Cartier Queen’s Cup – Day 6
By Diana Butler
King Power Foxes 13 – 8 HB Polo at Billingbear
King Power Foxes remain unbeaten after a convincing win over the Pailloncy brothers HB Polo Team at King Power’s home ground this morning. HB Polo received 2 goals on handicap at the start of the match and so the score looked fairly respectable in the first half, despite this team failing to score at all in chukkas 2 and 3. Of course when you are facing a team of the calibre of King Power Foxes you cannot allow them any advantage and so by half-time, with the score reading 10-6 to Top Srivaddhanaprbha’s team, the final score was not too much of a surprise. Facundo and Gonzalito Pieres
dominated the goal scoring, putting through 7 and 5 goals respectively. The youngest member of the Foxes, Hugo Lewis, added one in the fourth chukka too. Cristian Laprida and Ignacio Toccalino worked hard to keep HB’s hopes alive, scoring some excellent field goals, but they were no match today for the mighty King Power Foxes and their impressive horsepower.
UAE Polo 12 – 10 VPS Healthcare Sifani at Guards Polo Club
This was a much more even-handed game, played at Guards Polo Club, and producing some lovely flowing polo, especially in the second half. UAE Polo were the favourites before this game started, having already produced an excellent victory over the highly fancied Dubai last week. So despite some great runs from Sifani’s Agustin Merlos in the first half, it was Pablo
MacDonough and Lucas Monteverde of UAE who were firing through the goals before half-time. By the break the score was reading 7-3 and it looked as if VPS Healthcare Sifani were out of contention. The second half though was a different game. Sifani’s Max Charlton started to make his presence felt and with Malcolm Borwick successfully converting penalties, Sifani were now in
control of this match. They had closed the gap to 8-5 at the end of the fourth and levelled the score to 9-9 in the fifth. Suddenly this was anyone’s game. Could Hilali Noordeen’s team beat the highly regarded squad from the UAE? Unfortunately the answer today was no. Class players like MacDonough and Monteverde invariably capitalise on their opponents’ mistakes and so successfully converted two penalties in the fifth. That said, Charlton produced a lovely backhand to save a MacDonough penalty in the sixth and Borwick converted three penalties in the final two chukkas. Sifani had clearly found their form but it was too late and they continue to hunt for a win in this year’s tournament.
NEXT MATCHES – FRIDAY 29 MAY
VPS Healthcare Sifani v Somerton Polo at 12 noon (venue to be confirmed – please check at www.guardspoloclub.com nearer the time)
Salkeld v RH Polo at 3pm Coworth Park
* Please note that all the games will be live streamed courtesy of PoloCam Productions and Horseplay TV and can be viewed at www.guardspoloclub.com
* If you are watching the game you can pick up the commentary on your car radio at 90FM.
* You can watch all previous games at http://www.polocamproductions.com/#!guards-tv/czwm