| 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 |
| Tickle and
the Ivories was founded to raise money for recognised environmental charities
in Asia and to eventually win one of the tournaments. The team has an Australian
flavour to it but welcomes women and men from all nationalities. 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. |
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| 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 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. |
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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
We are on the
lookout for fun people and currently need female and male players for Thailand
2002, Nepal 2002 and Sri Lanka 2003. |
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Offshore Resources Gallery
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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-
Ageneral description of your health and level of physical fitness.
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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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 !
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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