King Power win nail-biting final to reign supreme in King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament
After four days of fun festivities and captivating elephant polo featuring ten teams and 40 players from all over the world including Miss Thailand, New Zealand All Black rugby players and professional polo players, the final day offered plenty of memorab
The highly anticipated final was presided by HM the King’s Representative, H.E. Privy Councillor, Air Chief Marshal Chalit Pukbhasuk.
The final match placed two stellar teams – Rueang Chang against King Power Duty Free - in a closely-fought battle for the 14th King’s Cup Elephant Polo trophy. Rueang Chang, captained by Ed Story along with Taweesak Keereekaew and Prakorn Saejaw, and King Power, captained by Tom Claytor with Nattapong Pratumlee and Satid Wongkraso, went head to head in a thrilling final.
The first half was dominated by Rueang Chang but no goals were scored. Things heated up in the second chukka with King Power battling to regain their King’s Cup crown. Rueang Chang had looked good early on but in the second half King Power showed their prowess and their professional polo experience with Tom Claytor and Nattanpong Pratumlee scoring all the goals in the second half.
With only one minute to go the game was 8-7 with King Power Captain Tom Claytor scoring the winning goal in the dying moments of the match, resulting in a final score of 9-7.
The exciting event has not only been about fun and games – a generous sum of Bt15 million was raised for various elephant charity projects bringing the total raised to over US$1,300,000 (Bt46 million).
Final rankings:
1. King Power Duty Free
2. Rueang Chang
3. Audemars Piguet and Citi Team (draw)
4. PricewaterhouseCoopers New Zealand All Blacks and Johnnie Walker Blue Label (draw)
5. Mekhong
6. Anantara Arabian Knights
7. Casillero Del Diablo
8. Anantara Hotels, Resorts and Spa
