Al Habtoor Polo Resort and Club, Dubai, UAE
After a week of intense polo matches the Sir Winston Churchill Cup, a prestigious 10 goal handicap tournament brought to the UAE for the first time, was concluded with two matches, the Subsidiary Final and the Final.
The Subsidiary final saw the Kuwait Polo Team play against Mahra Polo team in a fast-paced match with fierce competition. Kuwait started off strong scoring the first goal, Mahra responded shortly after with a goal and Kuwait scored 2 more. The second chukker started with Kuwait being ahead and finished with both teams even at 3. The second half of the match Kuwait reinforced their defence and only allowed Mahra to score one more goal whilst they themselves scored 2. The final score being 5-4 in favour of Kuwait Polo Team.
The Final of the Sir Winston Churchill Cup was between the two strongest teams in the tournament and there was no guessing who would take the trophy home. Bin Drai took the lead in the first chukker, with Raul Laplacette leading the pack and the team opened up the score board. Habtoor Polo followed with a goal, but Bin Drai kept their lead. The second half started with only 1 goal difference at Habtoor 3- Bin Drai 4 and continued for the better part of the chukker. In the 4th and last chukker Bin Drai was ahead at 6 to 4, Habtoor Polo were awarded a penalty shot, which Guillermo Cuitino converted beautifully. Bin Drai scored once more taking the final score to 7 – 5 in favour of Bin Drai.
Winners and Runners Up were awarded trophies and Anfasic Dokhoon perfumes.