We changed the July 6 goal league to be a single elimination tournament with three flights. There will be a finals with trophies for all three flights.
Top Flight Millbrook Cup
Second Flight Briarcliff Cup
Third Flight Pine Plains Cup
(as we lost a week due to weather, we may not be able to offer this third flight, but we will try)
Next Saturday
Semi-Final Round of Millbrook Cup on Sat, July 21
10am Madison Ave Smiles vs Deerfield Hill
12 noon Heathcote/Longfield vs Buena Vista
Semi-final round of Briarcliff Cup on Sat, July 21
2pm Supersize vs Hawk Hill
4pm Two Left Boots/Ramirez Financial vs Smithfield Farm
July 14th Polo Update and Results by Tom Goodspeed
So we had a great month of six goal in June. So we (Im not taking all the blame for this, some of you are going down with me) ignored the old adage…dont fix it if its not broken and (we) tried to fix it anyways. The challenge this month is that so many are also playing 12 goal this month so fri/sat/sun is too much on horses, so we decided to try to come up with a league that would be a little bit more relaxed. We wanted to give more focus to developing the skills of the amateurs for this one month.
So with that lengthy disclaimer, my summary of day one.
1st game NYC Madison Smiles 9 Supersize 8 decided in closing seconds
Dr Fuad Malik finds himself back in the win column after a long dry summer and he contributed a two pointer on an open goal penalty shot to help his team find victory. His teammates, Maxi Menini, Fabrizio, and Manual Greham all put in solid performances. Greham was high scorer with 5 goals. Supersize started slow but found their way back into the game in the final chukkers and even found themselves with a one goal lead with just a few minutes left in the game. James McBride found goal twice, Chris Green once, and they received a 2 goal handicap. Now all three of their goals counted two…so clearly an effective way to handicap the 2.5 pros of NYC.
2nd game Deerfield Hill 9 Hawk Hill 8
The big buck of Deerfield, Woody Keesee is still on the sideline for one more week, but clearly Woody is getting the hang of this ringer thing. First there is Maxi Crotto at 3 goals, then Jorge Pepa at 2 goals, Jay Mekeel at 0, and Alex Markle at -1. The Deerfield foursome jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the first three, but then…….. that awesome, undefeated Mactaggart twosome from June, found the goal three times in chukker four. Now you say the math doesnt add? 3 times two for every goal scored by someone rated at 0 or less adds to six goals. So Hawk Hill was just about to soar once more when Pepe shot them down with a score for Deerfield. Ernie Ezcurra and Gringo Columbres were the two pros for Hawk Hill that were fenced out of the sixty yd mark as were all players 2 goals or more. They were scratching their heads a bit at half time, but I have a feeling they are figuring this new strategy out pretty quickly as Supersize started doing late in game 1.
3rd game Two left Boots/Ram Financial 3Heathcote/Longfield 3
Heathcote/Longfield wins after one overtime and a shoot-out 4-3
Parker and Hannah teamed up and brought out Ezequiel Zubiaurre and Juan Olivera. Their first opponent was the combined effort of Sam Ramirez and Abet Stein who brought out their hired guns, “The Notorious Two Diegos”. Now TLB/RF really had their mallets tied behind their back as they had three players rated two goals or better, so their only gun that could drive the lane was Abe. And how important was he? His one score was the only two goals they managed to score from the field. That two pointer added to their handicap goal got them to the shoot-out. Hannah Buchan contributed a two pointer for HF/LF and Ezequiel pounded in a 60 yd plus beauty. Ezequiel had an opportunity to claim the game in the closing seconds but he stated he couldnt remember all these new rules and waited a second too long to almost score a beauty…one second too late. So shoot-out time. TLB/RF made 3 of their shoot-out goals and then missed only one. That opened the door for Juan Olivera. Hannah, parker, and Ezequiel all made theirs. Juan circled, made his approach and launched one thru the uprights for the win…by a single tally.
4th game Smithfield 7 Buena Vista 7
Buena Vista wins in shoot out 4-3
Now these guys seemed to figure things out a bit quicker. But then if you look at the rosters, there was a bit more experience. there was Julio along with John, and Mark Gomez. Smithfield’s only rookie was Jake Klopp who contributed a two pointer. John Klopp showing off his new cortazone shot found goal 3 times. Mark Gomez added two for their 7 total goals. The Buena Vista squad sported the father/son duo of Don and Alex Langlois and the very experienced stick of Enrique Zavaleta. The BV squad decided to go to their go to guy…….guy. the scoring was all about Mr. P…Three for Mr. P which in mashomack math, totals 6. Add that to a handicap goal and you have the tieing 7th goal to carry them into the shoot-out…oh what a haunting memory for Smithfield. The shoot-out was a close one, teams exchanging scores. Then steps up Julio who surprised all of us with a miss in a similar scenario in the 6 goal June playoff with Hawk Hill. This time, Julio slapped it in along with Jake and John. Then Mark Gomez missed a bit to the right for Smithfield on his attempt, opening the door for BV’s Henry Zavaleta. Well …..Henry (Hank) Aaron hit his dead center and even higher than Julio threw his mallet a few weeks back. Great performance by both teams.BV advances.
So…yes…some confusion…this guy can’t score within 60, this guy gets two goals if he does, who can we hook and who has bought the speed passes? Now there is an idea. You pay $6,000 for a free no hook/no bump pass for six chukkers..and maybe another grand for one “no call foul” card. Would if you could buy penalties? And we were even thinking…what if you could buy a pro at lesser goals. Say for a one million dollar donation to the club the club would except Cambiaso as your pro at two goals for the season? I think im sensing the possibility of a very well funded program. In any event…week one of the July 6 goal had mixed reviews. Too soon to tell. We have to watch a couple of more episodes before we decide.
ciao (iays)
Tom