POLO REPORT DISPATCHES FROM THE WORLD OF POLO
EAST
ELIZABETH HEDLEY
LANDHOPE PREVAILS IN POLO PONIES MEMORIAL
New Hope’s Dennys Santana keeps the ball out of the reach of Landhope’s Francisco Llosa in the final of the Polo Ponies Memorial.
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OUR teams competed in the 8-goal USPA Polo Ponies Memorial at Brandywine Polo Club in Toughkenamon, Pennsylvania, Aug. 27-29. In the end, it was the home team, Landhope, that took home the trophies. The tournament is played in honor of 18 polo ponies that were lost in a 1966 fire, started by lightning striking the clubhouse and spreading to two barns. An additional seven ponies were injured while nine others were led to safety. The memorial tourna-
42 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N
ment has been played ever since. This year’s games began with New Hope (Ann Oniskey, Pelon Escapite, Dennys Santana, Tim Cheromcka) getting the best of Dovecote (CJ Martin, Nate Berube, PJ Orthwein, Tom Huber Sr.), 11-9. Later in the day, Landhope (Michael Bucklin, Martin Eddy, Francisco Llosa, Sterling Giannico) defeated Barefield (Sam Clemens, Mark Mulligan, Jake Brown, Alan Martinez), 14-12. Preliminary winners Landhope
Farms and New Hope met in the final. Landhope Farms began with a onegoal handicap, but it was negated by Santana, who scored the first goal. Escapite sunk a Penalty 4 to put New Hope ahead, but Bucklin slipped the ball between the posts to tie the score at 2-2 after the first seven minutes. Landhope turned up the pressure in the second period with Llosa sending the ball to goal and Giannico following with two in a row, while New Hope was silenced, giving Landhope a 5-2
