By Alex Webbe
With the season winding down at the International Polo club in Wellington, a member’s tournament was staged for the 7th Chukker Cup with Maureen Brennan’s Goose Creek team sneaking past Santa Clara/ART by the score of 13-11½.
Lining up for the Goose Creek team were Brennan, Shahir Quraeshi, Santi Torres and Brandon Phillips, while Santa Clara/ART fielded a team of Nico Escobar, Shamir Quraeshi, Luis Escobar and Mario de Mendoza.
Torres scored two opening chukker goals for Goose Creek, but Santa Clara/ART, with 2½ goals by handicap, took the early 3½ -2 lead. Nico Escobar scored Santa Clara/ART’s only goal from the field.
The pace heated up in the second chukker with Nico Escobar and Shamir Quraeshi scoring single goals for Santa Clara/ART. Goose Creek responded with a pair of penalty goals from Brennan and a goal from the field from Phillips. Santa Clara/ART maintained the lead, but the margin was cut to one-half goals, 5½-5.
Goose Creek cranked it up a notch in the third, picking up three more goals while holding Santa Clara/ART to a single goal from Nico Escobar. Goose Creek registered goals from Brennan, Torres and Phillips to take an 8-6½ lead.
Mendoza opened the second half with a goal for Santa Clara/ART, but Goose Creek fired right back. Goals from Shahir Quraeshi and Brennan ended the fourth chukker with Goose Creek in control of a 10-7½ score.
Goose Creek seemed to put the final nail in the coffin in the fifth period with unanswered goals from Brennan and Torres for a 12-7½ lead, but Santa Clara/ART would storm back with a last chukker rally.
Nico Escobar scored the first goal of the final chukker on a penalty conversion followed by a goal from the field from Shamir Quraeshi. Two more goals from Nico Escobar had Santa Clara/ART within ½ goal of the lead, 12-11½, but that was where it ended. Brennan’s sixth goal of the game ended any shot at a victory for Santa Clara/ART as they fell to a versatile Goose Creek team 13-11½.
Maureen Brennan led the Goose Creek attack with six goals. Torres scored four times; Phillips twice and Shahir Quraeshi added a goal in the victory.
Nico Escobar scored six times for Santa Clara/ART. Shamir Quraeshi added two goals and Mendoza scored once in a losing effort.