Along the Sideboards
By Alex Webbe
August 10, 2009
Great Oaks battled its way through Saturday’s round-robin with Equuleus (2-3) and Heathcote/Cinque Terre to earn the right to face an undefeated White Birch (5-0) foursome in the finals of the 2009 Mercedes-Benz Cup at the Bridgehampton Polo Club. The match is scheduled to be played on Tuesday, August 11 at 5pm.
Bridgehampton will start play for the 2009 Hampton Cup on Friday, August 14th with seven teams competing. After getting a renewed interest in the game while substituting for White Birch’s Peter Brant in two earlier games, Adam Lindeman decided to enter a team in the competition.
Adam’s IKEPOD team will be composed of Lindemann, Guille Aguero, Michel Dorignac and Facundo Obregon. The rest of the field will consist of the Mercedes-Benz Cup entries.
Santa Barbara continues to hold the attention of high goal players and patrons in the West with eight teams competing in the 2009 USPA Lucchese America Cup.
Teams are beginning to solidify for the 2010 high-goal season at the International Polo Club with word that Victor Vargas will be taking the field with 10-goalers Juan Martin Nero and Facundo Pieres on his 2010 Lechuza Caracas team.
It appears that Victor picked nearly a dozen horses from Facundo in the bargain, horses that the Lechuza stables will sorely need to be competitive this season. The final player hasn’t been named yet, but we understand there is a movement to obtain the services of Tomas Pieres, son of former 10-goaler Alfonso Pieres.
Rumors persist about the formation of a team through the combined efforts of Gillian Johnston and Fred Mannix, but Gillian put an end to those rumors recently. Initial reports had them playing with Mike Azzaro and Jeff Hall, but rumors are, after all, just rumors-right?
The Villages Polo Club in Central Florida just announced that they had contracted England’s Howard Hipwood to serve as its Chief Umpire and the Director of its new Gracida International Polo and Riding Academy.
Carlos Gracida is already embedded as the club’s resident pro, and since the arrival of former IPC manager Michael Brown and Carlos, the club has staged a 30-goal match, sponsored the revival of the Camacho Cup (USA vs. Mexico) and has made sweeping changes in the manner and method of polo operations from Sunday brunches to the construction of club stabling and the acquisition of a number of club horses.
Santa Barbara Polo Club’s USPA Lucchese America Cup continued through the weekend with Audi scoring wins over Grants Farm and Valiente to hold a 2-0 record. ERG also remained unbeaten with wins over Zacara and Patagones with two overtime matches on Sunday!
Full coverage of USPA Lucchese America Cup games at