2015 Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup for the British Open

By Alex Webbe
If the recently played Bledisloe Warwickshire Cup was any indication, it’s going to be a long British Open season for Apes Hill (Ralph Richardson, Mark Tomlinson, Eduardo Novillo Astrada and Tom Morley), HB Polo (Ludovic Pailloncy, Cristian Laprida, Ignacio Toccalino and Sebastien Pailloncy), La Indiana (Michael Bickford, James Beim, John Paul Clarkin and James Harper) and Thai Polo (Harald Link, Matias Torres Zavaleta, Nic Roldan and Tomas Garcia del Rio).
Granted, Apes Hill, La Indiana and Thai Polo played their first 22-goal games of the season last week at the Cirencester Polo Club, giving the rest of the British Open field a distinct advantage over them as play begins, but not so for HB Polo.
The Pailloncy brothers HB Polo team limped into Warwickshire Cup play with a dismal 1-3 Queens Cup record, with their only win coming in a game with UAE who had already qualified for the playoffs.
HB Polo’s second win of the year came in a 10-9 overtime decision against Michael Bickford’s La Indiana foursome who boasted the talents of John Paul Clarkin (8), James Beim (7) and James Harper (6), all three of whom were passed over for Queens Cup play.  An 8-6 loss to Apes Hill in the Warwickshire Cup final served as the team’s last preparation for this week’s opening round of the British Open.
With fourteen teams competing in the 2015 Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup for the British Open there are bound to be an upper tier of teams and a lower tier.  That delineation can sometimes be very subtle, with games being lost by the slimmest of margins.  In HB Polo’s case they scored 41 goals in four Queens Cup games while giving up a total of 46 goals.  That gives them an average of 10.25 goals a game on offense while surrendering 46 goals, for an average of 11.5 goals per game for a difference of 1.25 goals per game!
The fact that HB Polo currently has six 22-goal games under their belts bodes well for their experience as a team, but it doesn’t mean anything unless they can convert close losses into wins.
As far as Apes Hill, La Indiana and Thai polo are concerned, they have played their first two games of the 22-goal season against a field of four very weak teams.
With 2015 Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup for the British Open play getting started on Tuesday and injuries being taken into consideration, the pre-tournament favorites remain as King Power Foxes, Dubai, UAE, Talandracas and Zacara.  That isn’t to say that any one of the other nine teams couldn’t break through, but as the storied newspaper reporter Damon Runyon used to say “the race is not always to the swift, nor the fight to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.”
British Open play begins with on Tuesday with a 3pm game between UAE and RH Polo followed by a 5pm contest featuring Zacara and Salkeld.