Tomorrow Sunday, July 17 in the morning, watch the final live onhttp://www.hurlinghampolo.com/ (3pm British Time, 10 am in the US, EST).
The streaming, live coverage is produced by Blue Tuna, the same outfit that produced the Gold Cup and International last year; highlights can seen on the website right now.
Game report by Liz Higgins
The 2011 Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup tournament which opened on 21 June has provided world class polo with plenty of surprises, most significant being the 2010 winners, Dubai, the team which included the world’s no: 1 player Adolfo Cambiaso, knocked out at the Quarter Finals stage.
Going through to the Final on Sunday 17th July will be Lyndon Lea’s Zacara side who will face Les Lions, the long-established team of Jo Gottschalk, who has been on the quest for the Gold Cup for almost twenty years.
In the first of the Semi Final matches played between Les Lions and Salkeld, Les Lions romped away with an early lead of 7-0 before the goals started coming for Nick Clarke’s Salkeld side. At the end of the third chukka, Les Lions remained firmly in the driving seat at 9-4.
When the teams came back on for the second half, Les Lions gave away three penalties to Salkeld. By the fifth chukka a serious fight-back was underway with a splendid field goal from Luke Tomlinson for Salkeld closing the gap to end the chukka on 12-9 still in favour of Les Lions. Neither team gave up trying and a fight to the last resulted in a 12-10 victory to Les Lions with Jo Gottschalk thrilled to finally be in a Gold Cup final.
The second match saw 2009 Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup winners, La Bamba de Areco, give a disappointing performance. The 10 goal Pieres brothers failed to shine against an on-form Zacara side which saw Gonzalo Deltour, Hilario Ulloa and South African Nachi du Plessis effectively close down the two man Pieres combination. La Bamba missed penalty after penalty and as the match drew to a close with the score on 12-7, an astonishing run down the field by Ulloa showed how magical Zacara’s performance had been. Belting towards the goal, Ulloa broke his mallet with the strength of his shot, but reversed his stick and with the handle landed an astonishing hit straight through the posts. Game, set and match to Zacara at 13-7 and a well-earned place in Sunday’s final.