SCHOOLS' FRIENDLY POLO MATCH

The second Hillel Academy/American International School of Kingston friendly end-of-term polo match took place on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. at the KingstonPolo Club, Caymanas Estates, with a significant change to the format of the match thattook place in March. It was decided to mix the school teams up, as there were 5 availableplayers from AISK and only 3 from Hillel, and make it a true “friendly” match.
What was immediately noticeable was the dramatic improvement in all of the playersinvolved since their first match in March. The match was held on the full-sized polo fieldand played over 3 regular chukkas. The improved riding skills of the participants meantthat there were more horses available for them from the generous donations of variousmembers of the Kingston Polo Club.
Victoria Loshusan, playing in her first ever polo game on the full-sized field, teamed upwith Savannah Hussey and Daniel Crowther from AISK and Jason Willets from Hillel toform the Kingston Red team. The Kingston Blue team, consisting of Abigail Burns andDylan Wong of Hillel and Alejandro Crowther and Reuben Hussey from AISK, receiveda 1 goal handicap start due to Willets carrying a -1 goal handicap. Young Adam Lake, aformer Hillel student here for the summer holiday, umpired the match.
Willets quickly knocked off the handicap by converting a 60 yard penalty and putKingston Red in briefly in the lead by scoring from the field. However, Reuben Husseytied the score towards the end of the 1st chukka with a lovely drive from about 60 yardsout for the Kingston Blue team. Aggressive marking by Alejandro Crowther in the 2ndchukka kept Willets relatively quiet but his team mates came through with excellentgoals scored by Daniel Crowther and Savannah Hussey for Kingston Red. The KingstonBlue team lost some of its momentum in attack as they were working so hard in defense.Wong and Hussey both made excellent defensive backhands while Burns was very quickaround the field. Willets escaped to score once again in the last chukka after Loshusanimpressively drove the ball forward to her team when everyone else had ridden over it.The Kingston Blue teamwork was much more organized in that chukka and they wereunlucky not to increase their tally. As it was the Kingston Red team held on for the 5goals to 2 win, with Jason Willets the high scorer of the day.
Mr. Michael Lake, Adam’s father and a long time supporter of the junior poloprogramme presented the winning team with its plaques. Most of the participants of thismatch will be taking part in the Annual Polo Camp at the Kingston Polo Club betweenJuly 2nd and 6th and the Burger King sponsored Juniors Polo Match held at the end of thecamp.