Black Bears snatch narrow victory over Salkeld while UAE Polo makes it a hat-trick, resulting in both teams going through to this weekend’s quarter-finals.
League Three
Black Bears 10 – 9 Salkeld
Guy Schwarzenbach’s Black Bears will now face El Remanso in their quarter-final match on Saturday, following victory over Salkeld at Guards Polo Club this afternoon. Both teams needed to win this game to keep their campaign hopes alive as they already both scored one win each. Salkeld’s patron Nick Clarke started proceedings today by scoring the first goal of the match. Unfortunately Salkeld could not build on this lead in the first chukka, in fact three shots at goal went wide. Black Bears’ Nachi du Plessis did not experience the same difficulties, converting two penalties to give the Bears a 2-1 advantage at the end of the first. Two more penalties courtesy of du Plessis to only one in reply from James Beim kept Black Bears ahead in the second. Fortunes changed in the third with Black Bears failing to find the flags at all. Beim and Miguel Novillo Astrada made the most of this opportunity and by half time had leveled the scores to 4-4. Black Bears patron Guy Schwarzenbach started the fourth in fine style, taking the ball almost to goal, where it was picked up John Paul Clarkin who scored the Bears’ fifth goal of the game. Beim was also on form and produced the equalizer before the end of this chukka. Although Beim scored another lovely goal in the fifth, Black Bears had stepped up a gear and goals from Clarkin and du Plessis gave them a 9-6 advantage going into the sixth chukka. Once again the tables were turned in the sixth. Clarkin scored again but Novillo Astrada and Beim converted penalties and scored goals to close the gap to just one goal difference once more. However this surge came too late to stop Black Bears from winning the game and that much wanted quarter-final ticket.
UAE Polo 10 – 6 La Bamba de Areco
Sheikha Maitha’s UAE team have made their debut in the Cartier Queen’s Cup a highly successful one, winning all three of their league games. This will now see them play the current holders of the Cartier Queen’s Cup, Dubai, at Dubai at midday this Saturday. This fixture means plenty of work for Martin Valent, who is Polo Manager for both of these teams this year. Perhaps it would not be a good idea to ask who he will be cheering for on Saturday! UAE Polo’s opposition this afternoon was Jean Francois Decaux’s La Bamba team, featuring that talented 10-goaler Gonzalito Pieres. Unfortunately he has not been at the top of his form in this competition this year and in this last game, which La Bamba wanted to win to restore some honour, he missed several key penalties. Although UAE Polo failed to score at all in the third chukka – Ollie Cudmore doing a great job of closing down Pablo MacDonough – La Bamba could not do more than level the scores at 4-4 in the third and 5-5 in the fourth. The fifth chukka belonged to the UAE’s Jack Richardson who was on fine form for the Sheikha’s team. He scored two goals in this period and then scored another in the sixth. With Lucas Monteverde also finding the flags and converting penalties in the sixth, the UAE team continued their dominance of this match and won by a comfortable margin.
Tomorrow (Thursday 6 June) – penalty shootout at 1pm
Due to the three-way tie in League Two, Les Lions, Twelve Oaks, and EFG Aravali will take part in a penalty shootout tomorrow at Guards Polo Club. Played under HPA rules , all four members of each team will take two penalty shots each – 4 x 40 yards and 4 x 60 yards. If the scores are level at the end of this shootout, there is then a golden goal scenario. The winner of the penalty shootout will take the final place in the quarter-finals, playing Zacara on Sunday at 3pm. This is the first time that a penalty shoot out has occurred in the Cartier Queen’s Cup.