Scone Polo 11 – 10 Park Place Vaara on The Duke’s Ground
The first game of the day was full of drama. Park Place Vaara, centred around Hilario Ulloa and Juan Britos, started strongly and were 7-3 up after two chukkas. Unbelievably, their game then stalled at the same time that Scone Polo turned up the heat, promptly adding five goals to their tally in the third to just one in return from Park Place. This perfectly levelled the scores going into the half-time break and ensured there was still all to play for in the second half of this 22-goal contest. After such a flurry of goals it seems almost unbelievable that both teams then struggled to find the flags in the remaining chukkas with just five goals in total being shot through for both sides. As neither team scored in the sixth Scone Polo retained their hard-fought lead (11-10) to win the game. This was a bittersweet victory for last year’s winners as Nico Pieres had to retire hurt with just five minutes left of this match. His place was taken in this game by eight-goaler Barto Castagnola, who is the lynchpin of the Les Lions/Great Oaks team. Let’s hope Nico is fit for Scone’s next fixture as they will be play Barto’s team on Friday! Meanwhile Park Place Vaara, who are still looking for a win in this competition, will need to be on top form when they play Thai Polo this Wednesday.
Park Place 11 – 9 Monterosso at Flemish Farm for the Royal Windsor Horse Show Cup
This Park Place team, which features Andrey Borodin, continued their unbeaten form in this year’s Cartier Queen’s Cup and added their name to the Royal Windsor Horse Show Cup in the process. However, like their opening game against Segavas, Park Place had to fight for this victory. Their opponents Monterosso were also coming into the match with a win under their belts and were not going to be beaten without a fight. Park Place, centred around the Pieres brothers (Gonzalito and Facundo) had the edge in the first half but when Alessandro Bazzoni’s team prevented Park Place from scoring in the fourth as well as levelling out the scores (6-6) at the end of the chukka, this match was very much now on a knife edge. Although it seems that this was just the incentive Park Place needed to push themselves that bit further and they went on to create a two-goal advantage that was enough to win them this game at Flemish Farm.
Next game
Monday 3 June Next Generation v Segavas at 3pm
Watch live at guardspoloclub.com/guards-tv
Photo credit – Images of Polo