White Crane 14 – 6 BP Polo
Monterosso 13 – 12 Scone Polo
James and Jovey Beh made their Cartier Queen’s Cup debut today, with BP Polo’s first game of the 2021 tournament. Both James and Jovey may have both scored but it was not the fairy-tale start for the red and white shirts as White Crane were in a winning mood, particularly Nico Pieres. White Crane were without their patron, Jasmine Calvert-Ansari, as she was not fully recovered from her fall last week. Her place was taken today by the two-goaler Guy Schwarzenbach, possible as White Crane had been a 20-goal team. The substitution paid off as it was Guy who put the first two goals on the scoreboard. Nico then just followed these with eight further goals and penalties to ensure White Crane retained their advantage. BP Polo struggled to maintain momentum in this match and so when White Crane’s Andrew Blake Thomas decided to score four times in the final chukka the closing score was inevitable.
If you thought that yesterday’s King Power v Park Place, eight-chukka, widened goals game was enough drama for one week then please think again. This afternoon Scone Polo’s Adolfo Cambiaso and Isidro Strada were both shown red cards (two yellows) and sent off almost within a minute of each other in the sixth chukka with the score reading 11-10 to Scone Polo. All of a sudden the game’s dynamic changed. The 22-goal Monterosso team versus the six-goal Scone Polo! Ignacio Toccalino successfully converted the two 30-yard penalties, awarded for the yellow cards, giving Monterosso a narrow 12-11 lead. Pelon Stirling then made the most of the unexpected space to score again for Alessandro Bazzoni’s team. However some confident play from the two Scone youngsters, Noor Khadra who was again deputising for David Paradice and Poroto Cambiaso, continued to make life difficult for Monterosso and no further goals were scored until there were eight players back on the field! Strada did manage to score once more before the final bell but Monterosso took the win, ensuring they remain unbeaten in this year’s competition
Pictures copyright Images of Polo