Fifth Chukka wins Patrons Cup

Fifth Chukka parading the South African import Spu Birma, Kashim Bukar, Argentine Diego White and Babangida Hassan had to pull back from a four-goal deficit at the start due to their handicap superiority over the Rubicon. The Rubicon side comprising an all-Nigerian cast of Ahmadu Umar, Jamilu Mohammed, Ibrahim Mohammed and patron Hadi Sirika were […]

Fifth Chukka parading the South African import Spu Birma, Kashim Bukar, Argentine Diego White and Babangida Hassan had to pull back from a four-goal deficit at the start due to their handicap superiority over the Rubicon.

The Rubicon side comprising an all-Nigerian cast of Ahmadu Umar, Jamilu Mohammed, Ibrahim Mohammed and patron Hadi Sirika were the surprise team of the five-day tournament. The team stunned everybody with its resilience, determination and direct style of play, which unsettled all the teams that stood on its path.

The start was exhilirating with Rubicon beginning the encounter with a 4 goal advantage and it looked like a dream start when Ibrahim Mohammed added the tally to 5 midway into the first chukker.

On resumption Diego White scored twice in blistering succesion as the Fifth Chukker begin to regain the ascendency. Moments later patron of Rubicon, Hadi Sirika, under tremendous pressure from Diego White and Spu Birma, scored an amazing own goal to take the scores to 5-3. White scored a 60 yard penalty to ensure only a goal margin separating the two sides at the end of second chukker.

After a brief hiatus following Jamilu Mohammed tumbling incidence it was Ahmadu Umar turn to increase the tally to 6-4 following a good combination with Ibrahim Mohammed. The ovation that greeted that goal did not died down as Spu reduced the tally almost immediately. And yet again, Ahmadu Umar scored beautifully after a solo dribbling run to restore the two-goal cushion. The scoreline stood at 7-5 in favour of Rubicon at the end of the third chukker. It was end-to-end stuff and a frenetic atmosphere at the start of the fourth chukker as Spu raced away the length of the field, after neutralising a Rubicon attack, to score amidst tremendous uproar from the spectators. Later a 40-yard penalty was neatly converted by White to level scores at 7-7. Fifth Chukker’s horse power and technical debonair was beginning to show as White converted a 30-yard penalty to put his side in the lead for the first time in the keenly contested match. We got into the last stanza with Fifth Chukker still leading with a single goal margin. And that was how it ended but there was still time for some frills and drama with two marvellous offline clearance by Ahmadu Umar and Jamilu Mohammed to deny Spu and White from increasing the tally. It was a sweet victory for Fifth Chukka at the end which ensured that the beautiful diadem will remain at the resort for twelve more months.