43rd Land Rover International Polo Tournament – Days 9 & 10
Location: Santa MarÃa Polo Club Sotogrande
Country: Spain
By Victoria Elsbury-Legg
On Saturday at five thirty, in the opening games of the Silver Cup at Medium Goal level Dimitri Vozianov’s Seven Sevens beat Rashid Al Habtoor’s Mahra-Esperanza team 17-15; Wild Orchid beat El Rosario 12 -1; and Equus with the 7 goal help of James Beim took a 7 goal lead over Scapa (12-5). Whilst later in the evening Roger Carlsson’s FCT team with Mario Gomez, Michel del Carrill and Sebastian Hancock were narrowly beaten 12-13 by Richard Fagan and team Silex. Three goal Scottish professional Ali Patterson continued with success on the pitch, this time it was not with Dubai in the Gold Cup Final, but Lebeau-Courailly who won 12-9 over Sapphire – DR.A; and Andrew Nulty’s Los Dragones beat Woodchester 13 – 11.
In the opening game of the Silver Cup High Goal matches King Power with their slightly altered team line up (Top Srivaddhannaprabha, Alejandro Muzzio, Marcos Di Paola and Martin Espain) were unable to continue their string of league game wins off the back of their highly successful inaugural Verve Clicquot Gold Cup matches at Cowdray, despite a close game they ended up losing 13 – 12 to Dos Lunas Banco Espirito Santo. On another pitch, the Novillo-Astrada brothers playing in Camilo Bautista’s Las Monjitas with Tomas Fernandez-Llorente narrowly beat Charlie Hanbury’s (Mayfair Gallery sponsored) Halcyon Gallery (albeit with a different line-up to the one that knocked Zacara out of the Verve Clicquot Gold Cup Quarters) by 10-9.
In the final Silver Cup match of the day, the man with the Argentine flag on his hat, with recent success in both the Verve Clicquot Gold Cup at Cowdray and the Bronze High Goal Final two days before, once again demonstrated the skill and ball control that leads to wins. Focused from the start, another match was secured for Bob Jornayvaz’s Valiente, this time over Murus Sanctus 11-7.
The last match in the Bronze Cup was also played on Sunday and in the Low Goal Final Richard Fagan’s Silex did not manage the success of their Medium Goal line-up the previous day losing 6-7 to Huntsman. The next Low Goal game will once again feature Huntsman this time playing Bayswater on Wednesday in the Silver Cup at 11am
Monday 4th August
Silver Cup – High Goal
17:30