Draw for the 2013 Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup for the British Open Polo Championship
Patrons and players gathered at Cowdray Park on the evening of 10th June for the Draw for the 2013 Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup.
With seventeen teams entered, in order to ensure a balanced Draw, Chris Bethell, Cowdray Park’s Polo Manager, seeded eight teams, the top four seeds being the semi-finalists from the Cartier Queen’s Cup 2013: Cortium/Jaeger-LeCoultre, Dubai, El Remanso and Zacara. The next four seeded teams comprised the losing quarter-finalists: Black Bears, Les Lions, Talandracas and UAE Polo Team.
For the next stage of the draw the remaining nine non seeded teams: Emlor, Enigma, HB Polo, La Bamba, Luchesse, Salkeld, Sumaya, Thai Polo and Twelve Oaks were placed in one bucket. Nine lettered balls were placed in another hat (3 balls with the letter A, 2 with the letter B, 2 with the letter C and 2 with the letter D.) As Elsa Corbineau, Marketing Director,Veuve Clicquot, pulled team names out of the hat, a representative from that team was called forward to pick a lettered ball out of the second bucket denoting the league into which their team was placed. Chris Bethell commented: “With seventeen teams entered, I believe we have created a structure that makes for the fairest and most workable tournament possible.”