Poverty Bay team heading to tourney

MOUNTED MALLETS: Action from the Lane Trophy game at the Bushmere polo grounds. (From left) Marcus Shanks of Ballance Agri-Nutrients and Scotty McNeil of BNZ vie for position as BNZ’s Andy Moore (right) and Sam Kirkpatrick (back, centre) follow up. Picture supplied

POVERTY Bay will contest the Barrett/Dearden Memorial Tournament at Wanstead Polo Club’s headquarters in Hawke’s Bay this weekend.

Andy Moore, Campbell Chrisp and Scott McNeil will represent Poverty Bay Polo Club. Members of the club are building up to the annual tournament at the Bushmere polo grounds on January 29 and 30.

Two levels of polo will be played, with teams from around the country travelling to Gisborne for the tournament, which coincides with the celebration of Poverty Bay Polo Club’s 125th anniversary.

Local players had a good hit-out in the Lane Trophy twilight game at Bushmere Road.

Sam Kirkpatrick’s Ballance Agri-Nutrients team of Cody Clark, Campbell Chrisp and Marcus Shanks defeated Neville Clark’s BNZ team of Laura Clark, Andy Moore and Scotty McNeil by half a goal in a thrilling four-chukka match.

Cody Clark, Sam Kirkpatrick and Campbell Chrisp were the scorers for Ballance Agri-Nutrients, and Laura Clark scored for BNZ.

Ballance Agri-Nutrients were two goals up at halftime. BNZ fought back but the winning goal eluded them.