HB Polo Win ‘Battle of France’ against Talandracas, 12-10
By Darlene Ricker
HB Polo Team came out gunning to beat Talandracas in Tuesday’s opening match of the 2016 Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup—and they did, 12-10. Of course anyone with a mallet in his hand is set on winning, but this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill rivalry. It was the proverbial Battle of France.
“Today was our revenge from the Queen’s Cup!” said HB Polo patron Sebastien Pailloncy, referring to HB Polo’s 12-11 loss to Talandracas on the second day of play in the 2016 Cartier Queen’s Cup. “It always feels good to beat [Talandracas]. There is a special taste to it,” he added.
HB Polo relocated from Deauville to England several years ago, but its roots (and patrons) are as French as it comes. Likewise for Talandracas patron Edouard Carmignac.
It was a tight match throughout, with the game tied five times and the score never more than two goals apart. The first half ended 8-7 for Talandracas. Then 10 goals of Uruguayan dynamite exploded in the form of David “Pelón” Stirling, captain of HB Polo. Riding his grey speed stick “Silver Fox,” he scored from everywhere imaginable on the field and from the penalty line in the fifth chukka.
For the past year HB Polo has been champing at the bit to bring Stirling, who had been playing for El Remanso, onboard. “We had to wait for him, and this year we got him!” said Pailloncy with glee, adding that playing with Stirling today was “like playing with the king. Valiente has the master (Cambiaso); we have the king!”
Cambiaso played in the second match of the day, leading Valiente to a 12-7 win over Cowdray Vikings.