Wales 6 – 4 South America Select

Wales Polo Team held onto to their unbeaten run from last season by narrowly defeating a South America select team at Fonmon Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The Fonmon estate, home of polo aficionado Sir Brooke Boothby, has always attracted a good crowd and this year despite some heavy rainfall in the days leading upto the match, was no exception. The event was in support of Welsh childrens' cancer charity, Latch.

In their first game of the season, Wales sponsored by Clogau, the Welsh gold company and under the patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales continued with their usual line up of Ricky Cooper(Capt), Stuart Leigh-Davies and professionals Roddy Matthews and Richard Blake-Thomas.

With the sun eventually shining on the spectators, Wales got off to a good start and went ahead within the first minute of the opening chukka with former Prince Charles team mate Matthews and Blake-Thomas combining well to capitalise on a defensive error by the visitors, which allowed Matthews to stroke the ball home from 30 yards. Another goal followed shortly after with Blake-Thomas rifling a neck-shot into the visitors goal area from 80 yards, and Matthews finishing clinically to make the score 2-0.

South America struck back almost immediately with a counter attack led by Argentinian Antonio Manzorro whose lofted pass down the right of the field to fellow Argentine Carlos Muriel was rewarded by a well taken goal from 40 yards to make the score 2-1.

With the wind picking up and changing direction at the start of the second chukka, one could tell this would always be close, as the lofted passes down field by both teams caused problems for attackers as well as defenders. The South America team then equalised after a contentious penalty decision early on and both sides scored again to make the score 4-3 to Wales at the break.

With the traditional 'treading-in' or divot stomping at half time allowing the ladies to show off their glamorous outfits and both teams taking to the field early to allow the spectators to meet the polo ponies and players, the occasion had a great feel to it.

The third chukka however didn't go as Wales planned and some great individual skill by Manzorro from close range pulled the visitors level. From then on Wales managed to shut down successive attacks with Cooper and Leigh-Davies blocking well and reducing the attacking options of their opponents. With the earlier swirling breeze now subsided, both sides took advantage of driving long lofted passes into their opponents half and Cooper was denied by a cruel bounce as he hit the ball towards `goal from another precision pass from Blake-Thomas.

Wales were rewarded for their continued pressure however and a swift counter attack by Matthews far out on the left ended up with him skilfully turning inside his opponent and scoring from 90 yards out with a well struck angled shot to make it 5-4.

With only one goal between the teams in the final chukka Wales were determined to hold onto their lead and Cooper and Leigh-Davies did well to starve the running players of possession. Drama again struck halfway through the chukka when some nice defensive work by Blake-Thomas saw his pony unfortunately slip, dismounting the player, causing him to turn his ankle.

When play resumed Wales were under a continued barrage from the visitors and at times it seemed that the dam would inevitably break with Muriel and Manzorro probing vigorously. However, with barely a minute to go Wales cleared their lines again with a big drive up the left and counter attack from Leigh-Davies, fed initially by Matthews who would eventually seal the fate of the visitors by tapping in from close range to make it 6-4 after an unforced error.

Wales now go onto the British Beach Polo Championships at Sandbanks in Dorset on July 6/7 and face tournament favourites England in the opening match. Commenting on their victory, Wales captain Ricky Cooper said, "This was always going to be a tough contest and they played some great polo. We played well defensively, took our chances when they came and the crowd who were great, got behind us – we're off to a good start".