The remaining two quarter-final games took place on Sunday, June 8th.
Match 1:
The second La Dolfina team in the tournament, La Dolfina/Marques de Riscal took to the field at Noel Farm, against Sujan Indian Tigers.
The first two chukkas delivered some lovely running play with both teams finding the flags. La Dolfina/Marques de Riscal was again fielding Luis Aznar in place of their injured patron, Alejandro Aznar, and this young team continued to impress. Juan Martin Zubia was strong for Sujan Indian Tigers, converting penalties and delivering some big shots up field but La Dolfina/Marques de Riscal’s captain, Poroto Cambiaso, worked hard to make sure his team stayed ahead. Ollie Cudmore helped Sujan Indian Tigers stay in the game in the second half with some great goals, while Zubia kept battling too, despite needing two visits to the ambulance in this match. However Poroto was in winning mode, staying ultra calm while successfully negotiating traffic. He scored 10 of his team’s 16 goals, delivering a masterclass of how to play polo under pressure.
Chukka Breakdown:
Score Progression:
Game Statistics:
Match 2:
The last game of the day was a tight affair between Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha’s King Power, winners of the tournament in 2015, and a new team to the Queen’s Cup, Sunjay Kapur’s Aureus.
King Power started strongly with opening goals from Pablo MacDonough and Tommy Beresford. Aureus replied in the second thanks to some strong play from Tomas Panelo. He kept up the pressure in the third, firing through three further goals to none in reply from King Power. Aureus were now in the lead (5-3) and looking strong. Kapur’s team signalled their intent further when Mark Tomlinson fired through a goal from the first throw-in of the fourth chukka. Tomy’s brother Benjamin joined in the Aureus goalscoring and Kapur’s team had successfully maintained their two-goal advantage going into the sixth chukka. King Power started fighting back in this final chukka. MacDonough found the flags within a minute, followed by a goal off the stick of Beresford to level the score. With the clock ticking down, Beresford successfully converted a penalty two, pushing King Power back into the lead by one goal (10-9). Then, with less than 30 seconds left on the clock Ricardo Garros delivered a powerful hit to goal, shooting King Power through to Wednesday’s semi-finals.
Chukka Breakdown:
Score Progression:
Game Statistics:
All games of the Queens’s Cup can be seen here
Polocam.tv – Quality Streaming Service
Image credit Pablo Ramirez