Elephant
Polo ~The Biggest Sport in the World:
Player
Recruitment Announcement
a
Special Report fromTickle and the Ivories members of the World Elephant
Polo Association
Nepal
Proceeds
go to Recognized Environmental Charities in Asia
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are on the lookout for fun people and currently need female and male players
for Thailand 2002, Nepal 2002 and Sri Lanka 2003. You don't have to play
all of them, and you don't have to have had any prior polo experience."
Tim
Deyzel, Team Captain
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Tickle and the Ivories was founded
to raise money for recognised environmental charities in Asia and to eventually
win one of the tournaments. And they're having a terrific amount of
fun trying to achieve these aims! The team has an Australian flavour to
it but welcomes women and men from all nationalities. In fact they have
a few spots available for some of the forthcoming tournaments. You don't
have to have any equine polo experience, so if you're interested in playing,
supporting, seeing the videos, helping raise money for elephant-oriented
charities, attending the tournaments and watching, or just hanging out
with the team, then contact them through their website.
Not (yet) as established as World
Cup Soccer, elephant polo is nonetheless a legitimate sport governed by
the World Elephant Polo Association (WEPA) based in Nepal. In its contemporary
form, it has been played for over twenty years in Nepal, where a tiny white
polo ball the size of a tennis ball is fought over by four elephants, mahouts
and players from each team. Newer tournaments have |
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World Elephant
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Tickle
and the Ivories Website
Contact
THE TEAM
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recently been started in Sri Lanka and
Thailand which are played with three of the gentle giants per side. The
elephants are always ridden and steered by their mahout affording players
the luxury of being able to concentrate on hitting the ball with their
two-and-a-bit metre sticks. The elephants themselves love the game as they
receive extra rations during the tournaments. It is not unheard of for
an elephant to kick the ball through the goals which counts as a legitimate
point!
The sport is organized by the World
Elephant Polo Association (WEPA), which hosts an annual tournament in Nepal
every December. To date Tickle and the Ivories has participated in the
20th WEPA Championship - Nepal - December 2001. Eight teams were invited
to participate in WEPA 2001. We won the coveted 'Best Dressed Team' award
and were runners-up in the Amateur Quaich (Cup). We will next be
competing in:
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The 2nd
King's Cup - Thailand,
Wed. 18th to Sun. 22nd September 2002
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The 21st
WEPA Championship - Nepal,
Sun. 8th to Sat. 14th December 2002
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The 3rd
Ceylon Elephant Polo Association Championship - Sri
Lanka, February 2003
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We are on the lookout for
fun people and currently need female and male players for Thailand 2002,
Nepal 2002 and Sri Lanka 2003. You don't have to play all of them and you
don't have to have had any prior polo experience, but it would help if:
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You will be passing through Singapore
at some point so that you can meet the captain and some of the other Singapore-based
expats who form the core of the team.
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You have an easy going demeanour and
are able to introduce new drinking games to the team.
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Your pork belly futures held by your
private trust in the Caymen Islands are 'in the money.' This is probably
not the cheapest sport you could think of, but then again a few of the
rookies thought that you had to own your own elephant to play (The tears
streamed down our faces for days !). From that perspective it may not be
as expensive as you think !
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Your family name is 'Dolittle' and you
really do have a way with big animals.
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It would also help if you
could waffle on a bit about yourself. If you hold an MBA, as do some of
the team, you may not have as much common sense as you think and your attention
to detail is almost certainly deficient. So you may want to tackle the
following in a strict linear fashion:
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age
- Feel free to lie as long as that lie has long-since been carried over
into your photo identification.
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sex
- There was a time when a name would reveal all, but in an age of cross-gender
experimentation it wouldn't hurt to clarify this. If you are unsure, we
regret that we do not have the resources to perform chromosomal analyses.
So hold that blood sample.
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health
- A general description of your health and level of physical fitness. Glasses
and contacts are fine. A reply along the lines of "Perfect health but allergic
to elephants" is probably not as funny as you might imagine. If you have
peculiar dietary requirements but are happy foraging in the jungle in the
evenings to supplement your vacuum-packed NASA rations, do let us know.
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nationality
- If your country/territory: is in the process of being used as a football
on the international field of geo-political soccer (Gibraltar et al); is
under UN supervision (East Timor); is dysfunctional, failing, exploding,
imploding, or generally getting a right old spanking at the moment (where
do we start ...), or is simply a mean and wicked place and won't let you
have a passport (North Korea ... and the rest), then this will be a difficult
area to tackle. If however you're merely one of those annoying individuals
who hold passports from multiple countries (and buying them from island-nations
of the South Pacific is cheating), then count up the stamps in all your
passports and let us know which one has the most !
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location
- Where are you based ?
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profession
- "One-eared impressionist painter" ; "Founder and CEO of Kinko's Kennels
for Kats - Karing for Kats since late 2001". That kind of thing.
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dates
- Which tournament are you interested in ? Dates are on the home page.
Both is an option.
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other
- Hobbies (weird is good), social activities in which you participate (or
would but they never invite you) etc. Actually to be honest this has very
little to do with the entry requirements. We're just curious !
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feedback
- where did you hear about us ?
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Or, if all
this was too hard, why don't you just use
"well-rounded", "gregarious", "competitive", "I am" and "great fun, particularly
after a few tequila slammers" in a sentence and you're probably in with
a fighting chance !
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Photo Left:
"The Nepal
2001 Team in front of the Team Tent"
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Back row males
(left to right): Toots (#5); Puff Daddy (#2); Shifty (#7)
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Standing out
of place as usual: Tally Ho (#8)
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Middle row,
if you can call it that, females (left to right): Dog Squad (#6); The Red
Terror (#3); Rose of Tralee (#4)
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Front: Emily,
the best Team Coordinator ever; Kelpie (#1)
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"Outflanking
the Mongolians"
Once again our team can be seen
putting pressure on the Mongolian hoards Nomads. The Rose is leaning out
for the ball, although no ball is visible so there is a small chance that
she is just stretching. Tally Ho is close behind while, Kelpie tries to
execute a bizarre, and to this day, inexplicable left flanking move. |
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"The Red
Terror reaches for the ball"
Red is seen here desperately trying
to win the ball from the Mongolian hoards team. If it wasn't for the blur
of an elephants tail, and to a lesser extent the sticks, one would be tempted
to cry out that this was a staged shot - but it isn't! |
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"Tickle
race forward - or could that be backward?"
Tickle have possession of the ball
and can be seen either trying to hit it forward to #3 on attack or backwards,
with a mighty back-hand shot which would make #3 our last line of defence.
Either way, at least we had possession and the dreaded Tiger Tops Tuskers
didn't! |
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| And you
thought YOUR job was the pits!!! |
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Important
Links and Information
For more information on the World
Elephant Polo Association - Click
Here -
If interested in becoming a team
player, please email -Click
Here -
For more information about Tickle
and the Ivories visit the website - Click
Here - |
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