The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder
It was not a smoking day at Santa Barbara Polo as the air was cool and the crowd was light, but the first game was smokin’ all the way through between Grants Farm and ERG. Grant’s Farm jumped out quick with 3 goals before the 3.5 minute but ERG or at least Sebe smoked in three goals to tie it up. Sebe Melos is a kid who grew up in Carpinteria at Leas during the summer months and 20 years later he comes back to play and is 1 game away from being in his second finals of the year. He is also a 9 goal player in the US and 10 in England, so he knows the game. The game should have been bad as 40 whistles were called and this does not count the extra red flags on technicals, 7 in the first chukkar to set the game. It ended up tied at 3. During the 2nd chukkar they had only 3 calls and Grant’s Farm ended up by 1. In the 3rd it was wild, but fun. There were 10 fouls and at least 3 technicals, but 7 goals were scored and ERG took back the lead going into 1/2 time. Andy Bush must have been fired up because in a blazing 4th chukkar it was Grant’s Farm smoking ERG by 3 to 0 and taking a 1 goal lead. The 4th started out with Sebe Merlos reloaded for bear and he carried ERG right back to the lead and Grant’s Farm tied it up to finish all square. With a big sixth coming up that was good. The 6th was clean for most part and a hard fought game as Grant’s Farm took the lead and then gave it back. In the last 40 seconds it was wild. On a breakaway Paco flew down the field but lost it in front of goal. Sebe following missed. Nick Roldan missed a clearing shot and M. Torres stuck it in so it was FUN and into OT. A penalty free OT was soon on and it was a stop and then a bit of go and comeback when SM made a move to goal lost it off the cane. JH failed to clear and Sebe did what he did all day … scored his 12 th goal of the match to send ERG to the Semis.
It was hard fought game even the refs had to work, but called a fair game. The Horses were the stars as many were tired, but never quit trying so it was more than a good hard game it was a very good game.
Game 2 looked to be much more even than it was. Mansour had been looking tough in preliminary games, but got absolutley rocked early as Melisia Ganzi and team just pounded them to go up by a 6 to 0 lead and finish the 3rd 8 to 2. Jason and Miguel working off the big stick of Juan Bolleni were moving on quick and Melisia just added to it as she kept it in motion while the guns got rolling. It was a little slow in the 3rd and Mansour thinking return in the 4th soon found a major roadblock as Piaget just reignited and blew out the lead by a couple more and just galloped to the finish on their way to a big day against Audi on Thursday in the semis. The most exciting part of the day was seeing the Ref. fall off in the first. Luckily he was not hurt, but it was entertaining as he wore his horse down chasing Piaget and their speed demons. No results from Party San Diego Town and Irene is stopping in NY so we will let you know as soon as we know.
see ya Thursday.