The World Elephant Polo Championships

Описание: The teams represented Scotland, Thailand, Hong Kong, India, Nepal, and the defending champions the British team. The tournament is played at a small village, Meghauly, on the edge of the famous Royal Chitwan National Park, a jungle location, highly appropriate for this most majestic of sports.

The sport was founded nearly 50 years ago by Brits Jim Edwards and James Manclark a fellow adventurer, in a drinking session at St Moritz after tobogganing on the Cresta Run. Its rules have evolved over the last 2 decades and the game now has its own governing body; World Elephant Polo Association (WEPA). Each game consists of two chukkas of ten minutes. The smaller, younger elephants are the fastest and are primarily used in an attacking position.

The Elephants are controlled by ‘mahouts’ or drivers, whilst the players concentrate on wielding extra-long polo sticks, but communication between all three (mahout, player and elephant) is crucial. The rules of the game are similar to horse polo, but the pitch is 3/4 length and there can be no more than three elephants in one half of a pitch at a time, to avoid the dangers of the animals’ herd instincts crowding them into a semi-permanent huddle. Fouls can include standing on the ball, hooking an opponent’s stick and deliberately crossing in front of a charging elephant.

Professional polo players are handicapped in the same way as horse polo whilst seasoned elephant polo players also carry a one-goal handicap. Whilst each team of elephants is evenly matched, opposing teams swap elephants at the end of the first chukka to negate any advantage. The smallest elephant on each team is the fastest, a sort of GTi version, and these elephants play a pivotal role in the match. However, in the game of Elephant polo, communication is the key to success not only between mahout, player and elephant but also between fellow team members. During play ball, boys clear any elephant dung to avoid the matter being splattered during contact with the polo sticks. Presiding over the matches, the referee is perched upon an impressive tusker.

After an intense week of competition Angus Estates Scotland earned their place in the final against the favourites the National Park team of Nepal. The local team despite having several strong, experienced elephant polo players and massive local support just could not compete with old-timer James Manclark who dominated play to give his team and Scotland a third World title in as many years. The final score was 8 goals to 6.

However, it was the gentle giants of the Jungle, the elephants, who stole the show, they clearly enjoyed their role and proved to be the real stars of the tournament and were rewarded with plentiful supplies of their favorite food, deservedly so!

This annual event raises money for charity including the local Meghauly Clinic and the Tiger Tops local pre-school, plus the International Trust for Nature Conservation (ITNC) which funds tiger and rhino anti-poaching units in the National parks of Nepal.