Cartier Queens Cup 2014 – Day 1
The first matches in the 2014 Cartier Queen’s Cup were played on Tuesday, 20th May.
Zacara 14 6 Sifani
The current holders of the Cartier Queen’s Cup made a strong start to their 2014 campaign, winning their first match 14-6 at Zacara’s own ground. This year the team, patroned by Lyndon Lea, is based around the impressive, 10-goal skills of Facundo Pieres and seven-goaler Gonzalo Deltour. This new partnership worked well, with both Argentines producing several goals, especially in the second half of the game. Some of Facundo’s successful shots at goal were breathtaking and bode well for the spectators in the rest of this competition. In addition Matt Perry and Lyndon Lea also found the flags on a regular basis and such great play from all the team shows that Zacara must be treated with respect by all of their opponents in the Cartier Queen’s Cup.
However although Zacara started this match as favourites – in fact they are probably considered the team to beat this year – Sifani began their campaign in strong style. Hilali Noordeen’s team, making its 22-goal debut in this tournament, defied all expectations and were leading 4-3 at the end of the second chukka. Nic Roldan was on great form, scoring three of his team’s goals in these early stages. Although Sifani Polo was playing well as a team they could not match the speed of Zacara in the second half and the gap between the scores began to widen and Zacara went on to win the match. However despite being beaten, the mood in the Sifani camp was upbeat after this game, with the team’s focus already on their next match, against HB Polo on Friday at Coworth Park.
Enigma 13 9 HB Polo
Jerome Wirth’s Enigma won their first Cartier Queen’s match of 2014, defeating HB Polo (rec 2 goals on handicap) 13-9 on The Queen’s Ground at Guards Polo Club. Guillermo Willington was in great form, scoring six goals for his side and ably supported by Guillermo Caset throughout the six chukkas.
Thanks to their handicap advantage the Pailloncy brothers’ HB Polo team led for the first two chukkas and so Enigma were not able to pull ahead until the fourth chukka, which finished 8-6 to Enigma. Wth HB failing to score in the fifth, Enigma made the most of their advantage, thanks to goals from Caset and Chris Mackenzie. Although both teams found the flags three times in the final chukka, the damage had been done and Enigma won the game.