Sommelier’s comeback bid fall short as Talandracas held on for the 11-10 victory
The lone game on Saturday in the 2017 Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup at Cowdray Park Polo Club featured Talandracas against Sommelier in a game that saw Sommelier’s comeback bid fall short as Talandracas held on for the 11-10 victory.
The first chukka was all Talandracas as they scored four quick goals, two from Guillermo Caset and one each from David Stirling and Hugo Lewis, to gain the early 4-0 advantage. Sommelier was chasing the ball throughout the first chukka and was unable to stop the Talandracas side from converting all four of their shot attempts as well as their one penalty 3 attempt, placing Sommelier in a four goal deficit entering the second chukka.
Sommelier began to find their footing in the second chukka, thanks to two goals from Alec White. The second goal came as a result of a perfect passing play out of the throw-in, with Juan Gris Zavaleta setting up Alec White for the finish to cut the deficit to three as Sommelier still had an uphill climb to make up for their slow start in the first chukka.
After an evenly split third chukka, Fred Mannix scored three consecutive goals, two from the field and one from the penalty line, to tie the game up and erase the five goal deficit from the beginning of the second chukka. Sommelier slowly began to take advantage of their throw-in wins, as they would win 21 of 30 throw-ins throughout the game, with the extra possessions and attacks at goal, causing Talandracas to commit seven fouls in the 2nd half.
However, Caset scored his fifth goal of the game to end the 4th chukka and was quickly followed by Eduoard Carmignac’s first goal of the game to begin the 5th chukka as Talandracas restored a two goal advantage. As the game continued into the 6th chukker, Sommelier kept pressing for the equalizer to send the game into overtime, but a late penalty 4 conversion from Caset sealed the victory for Talandracas as they survived the comeback attempt from Sommelier for the 11-10 victory.
