Lucchese rallied with the final three goals of the game to earn a berth in the semifinals of the British Open.
The Black Bears (Guy Schwarzenbach, Tomas Garbarini, John Paul Clarkin and Patrick O’Dwyer) finally showed the potential that they had promised all season in the opening chukkers of Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinal match of the 2014 Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup for the British Open, but couldn’t hold the line in the final minutes of the game as they fell to Lucchese (John Muse, Lucas James, Nico Pieres and Luke Tomlinson), 10-9.
The Black Bears took command early behind the teamwork of John Paul Clarkin and Facundo Sola, and actually were on top by two goals in the final chukker of play when Nico Pieres struck for three consecutive goals to save the day and lead Lucchese to an exciting 10-9, come-from-behind win. The victory sends Lucchese into Wednesday’s semifinals while the Black Bears will pack up and go home.
KING POWER 11, ENIGMA 9
King Power (“Top” Srivaddhanaprabha, Pablo Llorente, Gonzalito Pieres and Marcos di Paola) had no easier time in the second quarterfinal match of the day as they managed to ease past a determined Enigma foursome (Jerome Wirth, Chris Mackenzie, Sapo Caset and Guillermo Willington).Enigma led 5-4 at the end of the first half, and appeared to be on the road to a win, but King bounced back.
The score was all even at 6-6 after the fourth chukker, and was deadlocked at 8-8 after the fifth.
King Power finally broke it open in the sixth chukker on the strength of two penalty goals from Gonzalo Pieres and a single goal from “Top” Srivaddhanaprabha. Jerome Wirth scored the final goal of the game for his Enigma team who came up on the short end of an 11-9 score.
British Open play continues on Sunday, July 13th, with Halcyon Gallery (George Hanbury, Mark Tomlinson, James Beim and James Harper) facing Zacara (Facundo Pieres, Lyndon Lea, Gonzalo Deltour and Matt Perry) in the noon contest. At 3pm Dubai (Tommy Beresford, Alastair Paterson, Adolfo Cambiaso and Diego Cavanagh) will battle UAE Polo.