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A C T I O N
55
forward to collect the pony prize fromHM the
Queen accompanied by his grooms, Charlotte
Waddy, Lucy Taylor and Becky Cronin.
HM the Queen also presented the Cartier
Trophy to Hugues Carmignac, son of Edouardo
and patron of Talandracas.They beat
Jean-Francois Decaux’s La Bamba de Areco
11-8 in an earlier match on finals day.
There was little air between these two
teams at half-time – 7-6 to Talandracas.
However, the momentum changed when La
Bamba’s David Stirling retired after the third
chukka – he had been injured in the second
chukka and although he continued to play it
was clear he was in some pain. Pablo Pieres
subbed for him, but a change of personnel
upsets a team’s dynamics and La Bamba
failed to score in the next two chukkas.
Talandracas, meanwhile, fired through
four more goals. La Bamba got back into the
game in the sixth, but it was too late and
Talandracas won the sub final by three goals.
The winning team’s Alejandro Muzzio was
later named The Most Valuable Player,
receiving his prize fromHM the Queen.
Twelve teams entered this year’s
competition, with the majority of quartets
featuring new line-ups from last year. Adolfo
Cambiaso, the most successful player in the
history of the Queen’s Cup – which celebrates
its 60th birthday next season – might have
been absent this year but his nephews,
Bartolomé and Camilo Castagnola made the
headlines instead, thanks to their confident
and mature play for Rashid Albwardy’s Dubai
team.They are definitely a duo to watch.
Top Srivaddhanaprabha’s VS King Power,
making a welcome return to the Cartier
Queen’s Cup, reached the semi-finals this
time around, knocking Dubai out of the
tournament in the quarters . King Power’s
young star,Juan Martin Zubia, impressed in
that game and is another on the ones to
watch list. In fact, the 2019 Cartier Queen’s
Cup introduced us to many talented young
players who will surely add their names to
this trophy in the future.
Defending champions La Indiana had
a nightmare start to their 2019 high-goal
campaign as their patron, Michael Bickford,
broke his arm in the warm-up tournament.
His team reached the semi-finals though and
will no doubt deliver another strong campaign
again next year. UAE Polo were also without
their patron, HH Sheikha Maitha bint al
Maktoum, due to injury, but another rising
star, Lucas Monteverde Junior, proved he was
more than capable of patroning this team.
They lost out in a stand-out quarter-final
match, in extra time, to Park Place on the
stunning Castle Ground at Flemish Farm. In
fact, this game was a great example of the
outstanding quality and competitiveness
of the entire 2019 tournament, with teams
evenly balanced throughout the three weeks
of this competition.
P A R K P L A C E S T R U G G L E D T O C O U N T E R A C T
S C O N E P O L O ’ S C O N F I D E N C E I N T H E S E C O N D
H A L F – F A I L I N G T O S C O R E AT A L L I N T H E F I F T H
Opposite:
Juan Britos
eyes the ball while being
chased by James Harper.
This page:
The winners,
from left: James Harper,
David Paradice, Nicolas
Pieres and James Beim
