Cortium down Les Lions in British Open leagues

Cortium down Les Lions in British Open leagues 

By Herbert Spencer

Adrian Kirby’s Cortium squeezed past Joachim Gottschalk’s Les Lions 10-9 in their Friday league match of the British Open Championship for the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup at Cowdray Park Polo Club.


Cortium took the first lead in the opening chukka, Les Lions equalised and Cortium went ahead again for a 2-1 advantage at the bell. The lead changed twice in the second period that ended in a 3-3 tie.


Les Lions failed to score in the third chukka as Cortium’s Polito Pieres and Francisco Elizalde found the posts to put their team ahead 5-3 at halftime.


Scoring was equal in the fourth period with two back-to-back goals by Cortium patron Kirby and a third by Pieres against two for Les Lion’s  10-goaler Sebastian Merlos and one by his brother Agustin, leaving Cortium ahead 8-6. Each team scored once in the fifth chukka as Cortium held the lead 9-7.


In the final chukka, two goals by the Merlos brothers tied the match up again before Cortium’s Pieres converted a 60-yard penalty to win the game.


Pieres was high scorer for Cortium with six points. Sebastian Merlos was Les Lion’s high scorer with five goals to his credit.  


Saturday’s three British Open league games will be EFG Bank Aravali v Dubai, Ellerston v Salkeld and Enigma v El Remanso.