Enigma, Silver Spring are quarter-finalists
By Herbert Spencer
Jerome Wirth’s Enigma and Adrian Kirby’s Silver Springs 1870 gained places in the quarter-finals of the British Open Championship Thursday after comfortably winning their matches for the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup at Cowdray Park Polo Club.
Enigma downed Edouard Carmignac’s Talandracas 14-10. Wirth’s side, coached by former England captain Julian Hipwood, includes two current England internationals, James Beim and Malcolm Borwick. They won three of their four qualifying matches, moving into the quarters with the biggest goal difference, 16, of all the 20 teams in the Open.
Silver Spring 1870 beat Fabian Pictet’s Emerging 9-5 to gain their place in the quarters. The only team without a South American professional, with all their pros and most of their ponies from Down Under, Kirby’s squad also have a 3-1 win record and came through on a goal difference of 10.
Only two of the quarter-finalists came through the leagues undefeated: Victor Vagas’ Lechuza Caracas and Jean-François Decaux’s La Bamba de Areca, winners of the 2009 Open.
The other teams with 3-1 records making it through to the quarters on goal differences are the Hanburys’ El Remanso, the Albwardys’ Dubai, Max Gottschalk’s Les Lions II, and Alfio Marchini’s Loro Piana, Open winners in 2008.
The eight quarter-finalists, two from each of four leagues, play across the leagues in four crucial matches this weekend.