Focaccia, our anchorman, injured his shoulder in our second match, leaving us no pro for the closing match. Saladin Mazlan, who was to join our team only for the National League, stepped in to cover for Marco, and we finished in 5th place out of 9. We had a short break before the
Nationals were due to start, when we had Marco desperately ultra- sounding his shoulder so he could at least attempt to start in the Nationals. He managed to start, but we lost our first National League match; it was a hard-fought match which resulted in a draw, followed by an extra chukka, still a draw, and then a penalty shoot- out the next day to conclude. We had another short break
due to the incredible weather, which prevented play because first the drought made the ground too hard, then the haze made the air too unhealthy, and finally the thunderstorms flooded the fields making them unplayable. When we could finally restart, we had put in more practice as a team and Marco’s shoulder had more time to heal. Some background; Team Windhorse was not necessarily a favourite going in. We were made up of two amateurs and two pros with a limited number of horses, which had to last us through the whole season (i.e. they had to stay injury-free). And we had to come up against teams with more and faster horses, which were pretty much set up like mini organizations in themselves; but this made it all the more challenging, and once we started winning, all the more satisfying. We lost one more match, then like
magic we “clicked” and didn’t lose any more matches after that. A turning point actually was
when we lost one of our blue shirts. One of our players misplaced his blue jersey, so we had to swap to playing exclusively in our yellow set – something we should have done from the start. Tis year, while both Blue and Yellow represent the missing elements of Water and Earth, it is Earth i.e. yellow that is the better enhancing agent, as it keeps the raging Fire element of the year under control. Wearing yellow made us slow down our game, allowing us to put more
20 FENGSHUIWORLD | JUNE 2014
shirts. One of our players misplaced his blue jersey, so we had to swap to playing exclusively in our yellow set – something we should have done from the start.
Te turning point came when we lost one of our blue
Our National League season
was a great experiment in applying feng shui principles to an organized sporting team. Feng shui has also been successfully used for the big professional Football Clubs where there is so much at stake with each win or loss. In our team’s playing experience
strategy behind our moves, and gave us the impetus we needed to beat some very competitive teams. We started to read each other better and better, winning by a greater margin each time we played. Our seven consecutive wins gave us the National League Finals win as well as the Championship for the entire 2014 League – the Big Prize – what we were setting out to win! Saladin Mazlan won the Most Valuable Player prize, while Ali Mazlan’s horse Coluna won Best Playing Pony. It was a sweet victory and one that felt better than any I’ve ever had. Polo is the ultimate team sport because it is a four-player game; if you can play intelligent, structured polo with a proper strategy, you can overcome other deficiencies through sheer willpower and harmonious teamwork. Te level of the tournament was 8 goals, and we made up our 8 goals with two 3 goalers, one 2 goaler and one 0 goaler. So rather than investing in one superstar higher goal player, we combined a team of players where everyone had to do a job. Our path to success was almost chess-like in the amount of planning and strategizing that went in. And correspondingly, the joy of winning came not with watching one person shine and going along for the ride, but with each team member contributing a distinct and important role.
however, while the colours, player combinations, team name, team logo and playing schedules all contributed to our success, what has been truly marvelous about the results of our feng shui was the harmony and happiness that we generated together, not
just
when we lifted the big cup but all through the season, through the ups as well as the downs; our good feng shui and perfect matching astrology gave us the tenacity and the resolve to keep holding on to the next victory, and the next and the next. Tey say polo is the Game of Kings, and it really is, and not just because kings play polo. Yes it has that cache and is a well-known favourite pastime of Royal families the world over – in Malaysia, HRH Prince Abdullah Shah, Crown Prince of Pahang heads our organization the Royal Malaysian Polo Association and the Pahang Royal family is hugely supportive of the sport – but it is the Game of Kings because it is a sport consisting of players who demonstrate great nobility; with the speed of galloping horses, the ferocity of the turns, the wielding of potentially deadly cane mallets, it is essential the game is played with rules and respect for each other. And Malaysian polo is certainly proving to world-class in its standards - both in the quality of play as well as in the integrity of our players. We have in the recent past hosted a World Cup Zone Qualifier in Malaysia, with plans to bid for the World Cup Finals proper in the future.
Team Windhorse makes its next League appearance in the continuation of the Merdeka League on 15th August 2014 at the Royal Pahang Polo Club. This tournament will be particularly special as it will be held in conjunction with the celebration of HRH Sultan of Pahang’s 40th Anniversary of his Coronation.
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