Dubai 10-goaler Adolfo Cambiaso continues to impress in his team’s 10-6 win.
(Photo by Pablo Ramirez)
Halcyon Gallery (George Hanbury, Mark Tomlinson, James Beim and James Harper) was up by three goals in the final chukker when the upstart Thai Polo foursome (Harald Link, Nic Roldan, Juan Ambroggio and Tomas Garcia del Rio) staged a comeback that netted them three consecutive goals and forced a sudden-death overtime period before a penalty goal finally won the game for the All-English entry, 10-9.
Halcyon Gallery’s all-pro foursome made a big splash in their British Open debut as they knocked around a makeshift Thai Polo that consisted of pieces of last month’s Sifani entry in the Cartier Queens Cup.
American 8-goaler Nic Roldan and Juan Ambroggio stayed together with Tomas Garcia del Rio replacing Matias Torres Zavaleta. Hilali Noordeen was replaced by Thai Polo’s Harald Link, and the team played their first 22-goal game as a unit.
Halcyon Gallery controlled much of the game, remaining in the lead until midway through the sixth chukker. Trailing by three goals, 9-6, the Thai Polo attack finally kicked in. Thai Polo scored three consecutive goals to tie the game at 9-9, and force the overtime.
Thai polo had an opportunity to finish the game with a 60-yard penalty shot in the overtime chukker, but the shot went wide. Moments later Halcyon Gallery was afforded the same opportunity and English 7-goaler James Beim made good on the penalty conversion for the 10-9 victory.
DUBAI 10, EFG BANK ARAVALI 6
It was an unimpressive first half for Dubai (Rashid Albwardy, Alastair Paterson, Adolfo Cambiaso and Diego Cavanagh) as they struggled with EFG Bank Aravali (Jaime Huidobro, Alejandro Muzzio, Joaquin Pittaluga and Celine Charloux) in the opening chukkers.
EFG Bank Aravali took the early lead on the opening goal of the chukker, 1-1. Dubai responded with a goal but it was EFG Bank Aravali that scored the closing goal for a 2-1 advantage.
Dubai rebounded in the second period, outscoring EFG Bank Aravali 2-1. No advantage was given to either side for the balance of the chukker as t ended in a 3-3 deadlock.
Defense was at a premium in the third. Dubai managed the only score and the first half ended with EFG Bank Aravali trailing by a single goal, 4-3.
Dubai regrouped during the halftime intermission and returned to the field for the fourth chukker a different team. Shutout defense was bolstered by a lights-out attack that rang up five straight goals between Adolfo Cambiaso and Diego Cavanagh. After four chukkers of play Dubai was on top, 9-3.
Dubai was leading buy seven goals with Ali Paterson scoring the team’s tenth goal of the game, and that was when Dubai began to coast. EFG Bank Aravali scored the remaining three goals of the game as Dubai rode out the game, celebrating a10-6 win.
Action continues on Saturday, June 28th when Talandracas (Edouard Carmignac, Juan Martin Nero, Polito Pieres and Santiago Stirling) takes on HB Polo (Ludovic Pailloncy, Ignacio Toccalino, Pite Merlos and Sebastien Pailloncy) in a 3PM meeting while Lucchese (John Muse, Lucas James, Nico Pieres and Luke Tomlinson) faces El Rosario (Alejandro Penafiel, Salvador Ulloa, Francisco Elizalde and Rob Archibald) in a 5PM contest. Talandracas and Lucchese enter the day with 1-0 records while HB Polo and El Rosario will be looking for their first wins at 0-1.