The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder
On a cold, ugly day with temps. in the 60s, damp fields in the morning seemed better weather in the Queens Cup Finals in the UK. The Foxes with the Pieres’ winning in a close one over in Dubai without Adolfo Cabmiaso, but they had a strong team anyway with a double substitution. Facundo now has won 3 Queen’s in a row I think. On this side of the pond in Santa Barbara 12-goal round 2 got off to a cold day, but hot play. The Monterrey boys … Fernandez’s and Gracida’s, were just a little too much for the high- flying Hawks and sent them to 1 and 1. La Herradura is the first to have 2 and 0 with this big win. On field 3 it was Josey (Joseph Stuart) and the Wildcats exploding for 4 in the first and a good lead, but Jesse and Klentner just kept plugging away and finally tied it up. Both wapped leads ’til the end. Klentner Ranch took it away with only a few ticks on the clock and they go to 1 and 1 GF/WC go to 0 and 2.
In the 1 o’clock it was a good one as Lucchese and John Muse did what they had not done all season … they WON. They did it in a big way as they stopprd Farmers and Merchants and actually, despite a huge loss to Twin Palms, have a chance to go to the finals if they beat Antelope. It will be a “who beat who” deal. John Muse made the difference as he scored the first goal for Lucchese and they won by one.
The 3 P.m. was a barn buster. Twin Palms and Antelope hooked up in a big one that was definitely the best of the day with a decent crowd. Twin Palms roared out to a big lead in the first chukker, 7 to 3, but Antelope kept chipping away until they tied it up in the 4th. It went back and forth until a tie in the end of the 5th made for a great 6th. Antelope gained the edge in last 2 minutes and held on to head to 2 and 0. Leigh Brecheen, Antelope’s Patron, made some huge plays. She stopped young gun Conrad Kissling on some big time goal chances. Twin Palms’ Patron, Chris Maloney, did a great job by limiting Patrick on the field. It was a great game for both teams/patrons. It was a very fast and clean match with a very good view for the public.
Today, was a great day despite the weather. There is some really good junior talent here. In the 10 am it was Jake Klentner showing well along with Jesse Bray. There was a lot of power shown by young Ian Mataggart against Memo. At 1 it was young Charlie Walker and the final game showed up well with Conrad kissling doing a great job.
It was a great day of Polo despite the weather which included some sun around 4:30, but it was short lived. It is, however, June and that is normal for Santa Barbara weather. The finals are still in the air. Only Lucehese has a chance in bracket A and they have to beat Antelope. Memo and La Herradura are in the finals with bracket B the way I see it.
There was one thing I never saw before. In the 4th chukker of the 1 o’ clock game, they had 12 fouls and the rest of the game had 13 fouls total, which I find a bit odd.
Down South we have not heard what is going on, but I am sure the weather was the same, just a lot more people. The longest day of the year is on its way, so look for a lot of sun soon.
See ya on Friday!