A large crowd was on hand to witness the first of the four-game series in The 2007 Colombian Emeralds "Barbados Open" International Polo tournament which took place on Sunday at the beautifully manicured grounds at Clifton Hill, St Thomas.

The tournament got off to an exciting start as four teams took part in the day's game. Mango Bay came up against Courtesy Garage, while JCB took on the mighty Virgin Atlantic.

In the first game Mango Bay narrowly defeated Courtesy Garage to win a hard fought game by seven goals to six, while Virgin Atlantic got the better of JCB by six goals to four. Mango Bay were led by Barbadian Jeff Evelyn and included Domingo and Felipe Villamil of Argentina and Chris Hyde of the United Kingdom, while Courtesy was led by Sir Charles Williams along with Jamie Dickson, Ed Hitchman and Tom Morley all of Britain.

Second match

In the second match, Virgin Atlantic team were led by Teddy Williams and included Danny and Marc Atwell and Britain's Malcolm Borick. JCB was captained by Bruce Bayley and included Philip Tempro, Gastone and Max Moore. One of the features of Gastone's play was his excellent ball control.

At half-time the match was evenly poised at three goals each, but Virgin landed two additional goals in the second half to take the game away from JCB.

The venue for today's second-round matches will be the Waterhall Polo grounds in St James. Mango Bay will oppose Virgin Atlantic while Courtesy will have a tough time trying to defeat Mount Gay. Starting time for the first game is 3:30 p.m. and the second is at 4:30 p.m. (CH)

TEAMS

Mount Gay

Kent Cole (Captain) (1 goal)

Alex Cole (2 goals)

Pablo Crespin (4 goals)

Rafael Silva (6 goals)

Mango Bay

Jeff Evelyn (Captain) (1 goal)

Felipe Villamil (3 goals)

Chris Hyde (6 goals)

Domingo Villamil (3 goals)

Courtesy Garage

Sir Charles Williams (1 goal)

Ed Hitcham (3 goals)

Tom Morley (5 goals)

Jaime Dixon (4 goals)

Virgin Atlantic

Teddy Williams (4 goals)

Malcolm Borwick (6 goals)

Mark Atwell (0)

Danny Atwell (4 goals)