Ellerston 10-goaler Gonzalito Pieres on the ball, unidentified El Rosario player attempts to hook.
(Photo courtesy of Gonzalo
Etcheverry)
Ellerston, Ayala and UAE all registered wins on the second day of competition in the 2013 Hublot Gold Cup at the Santa Maria Polo Club at Sotogrande, Spain Tuesday afternoon.
Ellerston (Johnny Williams, Ali Patterson, Gonzalo Pieres and Facundo Pieres) got the day started with a resounding 11-6 win over El Rosario (Alejandro Penafiel, Valerio Zubiaurre, Milo Fernandez and Salvador Ulloa).
The last time the two teams met El Rosario lost to Ellerston by a single goal, such was not the case today. The brother combination of Facundo and Gonzalito Pieres controlled the game from start to finish, riding off the field at the end of the sixth chukker with a11-6 win.
AYALA 16, ROYAL SALUTE 14
Later in the day, Ayala (Inigo Zobel, Guillermo Willington, Pablo MacDonough and Juan Jauretche) won a high-scoring 16-14 slugfest with Royal Salute Whiskey (Petrus Fernandini, Alejandro Muzzio, Jaime Huidobro and Malcolm Borwick), with Guillermo Willington and Pablo MacDonough setting the pace in the team’s opening Gold Cup match.
The meeting between Ayala and Royal Salute was the first of the year for the two teams.
UAE POLO 12, DOS LUNAS 11
UAE (HH Sheikha Maitha Al Maktoum, Jack Richardson, Lucas Monteverde and Sebastian Merlos) relied on well-coordinated got off on the right hoof in their Gold Cup debut with a hard-fought 12-11 win over Dos Lunas (A Sainzde Vicuna, Jason Warren, Diego Cavanagh and Tomas Garcia Del Rio).
In their last meeting in Silver Cup play UAE sailed past Dos Lunas 16-10, but this afternoon’s game wasn’t quite as easy with Diego Cavanagh and Tomas Garcia Del Rio putting on the pressure.
In the end it was the teamwork of Lucas Monteverde and Sebastian Merlos at the back end of the UAE lineup that proved to be the difference in the 12-11 victory.
Hublot Gold Cup play continues on Thursday, August 22 with Halcyon Gallery (0-1) meeting HB Polo (1-0) followed by a contest between Dubai (1-0) and Scapa (0-1).