As players gear up commencement of the second phase of the national polo circus in Ibadan on Monday, traditional rivals, fully-armed Lagos, Kano and Kaduna are invading the foremost Eleyele Polo Ground with truckloads of supporters for what can best be described as the ‘fiercest battle for supremacy’.
For decades, teams from Lagos, Kano and Kaduna are have been locked in perpetual rivalry at major tournaments across the country, with Lagos and Kano having the upper hands but the high riding Kaduna contingent who are still smarting from their Niger Delta victory last January, said there was no stopping Kaduna in the Ibadan 2022 rumblings.
Other major polo clubs expected to participate in the tourney that is billed to climax on 22nd May include the Guard Polo Club from Abuja, Port Harcourt Polo Club, while Jos Red Crown would be making their second attempt at winning their first major title in Ibadan.
“The year 2022 is that of victories for Kaduna and we started with the Golden Jubilee victory in Port Harcourt and the next stop is Ibadan and it will take more than prayers for other clubs to dissuade us from a total clean sweep of all titles on offer,” Ibrahim Babangida, the Captain of Kaduna Polo Club, declared. “We have all it takes, the mounts, players and the needed chemistry to bring down all odds and no matter how hard they would try, I don’t see Lagos, Kano or host Ibadan getting on the way when the campaigns get underway next week,” he added .
Traditionally, three major prizes are on offer during Ibadan polo tournaments, with the highly revered Ibadan Cup presented in the early 1930s being the most sought after.
Others are the Rotimi Cup, Ade Alakija Cup played in memory of the former Ibadan Polo Captain, and The GOC Cup, the Professor Jide Owoeye Cup, Governor’s Cup, HST Cup and Shoreline Cup, among others.
Last year, host Ibadan polo club made good their pre-tournament rating, clinching the event’s biggest prize on offer, the Rotimi Cup in the colours of IbaAplus, while Lagos flag bearers, Falomo team sweep through tough oppositions, to earn their first ever Ade Alakija Cup.
Sammy Nasreddin and his Red Crown squad whose trip to the south west was their second outside their Gen. Hassan Polo Ground home in Jos left Ibadan on high, with the Ade Alakija Cup runners-up prizes to show.
Port Harcourt teams also enjoyed podium finishes after a week of top class galloping fiesta that attracted polo buffs and tourists to the political headquarters of western Nigeria in droves.
