Along the Sideboards
By Alex Webbe
November 9, 2009
Ellerstina continues to win, even without Juan Martin Nero in the lineup. Nero sat out the finals of the Hurlingham Open finals due to a pair of yellow cards he picked up earlier in the competition. Ellerstina is successfully through two-thirds of the Argentine Triple Crown.
The 16-goal Continental Cup should be wrapping up the Aiken season this week after a busy and successful fall run. A couple of rain delays, but nothing like the delays suffered in Argentina.
The series of fall tournaments at the Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington, Florida continue with a cast of professionals that have included Carlos Gracida (8), Luis Escobar (7), Hector Galindo (7), Juan Bollini (6), Kris Kampsen (6), Joey Casey (5) and Charlie Muldoon (5), to name a few.
Grand Champions is in its third year of staging several weeks of medium goal, patron-oriented polo every spring and fall.
The California Polo Club in suburban Los Angeles saw the LSSI team of Billy Sheldon (7), Carlos Galindo (6) and Cary Burch (2) capture the 2009 USPA Arena Championship with a 12-11 win over the home California Polo team of Domingo Questel (6), Manny Questel (4) and Ardisher Radpour (4).
USPA Governor-at-Large Russ Sheldon was present for the final match and indicated that before the US returned to England in 2010 for a USA-England arena rematch for the Morrison Cup, there would be a series of test matches that would be held in the Wellington, Florida area in an effort to select the best team of players to represent the United States in the competition.
Speculation continues to swirl around the composition of some of the Florida winter season’s team lineups in both the 20-goal competition and the 26-goal competition.
It has been confirmed that Peter Brant and his White Birch team will sit out for the first time in over twenty years. Although some of the lineups for the nine 26-goal teams that have committed to the high-goal season have been established, a number of others are still up in the air.
Marc Ganzi’s defending U. S. Open Audi team will take on a slightly different look with Inaki LaPrida joining the lineup that includes 10-goalers Gonzalito and Facundo Pieres. Adolfo Cambiaso and the Crab Orchard team will take the field in an effort to capture the U. S. Open championship one more time. Cambiaso led them to victory in both 2007 and 2008 before taking the US winter season off last year. Joining him this year will be Hilario Ulloa and Julio Arellano.
Melissa Ganzi has an impressive lineup for her Grand Champions entry that will include Lolo Castagnola, Nick Roldan and Juan Bollini. Melissa competed in 26-goal action two years ago.
Colorado’s Bob Jornayvaz will be the new kid on the block this year, taking the field with the assistance of Magoo LaPrida, Miguel Novillo Astrada and Nacho Novillo Astrada.
To insure that there will no shortages of Astradas in Florida this year, Colombia’s Camilo Bautista’s Las Monjitas team will field Eduardo, Javier and Alejandro Novillo Astrada.
Lineups have yet to be finalized for Pony Express, Lechuza Caracas, Orchard Hill and Black Watch/Nespresso.