Thailand's clash of the titans

[SunWuKong]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southea.../FI15Ae01.html

Thailand's clash of the titans
By Sara Schonhardt

HUA HIN, Thailand - Looking tough yet regal atop their giant steeds, the players in this year's clash of the titans rode their elephants onto the field like a group of warriors headed to battle. Within moments of securing their positions, the elephants and their riders were thundering across the pitch to a series of cheers and chuckles from the ever-jubilant crowd. After meeting in a manic midfield muddle, where two opposing players locked mallets in a duel for the tiny white ball, the fight for the King's Cup title had officially begun.

Despite the occasional under-the-trunk shot or the thrill that follows when a sweeping two-meter-long mallet makes contact with the ball, the fourth annual 2004 King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in this sea-side town is more wacky and bizarre than it is fast and furious. Yet with players including a duke, a top Thai actress and model, a former Winter Olympian and an entire team composed of former New Zealand rugby stars, the tournament is anything but dull.

After a week of matches that grew more heated as the competition narrowed, the tournament ended on Sunday with Thailand's Mobile Easy, one of three teams from the home country, claiming victory over Australia's Sandalford Winery, in a first-ever win for Thailand.

In the final seconds of the match, as polo rookie Churo Pellegrini of Argentina hung virtually upside down on his elephant in an effort to defend his team's 6-4 lead, commentator Peter Prentice belted out his excitement over the loudspeaker system.

"This is like a hockey match it's going so fast," Prentice said, referring to Sandalford's and Mobile Easy's rush toward the ball. With only minutes remaining and Thailand with a two-point lead, three elephants - each topped by a driver (mahout) and his accompanying player - closed in on the tiny white target. The muddle that ensued - a classic scrum in elephant polo - became a mash of trunks and mallets. Within moments the group was enveloped in a thin cloud of dust causing the ball to practically disappear from view.

Sticks were swung with a force and vigor that was absorbed by the ground or an opposing player's mallet. In the second chukka, or half, Sandalford plowed through three sticks in as many minutes in a supreme effort to gain the lead. But despite an epic battle, when the closing gong sounded, it was the Thai team which raised its sticks in victory. "The nation of Thailand will be swinging in the aisles tonight," Prentice chimed.

It goes without saying that a weeklong battle atop two-ton pachyderms adds a new twist to a sport more commonly played on horseback. But then the King's Cup tournament is more than just a sporting event; it is also a cultural affair, a lesson in international relations and an elitist gathering on par with its equine cousin.

With mahouts settled just behind the elephants' ears prodding them to move faster, and lithe players hanging like Spiderman from atop the giant pachyderms, elephant polo is as unique a sport as the people who play it.

This year's tournament, which opened on September 6 after a midday elephant blessing, matched some of the world's most experienced horse and elephant polo players with a smattering of polo novices, many of whom found themselves engaging in tenacious duels, despite never before having been on an elephant.

Chivas Regal captain - and sometime commentator - Peter Prentice, holder of two World Elephant Polo Association (WEPA) world championship medals, a WEPA World Series Grand Slam title and the record for the fastest goal ever scored (4.5 seconds), has been playing elephant polo for 17 years. His team of WEPA legends also includes Torquhil Ian Campbell, the 13th Duke of Argyll. Mercedes Benz Thailand, winner of the 2002 and 2003 King's Cup trophies, boasts Oliver Winter, the man who brought polo back to Thailand; while both Mobile Easy and Sandalford Winery lay claim to several experienced sportsmen.

These teams went head-to-head with newcomers the All Blacks - former New Zealand rugby stars - the British Airways Cavalry team and the DBS Bank Ladies. The gathering was significant not only because it was the biggest elephant polo gathering ever held - with 14 teams taking part from around the world - but because it was the first such tournament to host two women's teams, as well as a transvestite team, the Screwless Tuskers.

"We're very much a part of this tournament," said Samantha Prentice, who scored seven goals in seven minutes while playing as a novice in the Tiger Tops' Millennium Tournament, and who led the DBS team. The Bangkok Bank ladies were captained by Margie McDougal, the world's most experienced female elephant polo player.

The King's Cup tournament was first brought to Thailand in 2001 by Christopher Stafford, a Swedish polo player and vice president and general manager of Anantara Resorts and Spas, the host of the tournament. The founding of the game, however, extends back to 1982, when British ex-winter Olympian James Manclark created the rules for the game, along with polo expert Jim Edwards.

The rules, while similar to horse polo, were amended to take the size and speed (or lack thereof) of the elephant into account. Mullis Capital's Ken McMillan, who has years of experience playing horse polo, explains that what makes elephant polo unique among many things is that there are so many more variables involved when playing polo on an elephant. The ears, the trunk, the size and speed of the elephant all have to be taken into account, he said.

Practice also poses a challenge. Many of the teams combine players from all over the world and training in between tournaments is nearly impossible without access to an elephant - though some players have found more creative ways of honing their skills. Germans Hugo and Dirk Goetz of the Mercedes Benz team learned their elephant polo skills from atop a Hummvee. One of the brothers would drive while the other would sit on a large foam box mounted to the vehicle's roof and practice hitting balls using an elephant polo mallet. Inventive, perhaps, but still not quite the same as riding an actual elephant.

For one, in a country were elephants are revered, "all the players and mahouts must ensure that the animals are treated with enormous sensitivity," McMillan said.

Throughout Thailand's history elephants have served as laborers in the logging industry, and long ago were considered an essential requisite for a strong army. In 1921, elephants were declared the country's first protected species. The Asian elephant is Thailand's national mascot. White elephants, meantime, have had a legendary influence on Thailand's history and have become a sign of royalty. That the tournament was held in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin seems only fitting, as it is here that the revered king keeps his most auspicious white elephant.

In addition to being part of the WEPA World Series, the King's Cup elephant polo tournament helps raise money for the National Elephant Institute's Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang, northern Thailand. To date, the event has raised around US$65,000 for the institute, which cares for Thailand's 1,500 wild and 2,500 domesticated elephants. Before the games even began this year three corporate donations worth $11,000 had already been made.