The Rangitīkei Polo Club team (from left) Mark Duncan, Ollie Jones, Harriet McKelvie and Angus McKelvie won the prestigious Savile Cup. Photo / Geoff Soper Photography
The Rangitīkei Polo Club team (from left) Mark Duncan, Ollie Jones, Harriet McKelvie and Angus McKelvie won the prestigious Savile Cup. Photo / Geoff Soper Photography
Rangitīkei Polo Club has won the prestigious Savile Cup for the first time in 15 years, going one step further than 2024’s runners-up placing.
A strong performance in the final, winning 8-4 over Christchurch Blue, resulted in the team lifting New Zealand’s oldest polo trophy - one of the country’s oldest sporting trophies.
The Savile Cup competition began in 1890 with Rangitīkei Polo Club first winning it in 1901. The club last won the cup on home soil in 2010.
This year’s event was held in Canterbury from February 25 to March 2.
Rangitīkei Polo Club captain and the Auckland Cup player of the tournament, Angus McKelvie, was pleased with his team’s performance over the week.
“We were a bit rusty after our first game, we had a couple of work-ons which we sorted out pretty quick - after that, we were pretty sharp and did everything we needed to,” McKelvie said.
“By the Sunday we were pretty flawless.”
The team was made up of McKelvie, his wife Harriet McKelvie, Mark Duncan and Ollie Jones. The tournament was the first time they had all played together.
McKelvie said it was satisfying to win the trophy off the back of making the long journey to Canterbury.
What made the victory even sweeter was the hurt felt in 2024 when Rangitīkei fell short, losing 8-3 to Mystery Creek.
McKelvie said that gave the team added motivation.
“Obviously if you don’t win, it makes you a bit keener,” he said.
“It is a very impressive trophy.”
The Rangitīkei Polo Club team (from left) Angus McKelvie, Ollie Jones, Mark Duncan and Harriet McKelvie. Photo / Geoff Soper Photography
Douglas Duncan, a Rangitīkei Polo Club member and past president, attended the final game.
Duncan was proud of his club’s effort, considering the team it beat in the final were “warm favourites”.
“It was a great win, the Savile Cup is certainly the pinnacle of the inter-club competitions. Our guys played really well as a team,” Duncan said.
Angus McKelvie also won the Champion String of Ponies, awarded to a single player who has a team of the best three ponies.
The club will now compete in “a couple of quiet tournaments”, resting the horses used and using younger, less experienced horses for those competitions.
