Titleholders Dubai lose Queen’s Cup league lead
By Herbert Spencer
Reigning titleholders Dubai, with 10-goaler Adolfo Cambiaso, were knocked out of first place in League Three of the Harcourt Developments Queen’s Cup Sunday when they were narrowly defeated by Edouard Carmignac’s Talandracas 11 goals to 10 at Guards Polo Club.
Ali Albwardy’s Dubai won the first chukka, but Talandracas held their opponents scoreless in the second to take the lead. Dubai led 6-5 at half-time, but Talandracas effectively secured victory in the fifth period when they outscored Dubai three to one, with both teams scoring only a goal apiece in the sixth and final chukka.
Six-goaler Facundo Sola was man of the match for Talandracas, scoring 6 of his team’s 11 goals.
In the first of the day’s other league matches, Jean-François Decaux’s La Bamba de Areco downed Adrian Kirby’s 1870 team 11-8 to secure a place in the quarter-finals from League 2. Kirby’s side, however, still has a chance to make the first eight.
Joachim Gottschalk’s Les Lions beat Paul Oberschneider’s La Golondrina 11-7, with Agustin Merlos scoring nine of Les Lion’s goals. Les Lions are now joint leaders of League 4 with Lyndon Lea’s Zacara.
The last of the Queen’s Cup league matches will be played Monday: Zacara v Loro Piana, El Remanso v Sumaya, Piaget v Emlor and Aravali v Mansour Jaeger-LeCoultre.