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| Photo © Kris LeBoutillier |
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| Photo © Kris LeBoutillier |
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| Photo © Kris LeBoutillier |
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Thailand’s highly popular King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament heads for the hills in 2006. Event organiser Anantara Resorts today announced that the 2006 tournament would take place from 4-10 September in the northern-most region of the country popularly known as the Golden Triangle.
This annual event, ranked as the sixth largest event on the Thai tourism calendar has, for the past five years, taken place in the royal seaside town of Hua Hin, situated 220km south of the Thai capital Bangkok. The tournament was introduced to Thailand in 2001 by Anantara Vice-President, Christopher Stafford and is a charitable event that raises money for the country’s National Elephant Institute in Lampang, northern Thailand.
In just five years the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament has gone from a small 2-day event with 6 teams into a week-long extravaganza, which in 2005 featured 16 teams from 3 continents encompassing 55 players from 15 countries. The event now attracts corporate sponsors, which include such global brands as American Express, British Airways, Chivas Regal, Mercedes Benz and PricewaterhouseCoopers. In addition to the world’s top horse polo players, the 2005 tournament saw the return of Bernie Fraser, New Zealand’s former world-ranking All Blacks rugby player plus newcomers, Nick Farr Jones and Peter Fitzsimmons from Australia’s Wallabies team.
“The growing interest each year is enormous,” Stafford commented. “When we started it was more of a weekend knock-round than a tournament. Last year we had a waiting list of teams wanting to take part!”
Explaining the decision for the change in venue, Stafford said: “The tournament generates an enormous amount of international media exposure and over the years has contributed towards raising awareness of Hua Hin as a tourism destination.”
“So by leveraging the popularity of the tournament, we aim to now turn the international media spotlight onto a very unique and special part of Thailand, showcasing the beauty of the natural landscape of the Golden Triangle region,” he said.
Through its own Elephant Camp located within the grounds of the Anantara Resort Golden Triangle, the property’s focus on the future of Thailand’s pachyderm population forms an integral part of the resort’s operations,” Stafford added. “On an on-going basis, resident nature ranger John Roberts works closely with the Thai government’s Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang to develop Anantara’s camp as an elephant sanctuary.”
The Tourism Authority of Thailand supports the King’s Cup Elephant Polo tournament and spectator entrance is free of charge. The 2006 event will take place within the grounds of the Chiang Saen Secondary School, located some 60 km from Chiang Rai International Airport and 12 kms from the Anantara Resort Golden Triangle.
Past tournament winners whose names are now engraved on the King’s Cup trophy are Chivas Regal (2001), Mercedez Benz Germany (2002 and 2003), Mobile Easy Thailand (2004) and Chivas Regal (2005).
To date the tournament has raised over US$140,000 for the National Elephant Institute, which provides medical care, sustenance, employment, welfare and mahout training to Thailand’s elephant population. It is estimated that Thailand has around 2500 domesticated elephants and 1500 wild elephants. This is down from an elephant population of around 50,000 in 1950 and 100,000 in 1900.
The modern game of elephant polo was founded in Nepal in 1982 by Englishman Jim Edwards, owner of Tiger Tops Lodge in Nepal and James Manclark, a former British Olympic bobsleigh competitor. The King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament is part of the World Elephant Polo Association World Series. The World Championships take place in Chitwan National Park, Nepal every December and the Ceylon Elephant Polo tournament takes place each February in Sri Lanka’s fort town of Galle.
