43rd Land Rover International Polo Tournament – Day 30 – Gold Cup
Location: Santa MarÃa Polo Club Sotogrande
Country: Spain
By Victoria Elsbury-Legg
With Ellerston already through to Wednesday’s High Goal semis and Halcyon Gallery and RH competing for their spot by penalties, it was King Power (Top Srivaddhannaprabha, Alejandro Muzzio, Marcos Di Paola and Martin Espain) and Royal Salute (Roger Carlsson, Jaime GarcÃa Huidobro and Malcolm Borwick with Alejandro Novillo Astrada substituting for Lucas James) who were playing first on Sunday with both teams also looking for a place. By the second chukka Top’s team were two goals ahead at 4-2 and at the final bell the lead had stretched to five goals as they beat Royal Salute 10-5. Then all of King Power’s eyes focused on the result of the following Lechuza Caracas v Ayala Polo Team game as their place depended on the outcome on Los Pinos Field II.
Riding off the pitch at the end of the match, Victor Vargas’s Lechuza Caracas (Francisco Elizalde, Juan Martin Nero and Matt Perry) were four goals ahead, winning 12-8 over Inigo Zobel’s Ayala (Diego Cavanagh, David and Santiago Stirling). Meaning Lechuza Caracas and King Power would also be competing for a Semi Final place on penalties. Whilst on Los Pinos VI, a rather predictable win had occurred (given Valiente’s 2014 Sotogrande record so far), despite being 2-3 down to HB Polo at half time, once again Valiente left the pitch with another winning score, this time 7-6, along with a confirmed place in Wednesday’s semis.
In Sunday’s Low Goal Gold Cup games, the same three teams who won on Thursday replicated their success on Sunday (albeit against other teams). With Serdanola (8-5 against Kazak Shakib) and Huntsman (6-5 to Silex), both teams had won all their matches in the Gold Cup stage, whilst Valdeparras-Marques de Torneros (with one win and one loss to date) won 11-5 against Bayswater. Low goal will be played again on Tuesday, with Kazak Shakib and Bayswater already having confirmed their place against each other at 18:15 on Friday in the Gold Cup Low Goal Subsidiary Final.
Monday 25th August 2014
High Goal – Gold Cup
11am Penalty Shootout – RH v Halcyon Gallery & Lechuza Caracas v King Power
Medium Goal – Gold Cup
17:00