American 8-goaler Nic Roldan for Thai Polo.
(Photo by Pablo Ramirez)
In what looked like a cake walk, Dubai (Rashid Albwardy, Alastair Paterson, Adolfo Cambiaso and Diego Cavanagh) had to quell a last chukker rally by Thai Polo (Harald Link, Nic Roldan, Juan Ambroggio and Tomas Garcia del Rio) to earn their second victory in as many games as play continued in the 2014 Veuve Clicquot gold Cup for the British Open Monday afternoon.
Scoring at will through the first three chukkers of the game, Dubai raced out to a commanding 7-2 halftime lead as Thai Polo struggled to coordinate offense or defense effectively.
The two teams traded goals in the fourth chukker with each side scoring twice. Dubai continued to lead by five goals, 9-4.
Two more Dubai goals in the fifth extended their lead to six goals, 11-5. Thai Polo managed a single goal but never threatened.
Thai Polo came alive in the final chukker, however, scoring four consecutive goals to come within two goals of the lead, 11-9. A Diego Cavanagh goal put the brakes on any thought Thai Polo might have had about taking the win, 12-9, with a minute left in the game. Thai Polo team captain, Harald Link, scored the final goal of the match (is second of the day) for the 12-10 Dubai win.
The victory keeps Dubai undefeated with a 2-0 record. Thai Polo slips to 0-3.
BLACK BEARS 10, ENIGMA 9
A determined Black Bears team (Guy Schwarzenbach, Facundo Sola, John Paul Clarkin and Patrick O’Dwyer) registered a 10-9 win over Enigma (Jerome Wirth, Chris Mackenzie, Sapo Caset and Guillermo Willington) in the second British Open game of the day at Cowdray Park, with John Paul Clarkin scoring the winning goal in the final second of regulation play.
The Black Bears led throughout, going up 2-1 in the first chukker and stretching the lead to three goals, 5-2 after the second.
The two teams traded goals in the third, each scoring twice. The Black Bears led 7-4 at the end of the first half.
Enigma outscored the Black Bears 2-1 in the fourth, cutting the lead down to two goals, 8-6, and cut the lead to a single goal in the fifth, 8-7.
Enigma opened the final chukker with a pair of goals that leveled the score at 9-9, but the fight wasn’t over. Both teams pressed their attacks in an effort to salt the game away, but goals weren’t easy to come by. With just seconds on the game clock, Clarkin broke loose of a gang of players and managed to score the winning goal, 10-9, just as the final horn sounded.
The win gives the Black Bears a 2-0 record while Enigma suffered their second loss of the tournament with no wins. Currently three teams in Group A carry 2-0 records; Black Bears, King Power and Lucchese.
Tournament play is scheduled to resume at 2PM on Wednesday with a single match between Zacara (Facundo Pieres, Lyndon Lea, Gonzalo Deltour and Matt Perry) and Halcyon Gallery (George Hanbury, Mark Tomlinson, James Beim and James Harper).