UAE scores the opening win of the 2015 Gold Cup for the British Open at the Cowdray Park Polo Club in England.
The combination of 10-goaler Pablo MacDonough and Lucas Monteverde kept RH Polo (Ben Soleimani, Francisco Elizalde, Nico Pieres and Santi Von Wernich) on their heels all afternoon in a 14-6 UAE (Jose Araya Jr., Lucas Monteverde, Pablo MacDonough and Santiago Stirling) decision in the opening match of the 2015 Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup for the British Open at Cowdray Park Polo Club.
After jumping out to a 4-1 first chukker lead, UAE expanded their lead to four goals, 8-4, at the end of the first half.
RH Polo couldn’t buy a goal in the second half as UAE outscored them 6-2 in the remaining three periods of play.
RH Polo had their opportunities late in the game, missing three consecutive shots on goal in the sixth chukker, with all efforts going wide.
Salkeld 16, Zacara 15
Later in the day, Salkeld (Nick Clarke, Juan Griz Zavaleta, Joaquin Pittaluga and Luke Tomlinson) surprised Zacara (
) 16-15 in a game that saw the previously-injured 10-goaler Juan Martin Nero return to the Zacara lineup.
The first half was all Salkeld as they ran up a commanding 10-5 halftime lead while Zacara struggled to find their offense. Both team captain Lyndon Lea and Nero had been absent from the lineup due to injuries, and it seemed to take them a little while to get back into the swing of things.
Zacara exploded into the second half of play as they scored consecutive goals to cut the Salkeld lead to three goals, 10-7. Joaquin Pittaluga finally got Salkeld back on track with a goal that extended their lead to four goals, 11-7. Zacara scored two more times to close out the period trailing by just two goals, 11-9.
Zacara continued to press the attack in the fifth adding three more goals, with Andrade scoring on great individual efforts. Salkeld was up to the challenge, however, matching the black-shirted Zacara players goal for goal. With one chukker left in regulation time it was Salkeld with the 14-12 advantage.
A 60-yard penalty shot went wide for Salkeld in sixth chukker action followed by a penalty conversion by Nero that had Zacara within a goal of the lead, 14-13. Salkeld picked up a goal from the field and a penalty conversion from Luke Tomlinson that had them back in the lead by three goals, 16-13. Zacara continued to attack the Salkeld goal with Andrade scoring out of sheer persistence and Nero executing an impressive neck-shot that had them within a goal once again, 16-15, but time wasn’t on their side. A Salkeld gave Zacara a final penalty shot that could have tied the game, but Nero’s shot went wide and Salkeld celebrated the 16-15 victory.
Gold Cup play continues on Tuesday with three matches that will feature Apes Hill (Ralph Richardson, Mark Tomlinson, Eduardo Novillo Astrada and Tom Morley) and Talandracas (Edouard Carmignac, Polito Pieres, Sapo Caset and Zac Hagedoorn) in an 11am game; Dubai (Rashid Albwardy, Tom Brodie, Diego Cavanagh and Adolfo Cambiaso) and HB Polo (Ludovic Pailloncy, Cristian Laprida, Ignacio Toccalino and Sebastien Pailloncy) at 1pm; and King Power (A. Srivaddhanaprabha, Alejandro Muzzio, Marcos di Paola and Guillermo Willington) and Thai Polo (Harald Link, Matias Torres Zavaleta, Nic Roldan and Tomas Garcia del Rio) in a 3pm contest.