Park Place, fielding Leo Stuart in place of Andrey Borodin, delivered a masterclass in team-work to maintain their unbeaten run in this year’s Cartier Queen’s Cup. They defeated Adebayo Karim’s Shoreline squad 16-7 at Noel Farm. Shoreline, who have had some strong games but are still looking for their first win, were the first team to score, the goal coming off the stick of Karim. They kept Park Place in their sights in the early stages, but Park Place started to pull ahead, thanks to Hilario Ulloa’s shots on goal. This nine-goaler was also brilliantly backed up by his team across all six chukkas and players such as Louis Hine were excellent in marking their opponents, giving Ulloa several unimpeded runs to goal. Meanwhile Shoreline were starting to gift penalties to their rivals and Karim even had two yellow cards so had to spend two minutes in the sin bin. At half-time the score was reading 6-4 to Park Place and it was clear that they were in the driving seat, giving an organised and confident performance. Sadly for Shoreline the second half was all about Park Place. Rufino Bensadon had some flashes of brilliance to add to Shoreline’s tally but this was Park Place’s game. They were 10-5 ahead at the end of the fourth and went on to win the game 16-7.
Image credit: Art of Polo
The Teams:
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Second Match
Balanz Capital won their match with a 16-goal scoreline but they had to be on top form at all times to beat an equally competitive Akasha squad. Both teams were unbeaten coming into this match and so there was all to play for. Akasha led at the end of the first (3-2), building on that in the second (5-4). Pablo MacDonough and Santiago Laborde were the goalscorers in both chukkas. Balanz Capital pulled ahead in the third. Goals off the sticks of Lorenzo Chavanne – who had an incredible game – and Jeta Castagnola put Balanz Capital in the lead (9-6) at half-time. Like Park Place in the earlier match, Claudio Porcel’s team pushed on in the second half. That said, Balanz Capital could not relax for a moment as Akasha were never that far away, mostly due to the experienced Pablo MacDonough, who scored seven goals in this match. With the scoreboard reading 12-8 at the end of the fourth this match could still have gone either way. However, goals from Porcel, Chavanne and Castagnola in the final two chukkas and only MacDonough scoring for Akasha ensured the win went in favour of Balanz Capital. It also fired a warning to their rivals that they will need to be at the top of their game to counteract the remarkable Castagnola/Chavanne double act.
Image credit: Art of Polo
The Teams:
Score Progression:
Game Statistics:
Stats provided by https://poloreport.com/