Further information about the tournament and reservations are available on line at www.anantara.com. Information about the tournament is also available at www.elephantpolo.com
For all International media enquiries, please contact:
Shamini Murugan
Tel: +66 (0) 2476-0022 ext 1719
Mobile: +66 (0) 1904 7344
E-mail: smurugan@minornet.com
For all Thailand media enquiries, please contact:
Jaruwon Meesap
Tel: +66 (0) 2476-0022 ext 1707
E-mail: jaruwon_me@minornet.com
ELEPHANT POLO HISTORY AND RULES OF THE GAME
Please click to view
Further information about the event, please visit
Thailand Elephant Polo Association
Web site: www.thaielepolo.com
For information on Elephant Polo, please visit the World Elephant Polo Association web site www.elephantpolo.com
RELATED ARTICLES
THE NATIONAL ELEPHANT INSTITUTE (NEI)/
Thai Elephant Conservation Centre
Under The Royal Patronage of HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana, Lampang Province
http://www.tatnews.org/others/1785.asp
Please click to view
ROYAL PARADISE
http://www.tatnews.org/emagazine/1209.asp
Please click to view
For further inquiries and bookings, please contact:
Reservations Department
E-mail: info@anantara.com
Tel: +66 (0) 3252 0250
Fax: +66 (0) 3252 0259
ELEPHANT POLO HISTORY AND RULES OF THE GAME
The World Elephant Polo Association established the governing rules for Elephant Polo in 1982, the association has its headquarters at the Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge in the Royal Chitwan Park in Nepal which is where the World Elephant Polo Tournament is played every year on a grass airfield in Megauly.
In 2001 two new competitions were launched - the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Hua Hin Thailand, organised by the Anantara Resort and Spa and held each September and the Ceylon Elephant Polo Association Championships, held on Weligama beach in front of Taprobane Island in southern Sri Lanka each February.
ORGANISATION OF THE GAME
- In Thailand the game is played with three players on each team on a marked pitch of 100 metres by 60 metres using a standard size polo ball.
- The game consists of two 7-minute chukkas of playing time, with an interval of 15 minutes. The whistle blown by the referee stops and starts the play.
- The pitch is marked with a centre line; a circle with a radius of 10 metres in the centre of the field, and a semi-circle, in front of the goals, with a radius of 20 metres, measured from the centre of the goal line at either end of the pitch which is referred to as the D.
- Elephants and ends are changed at half time.
- The scoring system awards two points to a winning team and one point apiece to teams which draw.
RULES
The rules are similar to those of horse polo but some key points to note are that the elephants have a player and a mahout, ladies are allowed to use both hands and elongated sticks of around two metres in length are used.
Additionally there are some elephant specific rules:
- Any team having more than 3 elephants in one half of the pitch is judged to have committed a foul.
- No more than 2 elephants may be in the D at one time – one from the attacking team and one from the defending team.
- There are no restrictions as to the height, weight or sex of the elephants.
- No elephants may lie down in front of the goal mouth. To do so will constitute a foul. A free hit is awarded to the opposing side from the semi-circle in front of the goal.
- An elephant may not pick up the ball in its trunk during play. To do so constitutes a foul and a free hit is awarded to the opposing team from the spot where the ball was picked up. The defending players must be 15 metres from the spot.
- Teams are made up from the pool of elephants and balanced out as fairly as possible bearing in mind size and speed of the elephant. Once the pool of elephants has been selected, each elephant is categorized and marked as A,B,C,D, E, F.
- Sugar cane or rice balls packed with vitamins (molasses and rock salt) shall be given to the elephants at the end of each match and a cold beer, or soft drink, to the elephant drivers and not vice versa.
THE HEALTH AND WELFARE OF THE ELEPHANTS USED IN T.E.P.A. TOURNAMENTS IS OF PRIME CONCERN, ABUSE OF THE ELEPHANT IS CONSIDERED TO BE THE MOST SERIOUS OFFENCE.
HANDICAPPING
Handicaps are assigned by the T.E.P.A. Handicapping Committee and handicapped players may come under one of two categories
- Professional horse polo players. The handicap awarded to any registered professional horse polo player shall total half of their horse polo handicap.
- Professional and seasoned elephant polo players. A half goal handicap will be assigned to any player who has played in three or more World Series (WEPA, TEPA or CEPA) elephant polo championships anywhere in the world and does not have a horse polo handicap.
Players handicaps are decided before the tournament commences. Player handicaps may not be changed during the tournament.
Should a team's total handicap when summed result in a half goal handicap, the handicap is rounded down.
Full information about the rules of the game is available at www.thaielepolo.com
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