Black Bears team captain Guy Schwarzenbach unloads on the ball in the 14-10 win.
(Photo by Pablo Ramirez)
The Black Bears (Guy Schwarzenbach, Facundo Sola, John Paul Clarkin and Patrick O’Dwyer) and King Power (“Top” Srivaddhanaprabha, Pablo Llorente, Gonzalito Pieres and Marcos di Paola) kept their records intact Tuesday afternoon by defeating El Rosario (Alejandro Penafiel, Salvador Ulloa, Francisco Elizalde and Rob Archibald) and HB Polo (Ludovic Pailloncy, Ignacio Toccalino, Pite Merlos and Sebastien Pailloncy) respectively in the 2014 Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup for the British Open.
In the opening match of the day the Black Bears (3-0) struggled with a determined El Rosario team that was looking for their first win of the season against three losses.
With Juan Gris Zavaleta filling in for the injured Facundo sola, it took a little time for the Black Bears team to gel. With the lead changing hands throughout the first four chukkers of the game, the two teams found themselves deadlocked at 7-7 at the end of the fifth.
A pair of goals (one on a penalty shot) from New Zealand 8-goaler John Paul Clarkin put the Black Bears in the lead, 9-7. Two goals from El Rosario however had it tied at 9-9 with time running out. Juan Gris Zavaleta scored the winning goal for the Black Bears in the final seconds of regulation play for the 10-9 victory, leaving the Black Bears undefeated at 4-0 and El Rosario winless at 0-4.
KING POWER 14, HB POLO 10
In the second match of the day King Power took control of the game from the onset, outscoring HB Polo 3-1 in the first chukker and rushing out to a 7-3 halftime lead.
The two teams traded goals in the fourth, each scoring three times. King Power continued to lead by four goals, 10-6.
HB Polo played King Power even in the fifth with Gonzalito converting a 70-yard shot from the field and a penalty goal for King Power while HB Polo got single goals from Ludovic Pailloncy and Ignacio Toccalino, 12-8.
Two more goals for each team in the sixth kept HB Polo from cutting into the King Power lead as they fell, 14-10.
The victory had King Power at 4-0 while HB Polo ended the preliminary play at 1-3.
British Open play will continue on Wednesday, July 9th with Halcyon Gallery (George Hanbury, Mark Tomlinson, James Beim and James Harper) meeting UAE Polo Team (Maitha Al Maktoum, Lucas Monteverde, Pablo MacDonough and Ollie Cudmore) at noon. Lucchese (John Muse, Lucas James, Nico Pieres and Luke Tomlinson) will face Enigma (Jerome Wirth, Chris Mackenzie, Sapo Caset and Guillermo Willington) at 2pm with a battle between Talandracas (Edouard Carmignac, Juan Martin Nero, Polito Pieres and Santiago Stirling) and El Remanso (Hugo Lewis, Charlie Hanbury, Pelon Stirling and Guillermo Terrera) will bet started at 5pm.