Sunday, June 5th, 2016
The San Diego Film Festival teamed up with Surf Cup Sports and the San Diego Polo Club for what turned out to be the biggest San Diego polo Opening Day ever!
There is one thing that this year’s title sponsor for Opening Day of Polo, the San Diego Film Festival, and polo in San Diego have in common; they are both stacked with interesting casts of characters that made the opening day party and the main feature match very entertaining. Polo Team BMW, captained by Nour-Dean Anakar, who is also the President of the San Diego Polo Club, was matched against the J. Craig Venter Polo Team, led by the COO of the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla, Nicole DeBerg. As everyone at the San Diego Polo Club knows, as much as these polo players may like each other off the field, when on their horses playing against one another, they are sure to take no prisoners and it wasan action driven 4 goal match with the pros and the patrons on both teams going all out! The match was very close all the way through and ended with a 7 to 7 tie going into overtime with Anakar marking a foul on Salinas and his BMW team taking the win with a penalty 4 shot by Juan Ho Gonzales.
The Venter Team, made up of German born Nicole Deberg, Swiss native and Zeto CEO Stephan Goss, pro Ashton Wolf and pro Roberto Salinas were a force for the BMW team to recon with. Anakar’s BMW team also included new patrons La Jolla natives Lamar Rutherford, Reuben Katz (subbing for each other), Northern California Polo veteran Peter Laughlin, and El Dorado based talented pro Juan Ho Gonzalez. Anakar’s experience and skill in the 2 spot matched by the strong and consistent play of Laughlin in the back and the fast and gunning play of pro Gonzales with Rutherford and Katz doing their job in the one spot for Team BMW match
ed up well against the favored Venter team with great plays all over the field all game long by pros Wolf and Salinas and the non stop offense by Deberg and Goss.
A decked out great looking record crowd of over 5000 turned up thanks to the great job that Lady Lindsey has been doing every season and thanks to the collaborated efforts between Surf Cup Sports and the San Diego polo club with a brand new set up on field 1 with VIP tents and luxury player lounges and Stella beer gardens and music and food and champagne flowing all afternoon. And as usual the voice of San Diego Polo Steve Lewandowski called the match and explained every play.
As they celebrated a great season opening day this last Sunday. Surf Cup Sports and the Polo Club promised plenty of polo action and entertainment
for this season in San Diego! And of course, thanks to the Social Media Princess and Polo Events Director of the Club, Lindsey Chronert, the right parties will go along with all of the polo action!! All the way to the “Phantom of The Opera” themed 30 year anniversary celebration gala on October 8th that will put the finishing touch on a fun and glamorous 2016 polo season.