Dubai, Lechuza Caracas gain places in the Queen’s Cup semis
By Herbert Spencer
The Albwardys’ Dubai overwhelmed Lyndon Lea’s Zacara 14-8 and Victor Vargas’ Lechuza Caracas defeated Piaget 10-7 Sunday (6 June) to move into the semi-finals of the 22-goal Queen’s Cup at Guards Polo Club.
This means that on Wednesday Dubai will meet Jean-François Decaux’s La Bamba de Areco and Lechuza Caracas will play Max Gottschalk’s Les Lions II for places in the final on 13 June.
The two one-sided score lines Sunday showed just how the pressure was mounting in the 14-team tournament that, until now, had seen most of the games won or lost by a single goal.
It was 10-goaler Adolfo Cambiaso, considered the world’s best player, who dominated the action in the Dubai-Zacara match at Guards. He scored 11 of Dubai’s 14 points, although 8 of them came from penalty conversions rather than field goals.
The Lechucas Caracas-Piaget match was played at the Dubai private ground in Berkshire. With only two high-goal grounds at the host club, Guards has had to schedule a third of its Queen’s Cup matches at other venues.
Piaget’s brothers Marcos and Bautista Heguy managed to penetrate deep into enemy territory time and time again, but their attacks were turned as Lechuza Caracas successfully counter-attacked. Lechuza Caracas’ Venezuela patron Vargas was again absent from the team, replaced by English player Billy Jackson-Stops.