It was a scorcher over the weekend at Cowdray Park Polo Club where qualifying round action continued with 2 British Open Championship for the Cowdray Gold Cup matches taking place on Saturday 28th June.
Match 1:
Match 1 saw the mighty Dubai felled by the young and exciting Signet/ Thai Polo side. Half made up of Hine brothers the Signet/ Thai Polo side put on a fantastic performance clinching the win in the final chukka having done the hard work to catch up in the penultimate. While possession was equal throughout and scoring opportunities from the field were almost 50-50, it all came down to penalties. 14 fouls from Dubai gave Signet/ Thai Polo 8 opportunities from the penalty line of which they converted 5 and this is what made the difference in the end.
Dubai led throughout, but a great 5th chukka push from Signet/ Thai Polo saw them score 4 goals to equalise going into the last where they continued their momentum to score 2 goals to Dubai’s single, sealing the 11-10 victory. Both teams are now 1 and 1 for victories and losses.
Match 2:
Action continued into the afternoon as Alexie Calvert-Ansari’s White Crane racked up their second win of the tournament so far while Bangash had their first run out of the Gold Cup. It was a very even game with the two sides matching each other almost goal for goal in each chukka, but an early advantage in the first chukka and a stronger start from White Crane set them ahead and gave them the lead that they maintained throughout the game. Throw ins, fouls and penalty shots were all equal but with 5 more shots to goal from the field for White Crane it was this key difference that helped them keep their lead alive until the last whistle.
Watch all Gold Cup matches here: https://cowdraypolo.co.uk/cowdray-tv/
Image credit Mark Beaumont
Stats provided by International Polo Academy