ALTHOUGH it started very slowly, last weekend’s tournament at Ballyhenry reached a tremendous crescendo in the final match between Tyrone and Tinakilly on Sunday. Conditions were close to perfect for the zero-goal tournament but pressure seemed to unsettle the players in the incident-filled first two matches, where the umpires earned their money.

Team Horseware emerged as the winner by six goals to two against the Kildare team. Next up were Oak Lodge versus Mips and it was Oak Lodge that proceeded to the final, winning four goals to three. The Stolen Spurs trophy four-goal matches followed, Pegus versus Tinakilly and Tyrone versus LHK Insurance. On team handicap all four teams complied, but the individual handicaps of some players created an imbalance of skill.Tinakilly beat Pegus and Tyrone beat LHK.

The evening postmortems were in the new Eco club house, where players were treated to the hospitality of Joe and Marie O’Connell.

Sunday’s play began with Pegus against LHK. David Stone and his sons David and Mark joined Robert Patton on the Pegus team, going up against Col Kelleher, James Connolly, Siobhan Herbst and Keelan McCarthy for LHK. The Stones were buoyant, taking control of the game from the first chukka. Patton used his speed and long shots to pressurise the LHK team but despite their best efforts, the Pegus riders were out-foxed. The final result was a win for Pegus, nine goals to three.

The Shipping Cup final for the zero-goal teams followed, Horseware versus Oak Lodge. Tom MacGuinness versus Jack Armstrong. A feisty match producing great skills from both teams and the result was a win for Oak Lodge by one goal.

Playing for the Stolen Spurs Cup in the four-goal final, Tyrone faced the Tinakilly House Hotel team. Eamon Laverty, Dan Laverty, Paul Ronan and Facundo Matilla faced off against Jack Thompson, Robert Hogg, Gonzalo Vargas and Jack Armstrong.

It was a very open and fast game but lady luck was smiling on the local team. A final score of eight and a half goals to four to the Tinakilly Hotel team gave them the Stolen Spurs trophy. The last match of the day was Mips v Kildare and the teams produced an entertaining game of polo and two of the elder statesmen, Lar Sheeran and Robert Patton, shared the accolade of Most Important Player.