PIPA Snow Polo Championships, Seefeld, Austria
“It is something very special that the snow arena at Seefeld is located right in the centre of town and not somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, as at many other snow polo tournaments.”
The PIPA Snow Polo Championships Tour Final Teams England: Tim Ward & Marc Aberle Slovakia: Alexandra Bencikova & Ladislav Agardi Result: 17-3 to England Best Playing Pony: A4 owned by A Quecha Polo Sub Final Teams Germany: Chris von Eupen & Joe Reinhard Austria: Klarina Pilcher & Uwe Seebacher Result: 5-3 to Germany Most Valuable Player: Klarina Pichler
Joe Reinhardt
Umpire, Sean Dayus, and tournament director Uwe Seebacher, ended the game after the third chukka, mindful of the safety of the ponies and players. After the game it was revealed that the German team ponies were not equipped with spikes on all shoes, in accordance with tournament rules. Such an omission would normally have resulted in disqualification. However, as the Austrian team did not file a protest, the German team retained their tournament ranking points. Most Valuable Player Award went to Klarina Pichler (Austria) and the Best Playing Pony Award went to A4, owned by A Quechua World of Polo and played by Uwe Seebacher. Polo Times spoke to England’s Tim Ward, who has been based out of Win Poloschule in Hamburg for the last five years, about how he felt the tournament went “The first game against a well mounted German team was very close. During the second and third games, our horses improved and Marc and I really found our rhythm and were able to make better plays and score some nice goals! Marc and I have trained together for nearly five years. We have played tournaments in Germany on the grass and the beach and in Florida so we know how to work together. I play a lot of beach polo so was able to adapt to the snow quite quickly. I played in Kitzbuhel last year which was an amazing experience.” England are now the hot favourites for the next date in the PIPA International Snow Polo Championship Tour which will take place in the county of Salzburg, at Bad Gastein, from February 27 – 1 March. The event will use the snow from the Red Bull Play Street event, which takes place the week before. The teams for Bad Gastein are almost finalised, with Austria, Chile, England, Germany, Italy and Slovakia all looking to play. The finale will be held in Groeden, Italy from 13 – 15 March. www.polotimes.co.uk
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Reports
Tournament rankings and points 1st Place England 4 points 2nd Place Germany 3 points 3rd Place Austria 2 points 4th Place Slovakia 1 point
England’s Tim Ward celebrates his win Frankie Dettori style
Polo Times, March 2015
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