9th December, 1998
The host team Tiger Tops Tuskers made a clean sweep at the 17th World Elephant Polo Championships (WEPA) which were held at Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge from 3rd to 9th December 1998. The Experienced locals beat the British Gurkha Gladiators (Hannibal’s Own), captained by Lt. Col. Chris Jeffery, 11-3 to win the coveted Tiger Tops Trophy for the first time in five years. This is only the second time that the Gurkhas have reached the WEPA finals and they put up a valiant performance ably assisted by their Nepali professional players Bhim Bahadur, who was awarded the Coca Cola Most Valuable Male win the Tiger Mountain All Nepal Challenge, a match which is played by mahouts on their own elephants beating the National Parks 5-3.

This was the culmination of a fascinating weeks’ polo which resulted in Tigers Tops Tigresses, captained by Margie McDougal, securing 3rd place after losing to the Tuskers in the semi final. This is the best result ever in the history of WEPA for an all-female team and they demonstrated incredible skill during their 3rd /4th play off match against Chivas Regal, certainly one of the most exciting matches of the tournament which was decided in sudden death, 5-4. Margie’s performance in the tournament earned her the San Miguel Most Valuable female players’ plate. Chivas Regal, captained by peter Prentice matched their performance in last years Championship by finishing in 4th place after losing to the British Gurkha Gladiators 1-4 in their semi final. Chivas Regal did not come away empty handed as they were awarded the Best Dressed Trophy for their smart black and white polo shirts and matching fleeces.

The WEPA committee has now established a two-tier league for the championships, where the top four seeded teams will compete for the WEPA Amateur Chivas Regal Quiche Cup. This year there was an exciting penalty shoots out between three teams (Chivas Regal, the Tiger Tops Tuskers and the National Parks) to decide which two teams would join the tuskers and Gurkhas in the WEPA Cup and would compete in the Quaich Cup. Thanks to tremendous goals from Raj Kalaan and Peter Prentice for Chivas Regal and From Celia Temple and Anna Tara Edwards for the Tigresses those two teams went onto compete in the semi finals. Anna Tara, daughter of Jim Edwards’s founder of the WEPA and Chairman of the Tiger Mountain Group, was awarded he Chivas Regal Golden Moment for her penalty goal and also a superb save in their match against Chivas Regal. The big upset of the championships was due to their inability to score in the penalty shoot out Nepal National Parks team was eliminated from the tournament.

The WEPA Amateur Chivas Regal Quaich Cup was won 5-4 by the Swiss Air Jumbos in a closely contested final against the Titanic Tracks, a new team captained by Christopher lavender from Hong Kong. The match was quite a family tussle as Christopher’s wife Griselda was playing for the Swiss Air Jumbos. The Mongolian Nomads came in the 7th place captained by Jim Edwards.

The World Elephant Polo Association Championship is an annual invitational event arranges by Tiger Tops. It is played on the polo field adjacent to Meghauly airport on the edge of Royal Nationals Park. Each game consists of two Chukkas of ten minutes playing time using elongated sticks over two meters in length and regular polo ball. The matches were well controlled as always by the referee Chuk McDougal and Umpire Pradeep Rana. The World Championship as always attracted the international media including coverage by CNN, Reuters and Wild Things, an American Wildlife film crew. Plus journalists and photo-grapher from Polo Magazine/USA, Sports Illustrated/USA and located Magazine/UK.

For Further details please contact Carolyn Syangbo.