Welcome To Our Site

This is the website of The Pukka Chukkas, the world's favourite elephant polo team and Great Britain's representative in the WEPA World Championships.

The 30th World Elephant Polo Championships, held in on the edge of the Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal, saw EFG Switzerland retain their status as World Champions, beating Tiger Tops Tuskers of Nepal in an enthralling final - click here for full details.

The Pukka Chukkas, playing in our fourth World Championships, were drawn in what turned out to be the dreaded "group of death", with our group providing all of the finalists in the two WEPA competitions - EFG Switzerland (the defending World Champions), Tiger Tops Nepal and Chinggis Khan of Mongolia.

The Pukka Chukkas line up before the Quaich Final

Despite the draw, we reached the Final of the WEPA Olympic Quaich for the first time after beating the WEPA Legends 6-3 in the semi-final (Click here for some of the Semi-Final on You Tube).

Despite taking a 4-0 nil lead into the half-time break of the Final, the "elephant" factor came into play and the experience of the Mongolians began to tell as their star players levelled the scores with about a minute remaining in the second chukka and then scored the winner with just 15 seconds to go with a cracking shot from well outside of the "D". See Clips of the Pre-Final parade and the match itself on You Tube (1st Clip; 2nd Clip)

Photo Courtesy Equestrio/Copyright Lucy Monro

Huge congratulations to Mike who will go down in Pukka Chukka history for scoring our first ever goal in a final, and to Jason, Simon, Alex and Tom for getting the team so near to glory....still, an Olympic silver medal is not to be sniffed at and we are edging ever closer to glory as each year passes!

We were also absolutely delighted to win the British Gurkha "Best Dressed" Trophy for the second year running, sporting playing shirts designed and supplied by La Martina in Argentina.

Photo Courtesy Equestrio/Copyright Lucy Monro

Best dressed presentation: (left to right) Tom Fontaine, Zina Cordery, Emma Blockey, Melanie Wheeler, Patricia Manclark, Alex Hamilton, Gwenni Barrett, Michael Eaton, Simon Race, Jason Wheeler (Capt)

Alex, our very own flying doctor and star defender, had to miss the second half of the Quaich final so that he could fly to Kathmandu with one of the WEPA party who had been taken ill just before the match started - Alex's unswerving dedication to his profession was humbling to watch and upheld the traditions and ethos of WEPA and The Pukka Chukkas.

The 2nd Annual Pukka Chukkas MS Bicycle Polo Cup was played in front of huge crowds after the WEPA semi-finals - we were thrilled that the Nepalese team, the Meghauli Champions, who were sponsored by The Pukka Chukkas, romped home and they will be a force to be reckoned with next year! The Bicycle Polo raised over US$ 10,000 this year for local charities, the ITNC and the MS Society and special thanks must go to SoBu Energy and its founders Tom Fontaine and Zina Cordery.

Last, but by no means least, our very own Melanie was awarded the Oscar for best "off-field" performance; The Chief has confirmed she still hasn't stopped smiling since Col. Raj "The Silver Fox" Kalaan presented the award to her!

After the Quaich Final we had a rendition of the Pukkas favourite song, "Resham Phiriri", and here it is on YouTube for all to sing along to!

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