Medium goal in England is very competitive, and showcases renowned players as well. That’s the case of Emlor, the recent winners of the Oxfordshire Cup, at Black Bears Polo Club. Now, Spencer MacCarthy’s organisation is playing the Duke of Sutherland Cup, hosted by Cowdray Park Polo Club, with two lineups – Emlor and Emlor Black.

Both foursomes claimed debut wins; in the meantime, PoloLine spoke to one of the team members, Edward Banner-Eve.

How did you see the team after the first game of the Duke of Sutherland Cup?

I think the team worked very well; we had a lot of practices and many team meetings. Emlor have a very good feeling – we encourage each other all the time. If any of us make a mistake, we turn the page and go to the next play. We are very positive, mostly with James MacCarthy, who despite is a 2-goaler, he is playing higher than his handicap. We play open, hitting the ball, we are very well mounted – in order to achieve this, we spent some time in Argentina to get reday. So playing this tournament, and beat such an organisation as Green Gates is a very good start, indeed.

How was the setup of this team to play this tournament?

I played with Amanara, last year, with Nicky Sen, Santiago and Lorenzo Chavanne. Happened that we played one match against Emlor and we son. A couple of weeks later, I received a call from Emlor’s manager, Nacho González, and he asked me whether I had horses to play. I said I had sixteen horses, and that led to put the team together.

You are due to play against G Squared in a week time. How do you manage the horses during such a long gap between games?

In my opinion, is the best. We are able to have team meetings, practices, eat well, go to the gym, and, most important, take a good rest. It’s good for the horses, as well. I think the story would be very different if we had lost; but after a victory, we are more confident.

What is Emlor aim at currently?

We work to win; but not only win, we want to win and play well, run around such great the Cowdray grounds. That’s it, we want to play good polo and win.