Nacho Astrada
injured, game suspended; La Dolfina trashes Algeria, 19-10
By Alex Webbe
It was a disappointing day in Hurlingham Open competition
for La
Aguada – Las Monjitas (Agustin Merlos, Magoo Laprida, Eduardo Novillo
Astrada, Alejandro Novillo Astrada) as the grounds at the Hurlingham Club of
Buenos Aires proved to be the biggest impediment for the boys from Open Door in
their match with Chapaleufú (Alberto Heguy, Francisco Elizalde, Bautista
Heguy and Eduardo Heguy) Saturday afternoon.
Facundo Sola got La Aguada on the scoreboard first with a
tying goal from Chapa’s Francisco Elizalde for a 1-1 first chukker.
Two more goals from Sola in the second period were countered
by a single goal from Elizalde. After
two chukkers of play, La Aguada held a narrow 3-2 edge.
It was just 40 seconds into the third chukker when Nacho
Novillo Astrada hit the ground, breaking his left collarbone and forcing his
retirement from the game. Julio Novillo
Astrada was recruited to fill in, but concerns about the condition of the field
caused the game to be suspended. Plans
for a resumption of the game are set for Monday with La Aguada holding the 3-2,
one goal lead.
LA DOLFINA 19,
ALEGRIA 10
La Dolfina (Adolfo
Cambiaso, Pelon Stirling, Pablo MacDonough and Juan MartÃn Nero) showed the
form that carried them to the recent Tortugas Open championship in a 19-10
domination of AlegrÃa (Diego
Cavanagh, Lucas Monteverde, Hilario Ulloa, Frederick Mannix) as the second
round of play for the 39-goal powerhouse got underway.
In their last five open games, La Dolfina has scored a
whopping 86 goals for an average of 17.2 goals per game, and they seemed to
have no difficulty in producing goals at Hurlingham either. La Dolfina opened Hurlingham Open play with a
22-10 win over Chapaleufú and appear to be unstoppable on offense.
Alegria took an early 2-1 lead over La Dolfina, but the
advantage was only temporary. La Dolfina
closed out the opening chukker with consecutive goals for a 3-2 lead and never
looked back.
Adolfo Cambiaso continued to shine as he led his teammates
to a commanding 10-3 halftime lead.
La Dolfina led by nine goals after the fifth (13-4) and thirteen
goals (19-6) after the seventh. Alegria
scored the last four goals of the match as La Dolfina coasted through the final
seven minutes of the game for the 19-10 win.
Cambiaso led all scoring with nine goals (four on penalty
conversions). Juan Martin Nero scored
four times while Pelon Stirling and Pablo MacDonough added three goals
apiece. Fred Mannix led the Alegria
attack with six goals (four on penalty shots).
Hilario Ulloa and Diego Cavanagh (filling in for Polito
Pieres-appendicitis) each scored a pair of goals in the loss.
In anticipation of rain, the Argentine Polo Association has
moved up the times of Sunday’s games with La Natividad (Sapo Caset, Nachi Heguy, Rodrigo Andrade and Lolo Castagnola)
and Magual (Alejandro Muzzio, Ignacio Toccalino, Marcos Di Paola and Jaime
Huidobro) playing at 11am instead of 2pm.
Ellerstina/Piaget (Facundo Pieres, Gonzalito Pieres, Mariano
Aguerre and Paco de Narvaez-playing for the injured Nico Pieres) will face La Aguada – Las Monjitas (Agustin
Merlos, Magoo Laprida, Eduardo Novillo Astrada, Alejandro Novillo Astrada) at
2pm.