THE ARGENTINE AMBASSADOR’S CUP HELD AT THE COWDRAY PARK POLO CLUB

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he Cowdray Park Polo Club is recognised worldwide as the Home of British Polo, set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty within Viscount Cowdray’s 16,500 acre estate in West Sussex. The sport has been played here for over 100 years. Over 450 polo matches are held at the park every season. The highlight of the polo season is the annual British Open Polo Championship, for the Gold Cup, sponsored for many years by Veuve Clicquot, and now by Jaeger-LeCoultre. The Gold Cup tournament started at the end of June and the finale is on Sunday 23 July, 2017.

The Argentine Ambassador’s Cup is a notable trophy which is played for during the tournament, and was played on Sunday 9th July. It emphasises the strong relationship the polo community has with South America and their passion for the sport of polo. Local residents and newcomers are especially welcome to enjoy all these highlights.

The 15th game of the 2017 Gold Cup saw La Indiana finish with a convincing 10-6 victory over La Bamba de Areco. La Indiana pressurised La Bamba de Areco throughout the game, using exceptional team defence to gain possession and produce 18 shots at goal. Pite Merlos, substituting for his injured brother Agustin Merlos, provided strong defensive positioning, allowing Nic Roldan and Luke Tomlinson to attack goal relentlessly. The inability of the La Bamba de Areco offense to break through the back line of La Indiana was ultimately the difference in the game.

From the beginning of the first chukker, La Indiana controlled possession of the ball and did absolutely not allow many counter attacks from their opposition. The pressure from La Indiana’s side resulted in six shots on goal in the opening chukka but only two shots were put through the goal, as Roldan and Michael Bickford opened the score for La Indiana.

La Indiana did not give up in the 2nd chukka as a penalty 2 conversion and field goal for Roldan, his 2nd and 3rd goals of the game, pushed La Indiana’s lead to four goals as La Bamba de Areco was unable to find the score sheet, missing both shot attempts through two chukker. The combination of Merlos and Tomlinson defensively were limiting space for Diego Cavanagh and Magoo Laprida as La Bamba de Areco continued to search for answers in the first half of the game. As the 3rd chukka came to a close, La Bamba was still absolutely without a goal and were fortunate to only be trailing by four goals as La Indiana only converted three of nine shot attempts from the field.

Laprida suffered from an injury during the game, and his replacement Guillermo Terrera provided the offensive spark that La Bamba de Areco was looking for, as Terreca scored two goals during the 4th chukka, the second of which came from over 100 yards away. La Indiana began bringing Tomlinson forward as defense was covered by Merlos , but La Indiana’s inability to convert around the goal, missing five of six shots during the 4th chukka kept the game going with La Bamba de Areco in the game.

However, the slow start for La Bamba de Areco’s team ultimately did them in as they were never able to get within striking distance and did not produce enough scoring chances throughout the game to mount a comeback. La Indiana used four goals from Roldan and Tomlinson to cruise to the 10-6 victory and move towards 3-1 in the Gold Cup.

In the second half, El Remanso defeated Habtoor 11-9 on Field 1 at Cowdray Park Polo Club under the Argentine Ambassador’s Cup. El Remanso used an efficient passing attack that saw all four players score at least two goals, placing immense pleasure on the Habtoor defense. Despite losing by 17-10 in the throw-in battle, El Remanso was able to quickly transition from defense to offense, with Oliver Cudmore and Charlie Hanbury releasing downfield to stretch open the field. Shooting 10 for 15 on the game, El Remanso wore down Habtoor on their way to their 2nd victory.

Oliver Cudmore ran the opening throw-in of the game through the goal to open the scoring for El Remanso but just after a few minutes, Habtoor Francisco Elizalde replied with a nice neckshot to even the score at 1-1. The game slowly picked up and the score was end to end which favoured the passing attack of El Remanso. Goals from James Harper and Cudmore stretched El Remanso’s lead to two but Nico Pieres scored two goals of his own, one from the field and one from the penalty line to even out the score.

The final four chukkers turned into a game of runs as El Remanso continued to play a fast-paced game, with Harper controlling the flow of the game from the fourth position. After the start of the 3rd chukker, El Remanso scored eight of the next nine goals, providing them with a lead of 11-4 halfway through the 5th chukker. During that span, El Remanso shot 7 for 11 from the field and converted the lone penalty attempt for the game, all while holding Habtoor to one goal on their four shots.

Trailing behind by seven goals, with only ten minutes remaining, Habtoor had a tall task ahead of him but they finally ended El Remanso run of goals by beginning a run of their very own. Nico Pieres converted a penalty 2 for his fourth goal of the game and quickly followed that with a penalty 3 conversion to cut El Remanso lead to five! In the 4th chukker, Pieres scored three more goals, two from the penalty line and one from the field, so he could bring his goal total to eight but it wasn't enough to overcome the balanced El Remanso attack as the all-english El Remanso held on for the 11-9 victory.

Last Updated: 29 September 2022