantage, 4-31/2, at half time. Black Eagles stepped up a gear in the second half though, scoring four goals to only one in reply from Shalimar/Tashan. Three of those Eagle goals came from the stick of Australian six-goaler Rob Archibald. It now looked as if the Black Eagles would fly away with this game as they have done many times this season already. However Shalimar/Tashan Polo had other ideas and incredibly, the Eagles failed to score in the final chukka at all. Although Shalimar/Tashan dominated the last seven minutes of this game, they had scored only two further goals when the bell rang to herald the end of the match – not enough to level the scores and ensure an extra fifth chukka. 

The subsidiary final was a very different affair. Mo Sheikh’s BHC Polo team defeated the Puro Fox and Hounds squad 6-2. Juracy Santos and Tom de Bruin, who last played on the Queen’s Ground in July as a member of the South African team in the Coronation Cup, scored in the opening chukka, giving BHC Polo a two-goal lead which they built on during the rest of the game. Puro Fox and Hounds failed to score at all in the first half and only two goals in the second half ensured victory for Mo and his team.  

Black Eagles: Jonathan Munro Ford (-1); Jack Hyde (-1); Jonny Good (5); Rob Archibald (6). Shalimar/Tashan Polo: Vivek Rawal (-1); Kassem Shafi (0); Hissam Ali Hyder (6); Vieri Antinori (5).

BHC Polo: Mo Sheikh (0); Gabriel Santos (0); Tom De Bruin (6); Juracy Santos (4). Puro Fox and Hounds: Giampaolo Guarnieri (-1); Christian Langaard (1); Manual Plaza (4); Marcos Araya (6).

Haim and Carol Perry of the Fox and Hounds Restaurant with the winning Black Eagles team  (Images of Polo)