Scone Polo 11 – 8 BP Polo
White Crane 10 – 7 Thai Polo NP
Scone Polo would have started their match today as favourites and so an 11-8 win would not be too much of a surprise. But BP Polo put up a strong opposition in the first four chukkas and made Scone work for this win early on. At half-time BP Polo were ahead 6-4, with both James Beh and his son Joevy playing well. Of course one can never relax when a Cambiaso is on the field and with two in action for Scone – Adolfo and Poroto – the danger is ever present. With good support from Isidro Strada, Scone Polo took an 9-8 lead in the fifth and pushed on to win the game by three goals; this change in dynamic stopping BP Polo from scoring at all in this final two periods of play. Interestingly Scone Polo had changed their line-up for this game with Poroto playing two and his father at three. Apparently it will be all change again on Sunday if Scone Polo’s patron David Paradice is out of quarantine and can return to play with his team.
In the second match of the day, White Crane received two goals on handicap as they were reunited with their patron, Jasmine Calvert-Ansari, following her fall in White Crane’s first game a week ago. Those goals on handicap saved White Crane’s blushes in the first half of this game as they did not score at all. Meanwhile Louis Hine and Gonzalito Pieres had put Thai Polo NP ahead 4-2 at the end of the second. This remained the score at the end of the third chukka as some great marking from both sides – there was no air between these two teams at this point in the game – stopped any goals being scored in the third. This was a fast and flowing game with very few whistles which was a pleasure to watch. White Crane started the fourth in an attacking mode though. Nico Pieres scored White Crane’s first match goal at the start of this chukka, converting a penalty, and did not look back. He scored five more goals in the fifth, despite coming under pressure from his older brother, to only one in reply from Juan Gris Zavaleta. White Crane was now very much in command of this game, with a comfortable 8-5 lead going into the sixth chukka. That fifth chukka proved decisive though as both teams scored twice (a field goal and a penalty apiece) in the sixth to give White Crane a 10-7 win at the final whistle, their second win of the competition.
Images copyright Images of Polo