Ellerston and Dubai in semifinals;
shootout to determine the remaining two playoff teams
By Alex Webbe
Ellerston (Johnny Williams, Ali Patterson, Gonzalo Pieres
and Facundo Pieres) scored an 11-10 overtime win over UAE (HH Sheikha Maitha Al
Maktoum, Jack Richardson, Lucas Monteverde and Pablo MacDonough) in Monday’s
Hublot Gold Cup action at the Santa Maria Polo Club at Sotogrande, Spain. The victory earned Ellerston a berth in
Thursday’s semifinals where they will join a Dubai team (MartÃn Valent, Patricio
Cieza, Luis Domecq and Adolfo Cambiaso) that qualified with its third win of
the season over HB Polo (Ludovic Pailloncy, Sebastian Pailloncy, Ignacio
Toccalino and Pite Merlos).
In other Monday action, Ayala scored a 17-10 win over Dos
Lunas and Royal Salute beat El Rosario 16-12.
For the second time this season, however, there is a
deadlock for the final two semifinal positions forcing a shootout to take place
on Tuesday morning between HB Polo, UAE and Ayala (Inigo Zobel, Guillermo
Willington, Pablo MacDonough and Juan Jauretche), each team possessing a 2-1
record.
HB Polo had scored Gold Cup wins over Scapa (10-7) and
Halcyon Gallery (9-8) while losing to Dubai (11-9) in Sunday action; UAE downed
Dos Lunas (12-11) and Royal Salute (11-10), suffering their loss to Ellerston
(11-10 in overtime); and Ayala racked up wins over Royal Salute (16-14) and Dos
Lunas (17-10) while falling to Ellerston 15-11.
Both Dubai and Ellerston will be looking for their second
high-goal championships with the season opening Bronze Cup going to Dubai and
Ellerston taking the Silver Cup (Ellerston didn’t compete in Bronze Cup
play). The remaining two semifinalists
will be looking for their first titles of the season.