Talandracas (Edouard Carmignac, Juan Martin Nero, Polito Pieres and
Despite a 6-4 halftime lead, the Black Bears lost their fourth consecutive game by the margin of a single goal!
Santiago Stirling) earned a berth in the quarterfinals of the 2014 Cartier Queens Cup on the strength of an 11-10 win over Black Bears (Guy Schwarzenbach, Facundo Sola, John Paul Clarkin and Alec White) Tuesday afternoon at the Guards Polo Club.
The victory gave Talandracas a 3-1 record and boosted them into a tournament quarterfinal slot while The Black Bears left the field at 0-4. What might be the most significant aspect of the team’s winless record is the fact that all four of their games were lost by a single goal, one of them in overtime!
On Tuesday afternoon, however, the Black Bears matched Talandracas goal for goal in the first and second chukkers (1-1, 3-3) before outscoring them 3-1 in the third and riding off the field with a 6-4 halftime advantage.
Talandracas regrouped for second half play, and returned to action with a vengeance. Four Talandracas goals went unanswered as Black Bears found themselves trailing by two goals, 8-6, at the end of the fourth chukker.
Black Bears scored twice in the fifth while limiting the Talandracas offense to a single goal. Talandracas continued to led, but the margin was cut to a single goal, 9-8.
Struggle as they might, Black Bears were unable to wrest control of the match from Talandracas who rode on for the 11-10 win.
UAE Polo 11, Cortium 5
UAE Polo Team (Kian Hall, Lucas Monteverde, Pablo MacDonough and Ollie Cudmore) locked up a spot in Saturday’s quarterfinals with a thundering 11-5 win over an outgunned Cortium foursome (Francisco Elizalde, Salvador Ulloa, Tomas Garcia del Rio, and Adrian Kirby).
Argentine 10-goaler Pablo MacDonough scored four of his team’s five goals as UAE left Cortium in the dust, 5-0 after the first chukker.
UAE coasted through the second chukker, allowing Cortium a single goal in the only offensive production of the period. Two chukkers into the game, UAE was in front by four goals, 5-1.
The third period produced another shutout for the UAE defense with MacDonough adding another goal from the field for the 8-1 halftime score.
The two teams exchanged single goals in the fourth, with Tomas Garcia Del Rio adding two goals to the Cortium total in the fifth while UAE managed but a single goal. Cortium had cut into the UAE lead, but with one chukker to play and trailing by six goals, UAE’s lead looked safe at 10-4.
Ollie Cudmore scored the final goal of the game for UAE who extended their lead back to seven goals, 11-4. Francisco Elizalde converted a penalty shot for a goal for Cortium, but the effort wasn’t nearly enough as they fell by a final score of 11-5.
The victory gave UAE a respectable 3-1 record and afforded them a pass to Saturday’s quarterfinals.
The final round of preliminary play will be played on Wednesday, June 4th with Dubai (Rashid Albwardy, Alastair Paterson, Adolfo Cambiaso and Diego Cavanagh) and the Fox & Hounds Fox and Hounds (Max Routledge, George Meyrick, Jack Richardson and Tom Morley) facing one another at noon followed by the final game of the qualifying round as Twelve Oaks (Juan Gris Zavaleta, Magoo Laprida, Iñaki Laprida and Stefano Marsaglia) battles EFG Bank Aravali (Jaime Garcia Huidobro, Alejandro Muzzio, Joaquin Pittaluga and Charlie Pidgley).