December 14, 1994

The 13th World Elephant Polo Championship was played at Tiger Tops 8-13 December 1994 and HRH Princess Jyotshana presented the trophies. The most exciting final ever between the National parks team and the hathi sathis from New Zealand went into extra time, as it was drawn 2-2 at the end of the second chukka. In the “sudden death” play off National Parks scored the decisive goal, much to the delight of the hundreds of local spectators. Chandra Man  tamang of the National parks played a brilliant game but due to the excellent play by Dhan Bahadur Tamang of the Hathi Sathis, who helped the underdogs put up such a tough fight, the Elephant Polo Committee decided to award the Tuborg trophy for player of the year to both of these amazing sportsmen.

The National Parks enjoyed a clean sweep this year by also winning the Justerine and Brooks All Nepal Shield played only by mahouts on their own elephants. The home team, the Tiger Tops Tuskers beat the Viceroys Mountbatten’s Own from great Britain for third place in a very competitive match and the Ladies Challenge ended with Margie McDougal leading the Tigresses to victory over the Jungle Cats. The Swiss Pirates, all first time players from Hong Kong and Singapore, took the coveted Best Dressed Khukuri award with their flamboyant pirate outfits. A special thank you was sent to Santa Claus who made a surprise appearance in the visitors challenge match but unfortunately was unable to motivate his team to victory.

Other teams copeting for the championship included the defending champions J & B rare who were very claose contenders to clinch their league. We also saw the return of the  British Gurkha Gladiators and a first time team from America called the Screwy Tuskers.

The World Elephant polo Association Championship is an annual invitational event arranged by Tiger Tops, who are now members of Select Hotels & Resorts International. It is played on the polo field adjacent to Meghauly airport on the edge of Royal Chitwan national Park. Each team of four players compete in two chukkas of ten minutes and use a regular polo ball which is hit with elongated sticks over 2 meters in length. This year the standard of play was very high but was well controlled by the referee Chuck
McDougal. As usual the event attracted the media from all over the  world including coverage in Gillette World Sports Special, Trans World Sports and Prime Sports on Star TV.

For further information please contact Lisa Choegyal or Carolyn Syangbo