The inaugural Richard Mille – Cote d’Azur Polo Cup, 18 goal is held at St Tropez Polo Club – Part 1
By Victoria Elsbury-Legg
It was a first for the St Tropez Polo Club this August when they hosted the inaugural 18-goal Richard Mille – Cote d’Azur Polo Cup tournament. Situated in a stunning location amongst the Cote d’Azur forests in the South of France, after seventeen years as Club President, Corinne Schuler (a lady with a true passion for polo) set up in partnership with Alshair Fiyaz with the aim to make the St Tropez Polo Club ‘a unique place where the high goal has its place’. With this in mind, a fantastic new infrastructure was started in April 2014, creating a perfect location for medium and high goal tournaments, with a backdrop of beautiful beaches, top restaurants and nightlife (which ponies can be transported to by a twenty-two hour lorry drive from England).
Headed up by Justin Gaunt, Club Director, two new Tifton polo fields have been added to the club’s original two pitches, practise pitch and 360m training track (made from a mixture of sand, cotton fibres and liquid latex, to provide a firm, flexible year round surface). Alongside this, work has taken place to build an indoor air-conditioned school and two-hundred and sixty-eight Loddon stables from compressed bamboo with rubber floors and specially constructed stable roofs (built with the environment in mine) which direct rainwater into a 3000m3 reservoir hidden beneath the stables, so the water can be recycled for irrigation. Players and grooms have not been forgotten in this major project, with nineteen apartments incorporating thirty-three rooms built for grooms and eleven luxury villas for players. Looking to the 2016 season, further facilities will be adding – a 1350m2 clubhouse featuring changing rooms, saunas and steam rooms, events hall and kitchen – and not forgetting the addition of a cinema.
Lining up for the inaugural eighteen goal Richard Mille Cote d’Azur Polo Cup, which was played from 6th – 16th August, were six teams featuring some of the top international players. Including Facundo and Gonzalito Pieres fresh from their success (and a few relaxing weeks holidaying in Europe for Facundo) in the 2015 English high goal season, they took to the pitches of St Tropez in opposing teams. Gonzalito being part of Hanspeter Spek’s – La Concepcion team (SPEK Hanspeter (0) BRAUN Diego (4) NIGOUL Matias (4) PIERES Gonzalo Jr (10), and Facundo joining patron Alshair Fiyaz in his F Polo Team (FIYAZ Alshair (0) HARRIOTT Marcos (0) JAMES Lucas (8) PIERES Facundo (10).
Joining these two teams on the pitches were: Ferne Park – ROTHERMERE Jonathan (0) PITTALUGA Joaquin (7) RUEDA Rodrigo jr (6) GOULD Dirk (5); Composite Works – GODDARD-WATTS Helen (0) MANSUR Ricardo (6) ORTIZ DE URBINA Bautista (6) GARCIA LABORDE Juan Martin (5); Saint-Tropez Polo Team – SCHULER Corinne (0) DELFOSSE Clément (5) HARRIOTT Sebastian (6) FARINATI Carlos (6) and La Quinta -SZTARKMAN Alexandre (1) PAN Edouard (4) FERNANDEZ LLORENTE Facundo (5) MUSSO Dario (7).
Click here for Part 2