Guards Polo Club – Sunday, July 26th ’09
By Joanne Hearn and Photos by Nigel Kaye
The Coronation Cup sponsored by Cartier for the last 25 years took place on the Queens Ground at Guards Polo Club on Sunday 26th July between England and Argentina, who last played in the Coronation Cup in 2000.
A crowd in excess of 33,000 descended on Guards and were treated to a parade of the pony club, a musical dance by the Household Cavalry and the band of the Grenadier Guards (shortly to be deployed to Afghanistan) played the national anthems of Argentina and England before the match commenced at 3.15 pm.
Playing for Argentina were Gustavo Usandizaga (3),Martin Valent (3), Adolpho Cambiaso (10) and Facundo Pieres(10) and for England James Beim (7), Mark Tomlinson (6), Malcolm Borwick (6) and Luke Tomlinson (7).
Adolfo Cambiaso, the world’s number one player, took control of the match from the start knowing that his three “worker bees” were behind him and scored the first goal within seconds. England kept pace with Argentina in the first chukka but failed to score only making 1-1 in the second chukka by a terrific goal by Luke Tomlinson, although not for long as Argentina scored again with seconds to spare in the second. Argentina had the upper hand throughout the rest of the match and even though England put up a brave fight, it was not to be, Argentina won the Coronation Cup 12-5.
The presentation of the Coronation Cup was made by HRH Prince Of Wales. The Most Valuable Player was Facundo Pieres and the Best Playing Pony was Mi Gatita played by Adolpho Cambiaso in the fifth chukka.
The subsidiary match played in the morning for the Golden Jubilee Trophy was won by Hurlingham who beat the Prince Of Wales team comfortably.
There was also a presentation to Julian Hipwood who won the award for the “Best Player over the Last 25 years”.