Fusilade are the kinsmen cup champions, as the second half of the Kenya Polo Association season kicked off

Fusilade team receives Kinsmen Cup from Syngenta Managing Director Fredrick Otieno at Northern Kenya Polo Club yesterday. [Ben Ahenda, Standard]

Fusilade survived a last minute scare from Mascor Black to win the Sygenta Kinsmen Cup Championships in the 14-goal match at Northern Kenya Polo Club in Timau, Meru County over the weekend.

The three round robin match saw handicap 13.5 Fusilade team of Casimir Gross(5), Craig Millar(3.5), Izzy Parsons (2.5) and Tiva Gross (2.5) beat Mascor Black with a total 15-10 goal aggregate  in all the three rounds of the matches.

The efforts of Casimir Gross’ exposure in Zambia where he participated in an international tournament the previous weekend came to haunt Mascor Black’s team of Jammie Murray(5), Archie Voorspuy (3.5) Tarquin Gross (3) and Raphael Nzomo whom they defeated 8-3 in the opening match on Friday.

Assists by Nzomo (Raphael) led to Murray scoring a hatrick for Mascor Black in the second match for them to register their first 3-2 win over Fusilade but the victors made a 5-4 in the third match for a 15-10 goal aggregate to win the overall title in a tensioned packed final match.

Sygenta Managing Director Fredrick Otieno promised that they would continue to support the tournament in their future competitions.

Touchdown Forte won the Kyambu Cup, the second division championships as the curtain came down on the three day competition yesterday.

In the finals, Touchdown Forte dismissed Amistra team of Josh Craig (2), Kimoi Moi(2), Gideon Moi(1) and Row Stichbury 5.5-5 in the four team competition.

“It was a tough match, which could have gone either way after giving our all to finish runners up,” Gideon told Standard Sports in a post-match interview.

In their first match, Touchdown beat Mascor White 5-4.5 and thereafter clobbered Axial by a same margin to win the title with maximum nine points from three points in the round robin series.

While taking the runners up spot, Amistar finished with six points from a 6-4.5 win over Axial and 5-3.5 victory over Mascor White as Axial snatched the third position with three points after beating  Mascor White 4-3 in the play-offs.

In categorization of the ponies, Bounds of Jammie Excel won the overall title as ‘The Best Play Pony’.

Phylippa Gulden’s Pay-Offs emerged as the best pony in Kinsmen Cup (Division A Championships while Kimoi Moi’s six year old Pincante won the Division B (Kyambu Cup) Championships.

Leluna of Fred Kambo emerged as the best horse in the Division C championships (Marania Cup).

In the Marania Cup of the Division Three Championships, Touchdown Forte Red beat Cherokee with a goal aggregate of 16-9.5 after a round of three matches.

“We lost concentration briefly in the first chukka, which made us concede three quick goals and were not able to recover again,” said Cherokee striker Mike Mwirigi in reference to their final match.

Meanwhile, the National Women Team will tour Zambia at the end of the month for an international championship in Lusaka.

Kenya Polo Association chairman Gordon Millar said it was the first assignment of a series of international championships that involve Kenyan teams before the end of the year.

UTILITIES – FINAL RESULTS.

KINSMEN CUP – Fusilade 15 Mascor Black 10.

KYAMBU CUP – Touchdown Forte 5.5 Amistar 5,

MARANIA CUP – Touchdown Forte Red 16 Cherokee 9.5.