Valerie Halford Memorial Trophy
at Coworth Park, Monday 28 August 2006
Sponsored by Great Fosters Hotel
Valerie Halford died of cancer in 2001 aged 61. Valerie was a journalist in the Polo arena and her writing and photography took her around the world. Her first full time position in Polo journalism was with PQ International from 1993 -97, she left PQ behind to join John Goodman's team at POLO which lasted two years until it had to close as a result of a legal battle with Ralph Lauren. Valerie continued working up to a month before her death, with many of her polo acquaintances unaware of her illness. As a tribute, inspired by her brave fight with cancer, a number of professional players got together and announced a new tournament to honour her and Coworth Park was chosen as the venue.
The competition had both entertaining and high scoring league rounds leading to the final between last year's subsidiary winners Clarita (Black) and Ocho Rios (white)
Teams
Clarita: 1, C Matthias (0); 2, S Gairdener (4); 3, J Le Hardy (5) and Bk S de Estrada (6) - 15
Ocho Rios: 1, S. Holley (0); 2, J. Martin (2); 3, G Gilmore (7) and Bk C Hyde (6) - 15
Umpires T Keyte and T Brown, referee Hamid Ali
The match was closely fought with the teams level at the end of 3 chukkas, with the story very much having been one of Ocho Rios scoring and Clarita promptly levelling the scorecard. It was in the fourth chukka that Ocho Rios put on the pressure and carried a 2 goal lead (8-6) into the fifth and final chukka - Clarita immediately came back into the fray with a quick goal scored by their patron Chris Matthias, this was followed up with another goal to level the score at 8 all. Ocho Rios again seemed to change a gear with a quick reply goal followed in the last minute or so by the last goal of the match to put victory out of the reach of Clarita.
The final score was 10 - 8 to Ocho Rios...slide show (pdf)
All images © Duncan Murray /Photoscience.co.uk 2006