La Indiana (Michael Bickford, Nic Roldan, Agustin Merlos and Luke Tomlinson) recorded their seventh consecutive 22-goal win of the English season Saturday afternoon in the 2017 Cartier Queens Cup tournament with an exciting 10-9 victory over El Remanso (Charlie Hanbury, Oliver Cudmore, James Beim and James Harper) at the Guards Polo Club.
El Remanso received one goal by handicap, but it was La Indiana with the first three goals from the field in the opening chukker. After the opening seven minutes of play La Indiana held the lead, 3-1.
Goals were hard to come by in the second as La Indiana’s defense held El Remanso scoreless for a second consecutive period. Luke Tomlinson converted a penalty shot for La Indiana for the only goal of the chukker. After two periods, it was La Indiana on top of a 4-1 lead.
Agustin Merlos made it 4-1 with the opening goal of the third when El Remanso charged back into the game. James Harper converted back-to-back 30-yard penalty shots with Charlie Hanbury’s first goal of the day cutting the La Indiana lead to a single goal, 5-4, to end the first half.
Nic Roldan made it 6-4, La Indiana, to open the fourth, but an energized El Remanso found their rhythm, scoring on goals from Harper and James Beim to close out the chukker in a 6-6 tie.
Hanbury gave El Remanso the lead in the fifth period, 7-6, with his second goal of the day. A penalty goal from Tomlinson and a goal from the field from Roldan gave the lead back to La Indiana, 8-7, with one period left in regulation play.
El Remanso tied the game at 8-8 in the opening minute of the sixth chukker. Roldan scored to give La Indiana back the lead, 9-8. Ollie Cudmore carried the ball through the La Indiana goalposts for the fifth tie of the game, 9-9, and the clock continued to run. With two minutes remaining in the final period, Roldan came through with the winning goal for La Indiana as they celebrated the 10-9 win.
The victory boosts the La Indiana Queens Cup record to 3-0 while El Remanso suffered their first loss of the tournament and slipped to 2-1. The La Indiana win was the second of the season over El Remanso, having defeated them in Trippetts Challenge Cup play, 10-8.
Talandracas 13, Sommelier 9
Earlier in the day, Talandracas (Will Harper, Guillermo Caset, Pelon Stirling and Jack Hyde) leveled their record at 2-2 with a convincing 13-9 win over Sommelier (George Hanbury, Juan Gris Zavaleta, Fred Mannix and Alec White). The loss was the second for Sommelier in three outings and sees their record fall to 1-2.
Talandracas got off to a quick start, with 10-goaler Pelon Stirling getting them on the scoreboard first, racing down the field with the opening throw-in for a 1-0 lead. Two more Talandracas goals went unanswered with Sommelier falling behind, 3-0, after the first chukker.
Sommelier came up with a pair of goals in the second, but three more Talandracas scores kept them comfortably in front, 6-2.
The two teams traded goals in the third, with Talandracas maintaining a four-goal, 8-4 advantage at the end of the first half.
Sommelier rallied for three goals in the fourth while holding Talandracas to a pair of their won. Talandracas continued to hold the lead, with Sommelier cutting it to three goals, 10-7.
Talandracas took control of the game in the fifth. Two more goals were complimented by a shutout defensive effort by Talandracas. After five periods of play, the Talandracas lead had grown to five goals, 12-7.
Sommelier continued to press the attack into the final chukker. Stirling scored the first goal of the sixth to stretch the Talandracas lead to six goals, 13-7. Juan Gris Zavaleta and Fred Mannix closed out the scoring with single goals in the 13-9 Talandracas victory.
Cartier Queens Cup play continues on Sunday, June 4th with a noon game between RH Polo (Ben Soleimani, Tommy Beresford, Adolfo Cambiaso and Rodrigo Andrade) and Sifani (Hilali Noordeen, John-Paul Clarkin, Julian de Lusarreta and Guillermo Terrera). Murus Sanctus (Corinne Ricard, Hilario Ulloa, Facundo Sola and Martin Podesta) and La Bamba de Areco (Jean Francois Decaux, Diego Cavanagh, Magoo Laprida and Rodrigo Rueda, Jr.) are scheduled to meet in a 3pm contest.