Alex Cole (left) and Lucy Taylor staring at each other during a tense moment in their team's match-up. (Pictures by Clifton Henry.)

by CLIFTON HENRY

POLO FANS came out in their numbers on Sunday to witness the deciding encounter in the gender clash of the season in the Diamonds International Piaget "Battle of The Sexes" polo tournament, at Holders, St James.

With battle lines drawn, it was the Diamonds International women who emerged with a 5-3 win over the Digicel men to level the series at two games each.

The women began the game desperately in need of a win to square the series. After promising the Digicel men the fight of their lives following the loss in Game 3, it was obvious from the starting whistle that the threat was not an empty one.

In the twinkling of an eye Nina Vesty's 60-yard penalty found the back of the goal bars and her teammate Emma Tomlinson's two goals made it a commanding 3-0 lead at the end of the first chukka.

For the men, Alex Cole saw the first of two penalties blocked by Nina Vesty, while his second effort went wide of the goal bars at the southern side of the field.

The second chukka saw the women mixing solid defence with aggression to match the men at every turn. It was simply not the men's day as Alex Cole missed his third penalty in the first minute of the chukka.

Desperation seemed to creep into the men's game as they continually over-ran balls and muffed several scoring opportunities.

Meanwhile the horsemanship, along with the women's team-play, were joys to behold and were loudly applauded by the crowd in and around the clubhouse.

Lisa Taylor soon added to the men's misery with a well executed goal late in the chukka to make it 4-0. However in the dying seconds of this chukka Wayne Archer finally found a way through the women's defence to secure the first goal for his side.

In the third chukka the men came under intense pressure as it was Tamara Vesty's turn to penetrate their defence and register her first and only goal in the game.

No additional goal was scored in this chukka but the women still continued to dominate the play.

With the tension rising the referees were kept busy, frequently stepping in to prevent tempers from getting out of control. Two penalties awarded and converted by Philip Tempro within a minute apart in the final chukka, were too little too late as the women would not be denied.

It was a fitting climax to a memorable season of international polo staged by the Barbados Polo Club where polo emerged the overall winner.