Kathmandu , Nepal 8 th December, 2001

Chivas Regal from Scotland are the new World Champions following their success in the final held on Friday 7 th December at the 20 th Annual World Elephant Polo Championships (WEPA). Chivas Regal, captained by Peter Prentice, clinched the coveted Tiger Tops WEPA Trophy by beating the Tigresses from USA , captained by Margie McDougal, by 5 goals to 4 in a fiercely contested final. James Manclark, Chairman and co-founder of WEPA, was awarded the Coca Cola Shield for Best Player in recognition of his skillful play which greatly assisted the Chivas team to victory. This was the first WEPA final for the Tigresses, an international all ladies team, whose previous best performance had been 3 rd place in 1999. Margie McDougal quickly convinced the crowd that her team certainly belonged in the final by scoring their first goal in 36 seconds but Chivas crawled their way back from behind to pip the ladies to the title.

The local team, National Parks, captained by Ram Pritt Yadav, only managed 3 rd place after beating Ham Polo Club from England, captained by Jim Edwards, co founder of WEPA and the Chairman of the Tiger Mountain Group, by 8 goals to 7 in the 3 rd/4 th playoff. However the local heroes did not leave empty handed as they were successful in the Tiger Mountain All Nepal Challenge, a match which is played by mahouts on their own elephants, beating the Tiger Tops team 4 – 3. This was a brilliant game with skillful play from both sides resulting in the Chivas Regal Golden Moment Award being presented to Sano Buddhi from Tiger Tops for his spectacular near side back handed goal.

The finals were the culmination of a fascinating week’s polo which included a three way penalty shoot out to decide the winners in League B. The penalty shoot out was between Ham Polo Club, Tigresses and Tiger Tops Nepal with the local Tiger Tops team being knocked out scoring only two penalties compared to three penalties from the other two teams. The ladies were then successful in the sudden death penalty shoot out with Ham Polo Club to decide who went through in position 1 to meet the National Parks in the semi finals. The Tigresses beat the National Parks 6 – 4 in a very exciting semi final whilst the Ham Polo Club lost to Chivas Regal, 5 - 6 in the second semi final.

In line with the two-league system at WEPA, the remaining four teams competed for the WEPA Amateur Chivas Regal Quiche Cup. This Cup was won 2 – 0 by the Mongolian Nomads team in a closely contested final against the Tickle and the Ivories, a new team from Australia . The Ticklers also won the Best Dressed Trophy, donated by the British Gurkhas, for their dashing black, white and gold uniforms. The play off for 3 rd and 4 th positions in the WEPA Amateur Chivas Regal Quaiche was won 10 – 7 by the Tiger Tops Tuskers against the Cresta Poonanhi team from South Africa, who repeated their performance from last year to win the wooden spoon.

The World Elephant Polo Championships are an annual invitational event arranged by Tiger Tops. It is played on the polo field adjacent to Meghauly airport on the edge of Royal Chitwan National Park. Each game consists of two 10 minute chukkas using elongated sticks over two metres in length and a regular polo ball. As in previous years, through generous donations from the players, WEPA raised over US$ 1,500 for two local charities, the Tiger Tops Swiss Air Pre School and the Gurkha Welfare Trust. The World Championships, as always, attracted international media including film crews from Transworld Sports and Live Art/Discovery Channel and several journalists.

or further information please contact Carolyn Syangbo