FINAL OF THE VEUVE CLICQUOT GOLD CUP FOR THE BRITISH OPEN POLO CHAMPIONSHIP AT COWDRAY PARK 19th JULY
Seventeen teams entered the 2009 Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup which saw French businessman Jean-Francois Decaux fulfil his dream of winning the most coveted trophy in polo with his team La Bamba de Areco in the Final of the British Open Polo Polo Championship on Sunday 19th July.
Decaux’s first entry in the Gold Cup, sponsored for fifteen years by leading champagne house Veuve Clicquot, was in 1998 with his team Buffalos. Four years ago he resumed the quest for the trophy with a new team ‘Brittany Polo Club’, but 2009 saw him change the name to La Bamba de Areco after his historic hacienda in Argentina. A new line-up with the 10 goal Argentine Pieres brothers Gonzalito and Facundo in the pivotal middle order finally saw his dream realised when they won the fabulous Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup 13-10.
La Bamba de Areco made it through to the Final following a hard fought semi final against Sumaya, the local favourites who were one of the eight Gold Cup teams based in the Cowdray area. The Dubai team, with the world’s number one player Adolfo Cambiaso playing at the very top of his form, achieved their place in Sunday’s final after a similarly tough match against Les Lions 2, the team of banker Max Gottschalk. So magical was Cambiaso’s play in the Semi Final match that the Dubai side went into the 2009 Final of the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup as favourites. Indeed the first goal of the match went to the maestro from a 30 yard penalty shot. Three goals were on the scoreboard for the Dubai team – all penalties – before La Bamba made their first goal. It took until the third chukka before the field goals started coming and by half time La Bamba de Areco were just ahead at 6-5.
The fourth chukka saw Cambiaso return to the field and work some of his magic to force his side ahead once more, but into the fifth chukka both Pieres boys were focused with quiet determination on the task ahead and saw that four goals were notched up on the scoreboard to send the La Bamba side into the final chukka with a narrow lead of 11-10. Two more fine field goals from Gonzalito Pieres in the sixth chukka gave La Bamba de Areco a convincing victory in the 2009 Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup. As the match ended Jean-Francois Decaux flung himself from his horse and laid down on the famous Cowdray Lawns overwhelmed with the thrill of his team becoming British Open Champions.
The President of Veuve Clicquot, Madame Cecile Bonnefond, was delighted to award the Gold Cup to a fellow Frenchman. Facundo Pieres was the highest goal scorer of the tournament, his seven goals in the Final making a total of 55 goals scored during the 2009 Gold Cup. He was presented with a specially commissioned Veuve Clicquot yellow saddle by Sally Warmington, Marketing Director. Lila Pearson, patron of the Cowdray Vikings team which had won the subsidiary Ashton Cup earlier in the week presented a rug to the Best Playing Pony of the match, Shannon, owned by Gonzalito Pieres, who also received the Holman trophy for Most Valuable Player.
Following the Final, Young England took on a Young South Africa side, the English fielding a 14 goal side against a 12 goal South African team. South Africa ran out the winners on a final score of 6-4.