Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup 2011 @ Cowdray Park Polo Club (England)

Eighteen teams will take part in the 2011 Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup for the British Open Polo Championship.  The Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup tournament opens on 21st June leading to Quarter Finals on 9-10^th July, Semi Finals on 14^th July and the Final on Sunday 17^th July.  The opening match at Cowdray Park on 21^st June sees two local teams in contention when Jerome Wirth’s Enigma side, which is based on the Cowdray Estate, takes on La Golondrina, the team of Cowdray patron Paul Oberschneider who brings a team into the British Open for the first time.

The second match in this year’s series will see Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup winners in 2010, Dubai, take on Billingbear Park.  Dubai has an impressive Gold Cup history, having also won in 2001 and 2005 and been finalists in 2004 and 2009. Once again the linchpin of the team is the world’s finest player Adolfo Cambiaso.

2009 winners, La Bamba de Areco, with Patron Jean-Fancois Decaux, again includes the extraordinary talent of the Pieres brothers Gonzalito and Facundo, both 10 goal players, with a new young player in the side, English 2 goaler Matt Perry. Their first match is on Thursday 23^rdJune.

2008 winners Loro Piana, based at Great Trippetts, Milland, return to the tournament with a new line-up to Alfio Marchini’s team of Lucas James, Nicolas Espain and Agustin Nero. Cowdray patron Adrian Kirby’s 1870 team remains unchanged from 2010 with Australians Rob Archibald and Ruki Baillieu and New Zealander John Paul Clarkin.

Other contenders from 2010 making a renewed bid to win the most coveted trophy in polo include Stefano Marsaglia with his Piaget side, Jo Gottschalk with Les Lions, and Talandracas with French patron Edouard Carmignac who has drafted in the talented young Argentine goal scorer Facundo Sola for the first time. Local patron Nick Clark is back again with Salkeld, this season including Luke Tomlinson at Back. El Remanso remains unchanged with English brothers Charlie and George Hanbury playing alongside Jaime Huidobro and David ‘Pelon’ Stirling.  Lyndon Lea makes another bid with his Zacara side, as does Oussama Aboughazale with his Sumaya team again featuring the legendary Carlos Gracida, ten times winner of the Gold Cup, at back.

In terms of brand new entries, Prince Bahar Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei introduces a new team, sponsored by watch makers Richard Mille, with Pablo Macdonough, 10 goals, as the centerpiece of the team and talented young Englishman Max Routledge at Back. Two Australian patrons, Gill McLachlan and Stirling McGregor bring in a new side called Stella Artois to take their first crack at the trophy. Also from far-away comes Harald Link of Thai Polo with team members Lucas Di Paola, Pite Merlos and Marcos Di Paola while Colombian patron Camilo Bautista brings Nachi Heguy, Eduardo Novillo-Astrada and Francisco Elizalde into his Las Monjitas side.

Source:  www.cowdraypolo.co.uk

Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup Brackets & Teams

Group C
Dubai
Emlor
Richard Mille
Stella Artois
Sumaya
Zacara