Teams & Schedule announced for the Arena Gold Cup 2015
By Victoria Elsbury-Legg
The 19th Arena Gold Cup 2015 to be held at The Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club gets underway this week, with six teams entering the 12-15 goal tournament which started in 1996. Alongside the team list and schedule, new sponsors have been announced including the independent London music label ‘Snapper’ featuring as the title sponsor, in association with Land Rover. Team shirts have been supplied by StaaG, and Europe’s largest Polo supplier, Tally Ho Farm are the Official Tournament Supplier.
Play will begin on 21st February (with the Clubhouse open for spectators to enjoy homemade soup with artisan breads) the Gold and Silver Cup finals will be held on Saturday 28th February. The first two teams to open play will be Black Hound (Simon Arber, Tarquin Southwell and Peter Webb) against Gaucho (Faisal Al-Rifia, Oscar Mancini and Adolfo Casabal) at 11am on Saturday 21st February; followed at 12.15 by Chopendoz Eclipse (Ed Banner-Eve, Alec Banner-Eve and Jamie Morrison) facing 2014 winners Black Eagles (Jonathan Munro-Ford, Sergio Baselli and Chris Hyde).
On Monday 23rd February at 13.00 Black Eagles will then meet Silex (Richard Fagan, Michael Henderson and Sebastian Dawnay), and at 14.30 Sifani (Hilali Noordeen, Goffredo Cutinelli and Max Charlton) play Black Hound. In the opening match on the following day (Tuesday 24th February) at 13.00 Gaucho face Sifani, followed at 14.30 by Silex v Chopendoz Eclipse.
Semi-Finals are scheduled for Thursday 26th February at 13.00 and 14.30, and the finals on Saturday 28th February.