Scottish Elephant Polo
With the cricket world cup rapidly approaching, me being half scottish and Scotland being drawn in the same group as Australia, South Africa and the Netherlands...............and Scotland doing so terrible in the current RBS Six Nations I felt it was needed to look at sports in which Scotland have been victorious in recently, this is what leads me onto Elephant Polo!
Its True, but are the Elephants scottish?
This did seem like the most random thing in the world to me aswell, when I first saw the results, but when you look back through the history of the sport, it makes sense as to why Scotland are so good at it. I have a little knowledge about the game but not a great amount, I just support them seeing as its the only sport we seem to be able to win! So......The game is much the same as normal polo, its been adapted slightly due to the fact that its played on elephants: the sticks are longer and the players don't actually ride/control the elephant that is done by a professional elephant trainer or a mahout. Thats about it, other than that its just normal polo. A few rules that have also had to be introduced are: Penalties against elephants laying down in front of the goal, elephants running off to eat, elephants eating or grabbing other players sticks. There can be no more than 1 attacking elephant and one defending elephant in the D-shaped goal area at one time, if this happens a free hit is given against the offending team. Free hits are also given if the elephants pickup the ball, eat the ball or INTENTIONALLY step on the ball to stop the other team from gaining possesion!
Chivas Regal Scotland
Chivas Regal Scotland is the Scotland team that enters the WEPA Tournaments, the elephants are not scottish but the guys hitting the ball around are. Not only do the players need to hit the ball, defend and attack with the elephants they also need to be able to communicate with the Mahouts that controll the elephants all of whom speak very little english let alone scottish. Most of the players have learnt simple Nepali to better communicate with the Mahouts.
Scotland first won the championship in 2001 beating the all women team of the Tigresses USA (yes USA) in a close fought 5-4 victory. Scotalnd only began to enter the tournament in 1997, but since the victory in 2001 Scotland have won the championship twice more; once in 2004 and then they retained the title in 2005 with a win over Nepal's own National Parks team 7-6!
Who needs cricket, Who needs football, Who needs rugby?
We don't need the likes of Johnny Wilkinson or Wayne Rooney as hero's. Our heros are those with 4 legs, with huge trunks that play with quite possibly more spirit for our great Scottish nation than some of the conventional "sports stars" do! We have lesser known stars like Geoffrey Dobbs (scotlands goalie in 2005) who's dogged defence of the scotland goal mouth may have single handedly allowed us to pick up that much needed championship in 2005. Or Peter Prentice whose change of tatics allowed him to score a 30 yard stunner to give Scotland the lead in the 2005 final. These are the names I'll remember as sporting greats, these men and their elephants are what makes the nation proud! BRING IT ON FOR 2007!