Captain Chad Hosken in action
Westville hosted Hilton College in this weekend’s fixture and the match up certainly went the way of the local school. The Westville u14A team who are all new to polo once again showed that their fitness and speed more than compensates for their lack of experience and won 7 – 3. Hilton u15A were runners up in last year’s Top 10 and Westville caused an upset by winning that game 5 – 4 while the 2nd team won their 1st match of the season by the same score.
The 1st team match was always going to be an even contest as both teams are building using young grade 10s as the bulk of their team. Westville started very well with a goal from Richard Young on a cross pass followed by a lucky extra man rebound goal by his twin Matthew. Richard then scored a great off the water push shot after a full field counter attack to take Westville into a 3 – 0 first period lead.
The second period was all Hilton with their 3 unanswered goals taking the game into a 3 all draw at half time.
The third period started frenetically with both teams unable to hold on to possession but Westville settled after a good extra man goal from Aden Parker followed up by Mathew Young getting his second with an off the water push shot on the counter attack to copy the one scored by his twin.
With a two goal cushion, Westville continued to use their fitness and their youth and flair paid off with two great back shots from Gareth Lillywhite and Aden Parker while captain Chad Hosken scored a very fortunate unplanned lob. Hilton picked up a very late consolation goal in the last minute for the game to end 8 – 4 and give the Westville 1st team their first local win of 2015.