Audemars Piguet and Anantara Trumpet the 2009 King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament

Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas has announced the 2009 dates for the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament. The highly popular event will take place from March 23 to March 29 in the northernmost region of Thailand known as the Golden Triangle. This year’s event is once again sponsored by Audemars Piguet – one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious watchmakers – and will see 12 teams go trunk to trunk to win the coveted King’s Cup trophy.

An opening parade and blessing ceremony will be held in Chiang Saen town on March 23 to showcase the culture of the Golden Triangle region with northern traditional-style dancers, hill-tribe villagers in traditional costume, elephant spirit men (Khru Ba Yai), and colourfully decorated pachyderms. The parade will mark the kick-off of the weeklong competition held on the banks of the Ruak River which divides Thailand from Burma.

During the first five years of the tournament, the event took place in the royal seaside town of Hua Hin before moving to the native home of elephants in 2006 – the Golden Triangle. The tournament was introduced to Thailand in 2001 by Anantara Resorts and is a charitable event that raises money for the country’s National Elephant Institute in Lampang, northern Thailand.

In just seven years the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament has gone from a small two-day event with six teams into a week-long extravaganza, which in 2008 featured 12 teams from four continents, encompassing 40 players from at least 15 countries.

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. On an on-going basis, resident Elephant Camp Director, John Roberts, works closely with the Thai government’s Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang to develop Anantara’s camp as an elephant sanctuary.

To date the tournament has raised over US$200,000 for the National Elephant Institute, which provides medical care, sustenance, employment, and mahout training to Thailand’s elephant population. In 2008 the funds were used to run the custom-build ambulance that was donated at the opening ceremony of the most recent tournament. It is estimated that Thailand has around 2,500 domesticated elephants and 1,500 wild elephants. This is down from an elephant population of around 50,000 in 1950 and 100,000 in 1900.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) fully endorses the King’s Cup Elephant Polo tournament, having identified it as one of the country’s prime annual special events. It will take place in the grounds of Anantara Resort Golden Triangle, and spectator entrance is free.

The Story behind the Game
What have started out as a whimsical conversation between two quirky sport lovers, evolved itself to be known as the 6th largest annual event in the Thai tourism calendar. The event in question of being polo with an adventurous twist thus was the birth of polo played on the back of elephants.

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 played every year on a grassy airfield in Megauly. This tournament is played within a relatively small circuit, including the countries Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

In Thailand, the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament was first launched in Hua Hin by Anantara Resort in 2001. In 2006, the tournament moved to Golden Triangle and was hosted by Anantara Resort Golden Triangle. Elephants are a key symbol of Thailand’s history, and nothing but utmost respect is given to the pachyderms and all proceeds of the tournament are used to ensuring their welfare, sustenance, employment, mahout training and medical treatment provision.

Thai Elephant Polo Association

• Due to the size of these great mammals, each team is comprised of three players and their four legged accomplice on a marked pitch of 100 metres by 60 metres using a standard size polo ball.
• The game is divided into two 7-minute “chukkas”, or halves, of playing time with an interval of 15 minutes. The whistle blown by the referee stops and starts the play. Both elephants and playing pitch ends are changed after the first chukka.
• 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.
• The scoring system awards two points to a winning team and one point apiece to teams which draw.

Rules of Play
The rules are similar to those of horse polo. However, there are some key differences which should be noted. All elephants carry a player and a mahout, ladies are allowed to use both hands and mallets of around two metres in length are used. Some players train in swimming pools by swinging a golf club one-headedly through the water to strengthen their wrists.

Additionally there are some elephant specific rules:

• Any team with 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.

Technicalities of the Game

• 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 and 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 the T.E.P.A. Tournament 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.

1. Professional horse polo players
The handicap awarded to any registered professional horse polo player shall total half of their horse polo handicap.

2. 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, the handicap will be rounded down.

Fun Facts

• Elephants in this tournament only respond to Thai commands from their mahouts.
• The first elephant polo games were played with a soccer ball. These were quickly changed to standard polo balls after it was realized the elephants liked to stamp and pop the soccer balls.
• Some playresttrain by sitting on top of a slow-moving jeep and swinging at ball using the actual Elephant Polo stick.

For more information on King’s Cup Elephant Polo, please visit www.anantaraelephantpolo.com

Anantara Resort Golden Triangle is located 60km north of Chiang Rai’s international airport. For enquiries and reservations
Tel: + 66 (0) 5378 4084 or + 66 (0) 2477
0760 E-mail: infogt@anantara.com

For more information please visit www.anantara.com

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