King Power 12 – 11 UAE Polo Team ll
Park Place 17 – 7 Schockemohle
If you had only watched the first half of the first of the Cartier Queen’s Cup matches today, featuring King Power v UAE Polo Team ll you would not be surprised to read here that King Power won this game. Top Srivaddhanaprabha’s team were leading 10-4 at the end of the fourth chukka and looked completely in command of this match. The new partnership of Hilario Ulloa and Fran Elizalde was looking good and Top was making his usual fast runs up field. Admittedly they had been forced to change their team line-up as Hugo Lewis had been injured earlier in the season, with Charles Cooney deputising for the fellow Brit, but that could not account for what happened next. The young Lucas Monteverde Junior came out at the start of fifth chukka a different player. He seemed to be everywhere and brought King Power’s attack to a standstill. Hugo Taylor did a great job in defence and suddenly UAE were very much back in this game. Two goals from Hugo Taylor and two penalty conversions from Alfredo Capella, to only one goal in reply from Hilario in the sixth brought the scores level, 11-11. So it was now time for a golden goal scenario – this really was anyone’s game. Twenty seconds in King Power were awarded a penalty which Hilario conveted to win the match.
The second match of the day was a very different affair Park Place were favourites to win without doubt but it was Schockemohle’s Patrick Maleitzke who found the flags first. A penalty by Facundo Pieres, followed by a lovely field goal, put Andrey Borodin’s Park Place ahead 2-1, only for Patrick to score again to level the scores at the end of the first. Juan Britos showcased some great goals in the next couple of chukkas with Facundo finding accuracy with his penalties and Will Harper doing a great job in defence for Park Place. Meanwhile a couple of penalty conversions by Patrick and a lovely goal from the French player Clement Delfosse ensured Schockemohle were still in contention at the half-time break. The final three chukkas offered a very different story though. Schockemohle had no answer to Park Place’s war of attrition in the fourth. Every member of the Park Place team scored – seven goals in total – to none in reply from the yellow shirts. Park Place added a couple more goals in the fifth to cement their dominance. Both Clemente and Patrick found the flags in the sixth but it was definitely too little too late.
Images copyright Images of Polo