Piaget golden goal wins in British Open league
By Herbert Spencer
Stefano Marsaglia’s Piaget defeated Christopher Hanbury’s El Remanso 11-10 in extra time in their see-saw match Saturday in the British Open Championship for the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup at Cowdrat Park Polo Club.
El Remanso’s Eduardo Heguy scored first, Piaget’s Christian Laprida equalised and then Heguy found the posts again to give his team a 2-1 lead at the end of the first chukka. Piaget came back to equalise and take a 4-3 lead in the second period. El Remanso retook the lead in the third chukka until two goals by Joaquin Pittaluga and Laprida tied the game up and gave Piaget a 6-5 advantage at halftime.
Charlie Hanbury equalised for El Remanso to end the fourth chukka 7-7. Piaget took the lead again in the fifth period, 9-8. Goals by El Remanso’s Jaime Huidobro and Heguy evened the score 10-10 in the sixth period to push the match into a sudden death seventh chukka.
It was Ignacio Toccalino who scored the golden goal for Piaget to give the team a 3-0 win/loss record in the tournament’s Group B.
In the day’s other two league matches, Jean-François Decaux’s La Bamba de Areco edged Joachim Gottschalk’s Les Lions 11-10 and Ali Albardy’s Dubai swamped the Australian-patroned Stella Artois 17 goals to 7.