Twelve
Oaks, Dubai and El Remanso remain undefeated with 2-0 records
By
Alex Webbe
Ignacio Toccalino scored the first goal of the game
Sunday afternoon for HB Polo (Ludovic Pailloncy, Ignacio Toccalino, Pite Merlos
and Sebastian Pailloncy) on the River Field at Cowdray Park as the 2013 Veuve
Clicquot British Open for the Gold Cup continued. Marcos Di Paola evened the count for Twelve
Oaks (Chris Hyde, Magoo Laprida, Marcos Di Paola and Inaki Laprida) at 1-1 to
close out the scoring in the opening chukker.
The two teams battled evenly through much of the second
chukker, racing up and down the field with shots at goal going wide or being
well-defended. Single goals from each
kept it even at 2-2, with Twelve Oaks breaking ahead at the end of the period
for a 3-2 edge.
Close checking and hard riding kept the second chukker
even as both steams struggled to break through the opponents rigid defenses. Battling through a scoreless third chukker,
Twelve Oaks maintained a 3-2 advantage at the end of the first half of play.
Goals continued to be hard to come by as both defenses
were resilient throughout. A pair of
Twelve Oaks goals extended their lead over HB Polo to two goals, 5-3, to end
the fourth chukker, with HB Polo being held to a single goal in the period.
Two more goals from Twelve Oaks stretched their lead to
three goals, 7-4. Once again, a
struggling HB Polo offense was held to a single goal with one chukker remaining
in regulation play.
HB Polo made a last chukker run at Twelve Oaks, cutting
the lead to two goals, 7-5. Twelve Oaks
responded with a goal of their own, 8-5.
HB Polo scored the final goal of the match, but wound up on the losing
end of an 8-6 score. With the win Twelve
Oaks improves their record to 2-0 while HB Polo falls to 0-2.
DUBAI
14, BLACK BEARS 10
The second British Open match of the day featured Dubai’s
(Rashid Albwardy, Nico Pieres, Adolfo Cambiaso and Alex White) talented young
player, Nico Pieres, who scored all four first chukker goals for his team (two
on penalty conversions) for a 4-1 lead.
The Black Bears (Guy Schwarzenbach, Nachi du Plessis, John Paul Clarkin
and Patrick O’Dwyer) were hoping to improve on their 0-1 record, but fell behind
by three goals in the opening chukker.
Three more second chukker goals from Dubai had them extending
their lead to five goals. Black Bears
managed a single goal, but were beginning to fade, trailing 7-2.
Black Bears scored the first goal of the third chukker,
but Dubai responded with a goal of their own, 8-3. Two more Black Bears goals cut the Dubai lead
to three goals, 8-5, to end the first half.
Dubai scored the first goal of the second half, 9-5, and
ran its lead up to six goals, 11-5.
Black Bears tallied two goals to close out the chukker with Dubai in the
lead, 11-7.
Black Bears continue to press the attack. Dubai adds a goal in the fifth chukker. Black
Bears pick up two. Dubai leads by three
goals, 12-9, with one chukker left to play.
Dubai scores the first two goals of the final chukker for
a 14-9 advantage over Black Bears as the game seemed to get away from Guy
Schwarzenbach and company. A final goal
from Black Bears was all they could muster, falling to Dubai, 14-10.
Nico Pieres had a brilliant showing, accounting for 11 of
Dubai’s 14 goals on the day.
Dubai improved its record to 2-0 in British Open play
while Black Bears fall to 0-2.
EL REMANSO 13,
EMLOR 11
El Remanso (George Hanbury, Guillermo Terrera, Pelon
Stirling and Alastair Paterson) was looking to register their second straight
British Open win over an Emlor team (Spencer McCarthy, Joaquin Pittaluga, Luke Tomlinson
and Nacho Gonzalez) that was looking for its first victory of the campaign, but
had their hands full.
After a contentious opening chukker, Emlor had emerged
from second period play on top of a 4-3 score.
Emlor continues to dominate play. El Remanso manages one goal in the third
while Emlor scored three times for a 7-4 halftime lead.
El Remanso continues to have trouble with the Emlor
defense. Fourth chukker play watches
Emlor continue to control the game. Two
more Emlor goals are scored with El Remanso answering with a single goal,
falling behind by four goals, 10-6, with two chukkers left to play.
El Remanso stages a late game rally in the fifth chukker,
scoring two unanswered goals to cut the Emlor lead to two goals, 10-8. Five more El Remanso goals are met with a
single score from Emlor. Sixth chukker
play begins with Emlor trailing, 13-11.
Both defenses buckled down in the final chukker, with no
goals being scored. After trailing
throughout the game, seven late goals lifted El Remanso over Emlor, 13-11.
British Open play continues on Monday, July 1 with a three
game schedule. At noon, Cortium (0-1)
faces Sumaya (1-0); Lucchese (0-1) meets UAE (1-0) at 3PM with Thai Polo (0-1) battling
Talandracas (0-1) at 5PM.