January 9th double-header started the 2016 Joe Barry Memorial Cup
By Alex Webbe
A twenty-one game schedule for the Joe Barry Memorial Cup and the subsidiary, Bobby Barry Cup, will get started with a twin bill on Saturday, January 8th when La Indiana (Michael Bickford, Joao Paulo Ganon, Ruki Baillieu and Tommy Biddle) faces Enigma (Jerome Wirth, Jeff Hall, Matias MacDonough and Carlucho Arellano) in a 1pm tilt.
Both La Indiana and Enigma have been based out of England for the last number of years with Jerome Wirth opting to compete at the International Polo Club for the 2015 20-goal season while Michael Bickford will be leading his La Indiana foursome into their first 20-goal competition in Florida this year.
A 3pm contest between Coca-Cola (Gillian Johnston, Sugar Erskine, Julio Arellano and Steve Krueger) and Tonkawa (Jeff Hildebrand, Gonzalo Deltour, Sebastian Merlos and Mason Wroe) will follow.
Three Sunday matches will complete the first round of competition with Dubai (Rashid Albwardy, Carlos Gracida, Diego Cavanagh and Alejo Taranco) making their North American debut against Valiente (Bob Jornayvaz, Roberto Zedda, Santi Torres and TBA) at 10am. Dubai has a proud tradition of play in Great Britain amassing several British Open and Queens Cup titles dating back to 2001. A noon game between Audi – Millarville (Grant Ganzi, Nic Roldan, Julian Mannix and Freddie Mannix) and the defending championship Orchard Hill lineup (Steve Van Andel, Facundo / Polito Pieres, Peke Gonzalez and Lucas Criado) would be followed by a matchup that would feature Villa del Lago (Jim Zenni, Guille Aguero, Hilario Ulloa and Agustin Obregon) and Palm Beach Illustrated (Nacho Badiola, Jared Zenni, Facundo Obregon and Jesse Bray). The Villa del Lago vs. Palm Beach Illustrated game will pit father against son with Jim Zenni leading Villa del Lago and his son Jared Zenni captaining the Palm Beach Illustrated team.
The final of the Joe Barry Memorial Cup is scheduled to be played at 3pm on Sunday, January 24th and will be preceded by the final of the tournament subsidiary, the Bobby Barry Cup final at noon.