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The Lagos Polo
Club, ended the year 2010 on high as the Santa Cup Tournament took
centre stage on Boxing Day. The high profile event which attracted a
capacity crowd to the legendary Ribadu Road Polo theatre in Ikoyi
brought down the curtains as the last tournament of the year.

The highly
successfully one day event pitted four equally matched low-goal teams
comprising an exciting mix of established names and upcoming players,
and was the highlight of the club’s Boxing Day celebration.

The Santa Cup debut
threw up an exciting competition and a fun filled evening for the club
members and their families as well as invited guest. This followed on
the heels of the recently concluded Lagos Captain’s Cup tournament
which was decided two weeks ago, with eight low-goal teams battling for
honours.

Lagos Keffi parading Robert Toumajean, Edmund Higenbottam,

Obafemi Otudeko and
Ahmadu Umar won the Captain’s Cup, while Lagos Obalende boasting Bowale
Jolaoso, Bode Makanjuola and Jamilu Mohammed, finished as runners-up.

The only female
player in the Captain’s Cup cracker, Toyin Martins, helped her Lagos
Victoria Island side to win the subsidiary PMC Cup; just as Ayo
Olashoju-led Lagos Apapa won the PMC runners-up prize.

Some of the notable
names who vied for honours during the Santa Cup event include, Ayo
Olashoju, Bode Makanjuola, Muyiwa Sonubi, Musty Fasinro, Osaro
Giwa-Osagie, Adamu Yaro, Sahabi Tukur, Ali Saffiedene and Lukman
Adebayo.

Others are Bashir
Dantata (Jnr.) Tunde Karim, Kehinde Soyannwo, Yinka Alakija, Tajudeen
Saro, Yemo Alakija and the greatly improved Kayode Awogboro.

Inaugural champions

At the end of the
Boxing Day rumble, Super Sleighs outpaced others to make history as the
inaugural champions of the debut Santa Cup. The top shooting Super
Sleighs led by the all rounder Adamu Yaro, defeated the hard fighting
Mustie Fasinro-propelled Mistle Toes 2-1 in the final to carry the day.

Super Sleighs
parading Muyiwa Sonubi, Osaro Giwa- Osagie and Kayode Awogboro who
scored the first goal of the tournament, had earlier defeated Fire
Crackers featuring Ayo Olashoju, Tunde karim, Lukman Adebayo and Sahabi
Tukur in the opening game to pick the final ticket. Mistle Toes quartet
of Tajudeen Saro, Yemo Alakija, Kehinde Soyannwo and Mustie Fashinro
that clashed with Reindeers in the second game of the day, were lucky
to snatch the final ticket ahead of Reindeers whose defender, Ali
Saffeidene was injured in the second chukker of the game, leaving Yinka
Alakija, Bode Makanjuola and Bashir Dantata (Jnr.) without cover for
the rest of the crunch game.

Height of the excitement

The final game,
which was decided over two sudden death chukkers was a fiercely fought
game that kept the capacity crowd cheering from start to finish.

Papa Polo, Adedapo
Ojora was as master of ceremonies kept pumping up every second of the
final to the delight of the crowd. Former President of Ibadan Polo
Club, Asumi and Lagos Polo President, Dolapo Akinrele were on hand to
decorate the winners and the runners-up during the Prize Presentation
where all the participating players went home with glittering Santa
Gold Cup souvenirs.

The presentation ceremony was followed by the usual annual Xmas party that last well into the early hours of the next day.

According to Bode
Makanjuola who is the secretary of the Polo Management Committee and
the Grounds Member, The Santa Cup Tournament which was funded by
contributions from members, is planned as an annual fixture on the
club’s calendar, to mark the Christmas holidays.

Apart from
celebrating the yuletide season, the Santa Cup which was well received
by both the players and the crowd is an exciting addition to the series
of local competitions hosted annually by the highbrow polo club.

Together with the
Captain’s Cup and the President’s Cup, these three events come in handy
for Lagos players who throng these exclusive tournaments in their
droves as part of the long build up for major Nigerian Polo Federation
(NPF) sanctioned tournaments scheduled for early next year.

The build up will
be concluded with the forthcoming President Cup, scheduled to gallop
off this weekend, helping to put both the players and the ponies in
their best competitive shapes as they hit the road for the Niger Delta
Polo Festival in Port Harcourt and the Ibadan annual tournament, before
returning to their Ribadu Road base for the Lagos International Polo
Tournament.