La Indiana’s Nic Roldan and Agustin Merlos sidelined by injuries in Spanish high-goal Silver Cup. (Photo by Gillian Hughes)
Ayala (Iñigo Zobel, Peque Gonzalez, Facundo Pieres and Santiago Laborde) and Lechuza (Alejo Taranco, Camilo Castagnola, Juan Martín Nero and Will Harper) remain undefeated, both sporting 2-0 records as Santa Maria Polo Club’s high-goal Silver Cup goes into the second round of play.
Victor Vargas’s Lechuza Caracas polo team opened the tournament with a 10-9 win over the defending championship team from Brunei (Bahar Jeffrey, Martin Valent, Pablo MacDonough and Hugo Lewis), and added a second win at the expense of a decimated La Indiana team (Michael Bickford, Nic Roldan, Tincho Merlos and Byron Watson) that lost its top two players (Tincho Merlos and Nic Roldan) to injuries in the opening chukkers of their first tournament game at Sotogrande.
La Indiana had high expectations this year following a 2016 English season that saw Michael Bickford’s charges make it to the finals of both the Queens Cup and the British Open. La Indiana recorded three consecutive wins in the Trippetts Challenge Cup and made their way to the finals of the Queens Cup for the second straight year before losing to RH Polo (Ben Soleimani, Tommy Beresford, Adolfo Cambiaso and Rodrigo Andrade), 10-9.
A run at the British Open came apart when Tincho Merlos, the high-scoring former 10-goaler was sidelined with a severe muscle pull. La Indiana lost in the quarterfinals, ending their 2018 English season.
Merlos was hoping to be rested and ready to take his spot on the team in Spain but within minutes of first chukker play, it was evident that the muscle wasn’t ready, forcing him off the field. Nic Roldan, the second half of the La Indiana offensive threat, took a hard shot to his left leg on a strike by a Lechuza player, resulting in a fracture and eliminating him from the game. But by the end of the match, Bickford was the only original La Indiana player on the field, being joined by Ruki Baillieu, Pite Merlos and Juan Cruz Merlos for the final chukkers. The adversity was too much for the hastily organized team to handle as they fell to Lechuza, 9-6.
Ayala’s two victories included wins over Dos Lunas (James Fewster, Paul S. de Vicuña, Facundo Sola and Martin Podesta) and Brunei while Lechuza chalked up wins over Brunei and La Indiana.
Following the one-goal loss to Lechuza, Brunei came up on the short end of the meeting with Ayala, 7-5, and fell to 0-2. Dos Lunes and La Indiana both sit on 0-1 records.
Silver Cup play is scheduled to continue on Monday, August 7th with a game between La Indiana and Dos Lunes. Tincho Merlos is not expected to lineup for La Indiana while his teammate will be undergoing surgery in Malaga on Monday to repair the fracture.
(Photos courtesy of Pololine)