Zacara zap rivals to lift polo’s Midhurst Town Cup

They were defeated 12-3 by the UAE side, again playing strongly under the captaincy of ten-goaler Pablo McDonough.

Salkeld, who had played with such vigour in their opening match against Zacara, were outclassed by Sir Charles Williams’ Apes Hill side. The all-pro Apes Hill team of Mark Tomlinson, Ralph Richardson, Eduardo Novillo-Astrada and Tom Morley produced a masterful team effort to win 8-6.

King Power Foxes took on VPS Healthcare Sifani on the King Power home ground at Billingbear Park and had no trouble achieving a 19-8 victory.

The match between Lyndon Lea’s Zacara and Edouard Carmignac’s Talandracas for the Midhurst Town Cup was eventful.

With Polito Pieres for Talandracas dominating the early stages, by the middle of chukka two Talandracas were 5-2 up.

However an incident during which Lyndon Lea’s horse fell and the patron was thrown to the ground, resulted in an unprecedented decision by the umpires to retire the Talandracas No1, four-goaler Ali Paterson, for the remainder of the match. After a delay Lea was able to return to the game.

Talandrancas moved the score on to 6-2 from a 30-yard penalty and the chukka ended with Jack Hyde for Zacara ably shooting a ball from Juan Martin Nero through the goalposts to take his side on to 6-3.

In chukka three, Zacara were able to score five goals before Pieres and Guillermo Caset, working their socks off, managed to pull one back for Talandracas, the half time score being 8-7 in Zacara’s favour.

Caset for Talandracas equalised from a 30-yard penalty early in the fourth chukka and then sent through a field goal to take the lead again for Talandracas. But within a minute Zacara back Rodrigo Andrade had scored from a tricky angle to equalise on 9-9 and Lyndon Lea lost little time in taking his side ahead 10-9.

From then on Zacara dominated, with Talandracas putting up little defence.

During chukka five, Andrade notched three goals and team-mates Juan Martin Nero, Lyndon Lea and Jack Hyde got one apiece. Caset’s one goal saw the score at the end of the chukka 16-10 to Zacara.

The final chukka saw goals from Jack Hyde, Andrade and Lea for Zacara before Edouard Carmignac scooped up the ball and made a long run down the pitch for Talandracas’s final goal.

It was left to Hyde, following a neat pass from his patron, to achieve the final goal for Zacara who won 21-11.

The Midhurst Town Cup and prizes were presented by Mariya Burton from Aspinal of London, producers of luxury leather goods.

Spectators enjoyed a pacy match between Thai Polo and Dubai.

Although Nic Roldan for Thai Polo opened the scoring and played superbly, Dubai’s Adolfo Cambiaso at back gave team members Martin Valent and Diego Cavanagh plenty of scope to shine and Dubai were ahead for the entire match and fnished victorious on 12-8.

LIZ HIGGINS

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