Apes Hill and Zacara win the opening matches of the Cartier Queen’s Cup
The first league matches of the Cartier Queen’s Cup took place today, Tuesday. First up were two teams who were returning to the high-goal after a short absence – Apes Hill and La Bamba de Areco
Apes Hill 9 – 6 La Bamba de Areco at Manor Farm
Apes Hill, winners of the Queen’s Cup in 2009, made a successful return to the high-goal today. They defeated Jean Francois Decaux’s La Bamba de Areco 9-6 at Manor Farm in Sussex. The score from both sides should have been higher as several shots to goal went wide, but it seemed as if both teams need to get into their stride and this is only day one of a three-week campaign.
Apes Hill dominated the first half and were 5-1 up at half-time. Eduard Novillo Astrada and Mark Tomlinson, who was a member of that winning Apes Hill team seven years ago, scored most of the goals, three of which were penalties. That said, Alec White also produced a lovely run to goal in the second to score for Apes Hill.
La Bamba got into the game more in the second half with Rodrigo Rueda, Christian Laprida and Diego Cavanagh improving their side’s score. Tomlinson continued on form too, producing three good goals in the next two chukkas. So with the score at 8-4 going into the sixth it was La Bamba that had to pull out all the stops. A couple of goals from Laprida made a comeback look likely, but Tomlinson was looking to repeat history and just before the bell found the flags to confirm Apes Hill’s first win of their 2016 high-goal campaign.
Zacara 13 – 9 RH Polo at Coworth Park
This was very much a match of contrasts. Sometimes the players produced some fantastic polo, including some eye-catching, angled, aerial shots to score. At other times there were too many whistles and penalties, giving a stop/start effect. Once the spectators had got over the confusion of Zacara playing in white, we settled down to a tight-knit first half, with the big names on both sides – Nico Pieres for RH Polo and Pablo MacDonough for Zacara – playing to their handicap. Lucas Monteverde was equally impressive, successfully executing several impossible looking shots to goal for Zacara. In addition, Jack Hyde (Zacara) and Ali Paterson (RH Polo) did a great job of keeping their higher handicapped opponents off the ball, so allowing their own team-mates to run down to goal. However, the tension was often palpable and just when one thought that this game would start to run it was stopped by an umpire’s whistle. Thanks to some strong play from MacDonough in the third Zacara were now 6-3 up. However, this is 22-goal polo, and scores are always fluid, and such was the case this afternoon. Pieres first converted a 40-yard penalty with a lovely, lofted shot and then found the flags with a field goal, bringing RH Polo very much back into the game 6-5 at half-time.
The second half told a different story as Zacara began to pull away. Ben Soleimani’s RH Polo kept them in their sights in the fourth, thanks to a fantastic goal from Rodrigo Andrade and Pieres converting a penalty. MacDonough, the only 10-goaler on the field, then turned up the pressure, scoring two goals in quick succession to give Zacara a 9-7 lead. Three goals from Lyndon Lea’s team in the fifth, including one from the patron himself, enabled Zacara to pull further away and they went into the sixth and final chukka leading 12-8. RH Polo converted a penalty off the stick of Pieres to close the gap slightly, but MacDonough was wanting to confirm his side’s dominance and finished this match with a wonderfully acrobatic shot to goal.
Tomorrow’s games (Wednesday 18th May)
12noon Dubai v Valiente Dubai at Dubai (Highfield Farm)
3pm HB Polo v Talandracas at Guards