The 2020 Hector King Cup
Results
Ellerston 10 v Arunga 2
The late Hector King (born 1919, died 1968) began his Polo career at ‘Markdale’ Binda near Crookwell owned by the Ashton family where his Father was overseer.
In 1937, as a young man, Hector travelled with the Ashton ponies on their second trip to England during which Bob, Geoff and Jim Ashton and Bob Skene won the Champion Cup. He served with the RAAF in World War II in Darwin and New Guinea.
After the war he was one of the Players resurrecting Polo at Kyeemagh, (before resumption for Sydney Airport extensions) later playing at ‘Tingewick’ Austral owned by Jack Dudley then at ‘Beltana’ Rossmore which in 1953 he acquired with Ken Austin for use as a Polo base and home for the County Polo Club (later known as Sydney Polo Club).
In 1947 Hector and his brothers-in-law Jack, Larry and Ken Austin assembled and took 20 polo ponies to Jaipur which they played and then sold them to the famous Maharaja and another draft in 1948 to the Riviera Country Club (Los Angeles) where ponies were sold to Spencer Tracy, Walt Disney, David O. Zelnick and other Members.
Playing at No.2 Hector attained a 5 goal handicap and in 1960 was in the winning team at the Sydney Royal Easter Show Polo competition and also won the Inter-State competition for the Australasian Cup playing for NSW with Theo Hill, Sinclair Hill and Peter Cudmore. He was famous for his horsemanship, striking of the ball and anticipation.
As Club Captain at County, he was very generous with his time in coaching new players, and with improving their standard of play by including them in teams which he Captained. On his premature sudden death from staphylococcal aureus (golden staph), a Cup was instituted in his memory to formalize a tournament in which lower rated players could gain experience by playing along side better players in medium goal Polo- as encouraged by Hector King during his lifetime.
This weekend, we have again celebrated the life of this amazing man by playing a Polo tournament in his honour and have added one more name to the Memorial Cup that bears his name.
Ellerston have appeared on the Cup 5 times before, the first in 1988 with a Team comprising M.McKechnie, I Hunt, J Gilmore and the great man himself, K.F.B. Packer.
They won back to back with a win in 1989 with a team made up of A. Graham, I Gould, together with Jim and Kerry and the Ellerston team had three more victories before today's strong performance to claim their 6th victory in this prestigious Tournament.
It's the first time in 17 years since Ellerston have had their names inscribed on the Trophy.
Today, we add the names of David Paradise, Matt Grimes, Jack Grimes and Dylan Jones to the honour role after their crushing win over the team from Arunga made up of Glen Gilmore, Adam Tolhurst, Hamish Dowling and Mark Greig by a margin of 10 goals to 2 goals.
But don't think for a minute it was a walk-over.
After three chukkas it was 3 goals to 2 goals to Ellerston.
But from that point forward, Arunga were held scoreless by some wonderful defence and brilliant positional play from the Ellerston Team in which they added 2 goals in the 4th chukka, 3 more in the 5th chukka and topped it up to a 10 goal total with 2 goals in the final chukka.
Congratulations to the Players, Grooms and connections to the Ellerston Team and to all the teams in this year's tournament.
Another wonderful weekend of Polo to finish off the major events calendar for the 2020 Polo season.
Congratulations to Jack Grimes awarded Champion Pony for 'Centi' (Centimetre X Mambo), an 8yo mare groomed by Celine, bred and owned by Ellerston and Best Pony Team again won by Jack with 'Centi' and 'Optic' (Clarity x Montreal), a 9yo mare again groomed by Celine and bred and owned by Ellerston.
Photos and words :
Stephen Mowbray
The Hector King Cup
Final Sunday 1 November
The Finals of the Hector King Cup will be played tomorrow at 12pm at Windsor between Arunga and Ellerston. Good luck to both teams. The King Family trophy will be played for at 10am. To see the draw and the teams - click here.