Polo in Europe & The 2015 Gold Cup (16 goal) at Deaville Polo Club
By Victoria Elsbury-Legg
It’s all been going on polo-wise in Europe over the last few weeks, with many players and spectators enjoying both the Spanish and French sun. At St Tropez Polo Club there was a win for Jonathan Rothermere’s Ferne Park (Jonathan Rothermere (0) Joaquin Pittaluga (7) Rodrigo Rueda Jr (6) and Dirk Gould (5) in the first Richard Mille Cote d’Azur Polo Cup, 18 goal. This weekend the 44th Land Rover International Polo Tournament at the Santa María Polo Club Sotogrande (held from 28th July to 29th August 2015, featuring 100 players from over 14 different nationalities playing in 120 matches over 31 days) comes to a close with the high goal Bulgari Gold Cup final on Saturday 29th August. Qualifying through from Wednesday’s semi-finals are Dubai and Lechuza Caracas. The Final will be shown live on www.hurlinghampolo.com at 6pm local time.
In the medium and low goal finals played on Friday 28th August, Saint Mesme beat Golden Goose 11 – 10 (medium goal). Whilst in the Valecuatro Gold Cup (Low Goal) Clarita narrowly missed doing ‘the triple in the low goal’ in their first season in Sotogrande (having won the Bronze and Silver Cups this season), they faced Valdeparras Lynx, with the final ending: Clarita 7 v 9 Valdeparras Lynx.
Also continuing in another part of Europe this week – at Deaville Polo Club – is the Gold Cup (16 goal) played from 12th to 30th August. With two of the Pieres (Gonzalito and Facundo) adding Pieres’ power on the pitch in St Tropez, in Deauville it is cousin Polito who plays this time on French soil with Edouard Carmignaic’s Talandracas. Taking part in the Deauville Gold Cup tournament in 2015 are four teams: Royal Barriere – Tommy Rinderknecht (0) Juan Chavanne (5) Martin Aguerre (6) Patrizio Cieza (5), Equipe de France – Thibault Guillemin (4) Adrien Le Gallo (3) Matthieu Delfosse (4) Julien Reynes (3), Talandracas – Edouard Carmignac (0) Santiago Gaztambide (6) Pablo Pieres (9) Hugues Carmignac (1) and La Esperanza – Jean-Edouard Mazery (0) Pierre-Henri N’Goumou (5) Ramiro Zavaleta (3).
Keen to defend their Gold Cup title which they won in 2014 will be Tommy Rinderknecht and his Royal Barriere team, who to date have beaten Talandracas 10 – 6 and Equipe de France 9 – 6.5 and lost to La Esperanza 6 – 7.5.
*Games scheduled below for Wednesday and Thursday were actually played on Friday due to weather conditions.
Deauville Polo Club – Gold Cup 2015 schedule:
Wednesday, August 19th – Royal Barriere 10 v 6 Talandracas
Thursday, August 20th – Equipe de France 6.5 v 9 La Esperanza
Monday, August 24th – La Esperanza 8.5 v 11 Talandracas
Monday, August 24th – Royal Barriere 9 v 6.5 Equipe de France
*Wednesday, August 26th – Equipe de France 8.5 v 11 Talandracas
*Thursday, August 27th – Royal Barriere 6 v 7.5 La Esperanza
Saturday, August 29th – SILVER CUP – 3rd / 4th GOLD
Sunday, August 30th – FINAL GOLD CUP
Teams:
Royal Barriere – Tommy Rinderknecht (0) Juan Chavanne (5) Martin Aguerre (6) Patrizio Cieza (5)
Equipe de France – Thibault Guillemin (4) Adrien Le Gallo (3) Matthieu Delfosse (4) Julien Reynes (3)
Talandracas – Edouard Carmignac (0) Santiago Gaztambide (6) Pablo Pieres (9) Hugues Carmignac (1)
La Esperanza – Jean-Edouard Mazery (0) Pierre-Henri N’Goumou (5) Ramiro Zavaleta (3)