Balladeer’s Blog continues its coverage of the world’s OLDEST team sport. Polo was already centuries old when Alexander the Great’s men played it! FOR MY PRIMER ON POLO CLICK HERE
DAY FOUR: PILOT VS STABLE DOOR. Pilot – Official Balladeer’s Blog Nickname: The Troubleshooters – took on Stable Door – Official Balladeer’s Blog Nickname: The Jackaroos. Pilot has already won the first two titles in the newly-rechristened Gauntlet of Polo (formerly the Triple Crown of Polo). The Whitney Cup and the USPA crown have already been taken by the Troubleshooters.
Pilot never really let the Jackaroos in this Match. The First Chukker saw the Troubleshooters knock in 4 Goals while shutting out Stable Door.
In the Second Chukker the Jackaroos finally got on the scoreboard as they exchanged a Goal apiece with their opponents, making it a 5-1 tally. Pilot shut out Stable Door again in the 3rd Chukker while putting two more Goals between the Uprights. Headed into Halftime the Troubleshooters were on top 7-1. Continue reading
PART EIGHT: The previous installment dealt with the last surviving Fool Killer Letter by Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans, Editor of the Milton Chronicle. That letter was from February of 1879. 
In 1862 the Southern Literary Messenger quoted from a Milton Chronicle Fool Killer Letter, but without an exact date and without the whole context it’s not sufficient to count it as an 8th surviving letter. 
DAY THREE, FIRST MATCH: PARK PLACE VS OLD HICKORY BOURBON. Park Place – Official Balladeer’s Blog Nickname: The Cossacks – took on Old Hickory Bourbon – Official Balladeer’s Blog Nickname: The Distillers. 
The First Chukker saw the Cossacks and the Distillers go blow for blow and Goal for Goal, ultimately ending in a 2-2 tie. In the Second Chukker the teams continued to put the ball between the Uprights with giddy abandon, resulting in a 5-4 edge for Park Place. 
DAY TWO, FIRST MATCH: TONKAWA FARMS VS POSTAGE STAMP FARM. Tonkawa Farms – Official Balladeer’s Blog Nickname: The Cavalry – took on Postage Stamp Farm – Official Balladeer’s Blog Nickname: The Carolinians. 
The Cavalry doubled-up on the Carolinians 2 Goals to 1 in the First Chukker, then manhandled them for 4 unanswered Goals in the Second Chukker to grab a 5-1 lead. 
Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore.
PART SEVEN: The seventh surviving Fool Killer Letter. (See Part One for an explanation.) 
Holmes then set out to snuff the devious old bachelor and also came across another young man who had been played false by the same woman who victimized the wagon driver. This suitor had swum the Hyco River in North Carolina, risking pneumonia at that time of year, just to see the girl. The Fool Killer advised him about the belle’s true nature and gave him a token swat for being suckered in by that designing woman and risking his life for her. 
The trio tried to persuade Butts into joining them in a suicide pact to show their faith before the imminent end. When Charles refused, the three drunken apocalypticists grew hostile and implied they might take him with them against his will. The Fool Killer intervened with his club/ walking stick/cudgel and his set of Bowie knives and slew the three loons. 
OPENING MATCH: COCA COLA VS LA INDIANA – The opening Match of the 2019 U.S. Open pitted Coca Cola – Official Balladeer’s Blog Nickname: The Red Colossus – against La Indiana – Official Balladeer’s Blog Nickname: The Indians. 
In the Third Chukker Coca Cola began to counter the Indians’ offensive strategy and also got their own offense rolling, thwacking in 3 Goals to the 1 mustered by La Indiana. The score going into Halftime was Indians 6 Red Colossus 5. 
Balladeer’s Blog’s examination of another old, old, OLD Marvel Comics hit continues. 
PART FIVE 
Synopsis: We pick up immediately where we left off. Adam Warlock, Gamora and Pip the Troll have at last come face to face with the REAL form of Adam’s future self, the Magus, instead of the misleading “green like the Soul Gem” disguise he had been hiding behind. 
The villain further states that he is what the forces of Chaos and Order have decreed that Warlock will become. NOTE: This carries over Marvel Comics’ use (in Captain Marvel’s comic book) of Chaos and Order as their William Blake-styled personifications of cosmic forces beyond human understanding. Marvel had Chaos and Order and their subordinate entities “upgrade” the Kree Captain Mar-Vell to help him against Thanos in the original 1970s Thanos War, covered in 2017 here at Balladeer’s Blog. 
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) 1. UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & ARTS OF OKLAHOMA DROVERS ### 2. MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS ### 3. OKLAHOMA CITY UNIVERSITY STARS ### 4. LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS ### 5. SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY RAIDERS (Should be the Sea Gulls) ### 
6. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AT BEAUFORT SAND SHARKS ### 7. HOPE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY ROYALS ### 8. COLLEGE OF IDAHO COYOTES ### 9. UNIVERSITY OF MOBILE RAMS ### 10. UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON AT VICTORIA JAGUARS ### 
THE SLEUTH: Ellis Parker, Chief of Detectives in Burlington County, NJ. Parker’s professional reputation was such that detectives from other jurisdictions often sought help from him. 
