MT Vikings 15 – 12 Next Generation at Coworth Park
Alessandro and Siri Bazzoni will go head-to-head on Sunday morning in a bid to win the Cartier Cup, the subsidiary championship of the Cartier Queen’s Cup. This husband and wife duo find themselves in opposition after both winning their sub semi-final matches today.
First to play was Siri’s MT Vikings, in action against a changed line-up for Next Generation. Alexander Nix, Rodrigo Rueda and Federico Boudou joined Diego Cavanagh in Next Generation (rec 2 goals) today. It took this new-look Next Generation team a while to get into the game but by the third chukka both sdes were all square, 8-8. Sadly Siri, who has been battling injury this season and has missed most of her team’s matches in this tournament had to retire after the first chukka and her place was again taken by Holly Butler, who has impressed everyone in the Cartier Queen’s Cup with her ability to keep higher-handicapped players off the ball. Next Generation took the lead at the end of the fourth (11-10) but then faded from the game as MT Vikings, who have worked well as a team throughout this tournament took hold of the game. James Beim and Sebastian Merlos are no strangers to Queen’s Cup success; add in the impressive play from young Juan Martin Zubia, and MT Vikings knew what was needed to win this game. They pulled away from Next Generation and with a comfortable, three-goal lead at the final bell they now start preparing for a match against their stablemates in Sunday’s morning’s subsidiary final in their Cartier Queen’s Cup debut season.
Monterosso 10 – 9 Segavas on the Duke’s Ground
Alessandro Bazzoni had a more nail-biting journey to secure his ticket to Sunday’s subsidiary final. His team, Monterosso, were 6-1 down to Segavas at half-time but ended up narrowly winning this match 10-9. A Monterosso hallmark in this tournament has been that they never give up, quite rightly fighting for every minute of every chukka and today it paid off. Segavas, making their Cartier Queen’s Cup debut in 2020, had delivered some wonderful, four-man polo off the sticks of Luke Wiles, John Paul Clarkin, Mark Tomlinson and Joaquin Pittaluga in this tournament and the first half of this game was no exception. Each player seamlessly supporting the others and Pittaluga firing through goals, Segavas looked a shoe-in for Sunday’s final. Guillermo Terrera, Ignacio Toccalino and Jeronimo del Carril had written a different script though. They gradually got Monterosso back into this match – 8-3 at the end of the fourth chukka and 8-5 at the end of the fifth. Suddenly there was hope for Monterosso fans and despair for Segavas supporters. Toccalino made the most of being unmarked to take the score to 8-7 early in the sixth
and then del Carril took the ball through traffic to level the scores. This was now game-on. A Monterosso penalty, successfully converted by Toccalino, gave them the lead and a field goal from Del Carril suddenly gave them a two-goal advantage almost out of nowhere. Pittaluga got another goal on the board for Segavas but it was too late and Alessandro’s squad will now face his wife’s team at 11am on Sunday morning.
Next Games
11am Monterosso Polo Team v MT Vikings for the subsidiary Cartier Cup
3pm Park Place for Les Lions /Great Oaks for the 60th anniversary edition of the Cartier Queen’s Cup
Watch LIVE at www.guardspoloclub.com/guards-tv
Photo credit – Images of Polo