University of Virginia Library

Malletmen Drop Yale In Season Finale

In their last game of the fall
season (Sunday, November 15), the
University of Virginia Polo Team
defeated the intercollegiate champion
team from Yale by 10-3. The
game was on a wet, slippery field
field and the horses frequently slipped
and stumbled.

In the first chukka, the Elis were
first to score from a muddy melee
at the mouth of their goal. David
Banks, captain of the Virginia team,
then countered with a flamboyant
under-the-tail shot. Yale scored again
at the end of the first chukka
they led by 2-1.

In the following three chukkas
the Virginia team displayed the
hard-hitting, precision game that
the Sunday polo crowd has come to
expect. The second chukka ended
with Virginia ahead 5-2, the third
chukka, 7-2, and the last chukka
closed with an overwhelming Virginia
margin of 10-3.

The Virginia team out-hustled
the Elis. Banks, who scored four
points at the number one position,
constantly beat his man to the
throw-ins. Powerful first-yearman
Reid Graham, who scored four
points mobilized his opponents
with his bone-popping bumping tactics.
Ray Norden, mounted on
"Toothless-Tarbaby," played a
cerebral three position, scored one
point and turned the Yale advances
into Virginia attacks. John Stuart
entered the game in the third
chukka and scored for Virginia,
but was forced to retire after catching
a mallet blow on the temple
from Eli Jim Viasik's under-the-neck
shot. Stuart quickly assured
his concerned fans that the blow
was "a mere concussion of paltry
significance."

The Yale team has just started
their season and they will be stiff
competition after a winter of
action.

Virginia polo captain Banks says
that he has a rigorous training
program planned to keep his team
in shape during the winter.