It was a balanced Lechuza attack that offset a late rally by Valiente and scored a 10-9 win in the finals of the 2011 C. V. Whitney Cup at the International Polo Club in Wellington.
Lechuza took control early on goals from team captain Victor Vargas and Sapo Caset as both teams jostled for the ball. Valiente’s attack was neutralized by great defensive efforts as the went scoreless though the first period of play..
Juan Martin Nero made it 3-0 with a goal to open the second chukker. Valiente responded with a goal from the field from 8-goaler Polito Pieres and a penalty goal from Miguel Astrada. Vargas scored his second goal of the day to give Lechuza a 4-2 lead as time expired.
Nero converted a 60-yard penalty shot in the third and Caset added a goal from the field. Valiente was held to a single goal from Pieres and left the field at the end of the first half trailing 6-3.
Martin Espain scored to put Lechuza on top, 7-3, but that would be the extent of their offense in the fourth chukker. Nacho Astrada and brother, Miguel Astrada, each scored a goal, cutting into the Lechuza lead. Lechuza was up two goals at the end of the period, 7-5.
Espain and Nero each added single goals in the fifth chukker, with Valiente being limited to a goal from Miguel Astrada. Lechuza sat on top of a 9-6 lead with one chukker left to be played.
Nacho Astrada opened the sixth chukker with a goal from the field, but Vargas responded with his third goal of the day. Two goals from Pieres brought Valiente to within a goal of Lechuza, 10-9, but time ran out, and Lechuza Caracas took home the 2011 C. V. Whitney Cup.
Balanced scoring from the Lechuza lineup had Nero and Vargas scoring three goals apiece while Caset and Espain each accounted for two goals.
Martin Espain was named MVP while Polito Pieres’s ten-year-old brown Argentine gelding, Sugar, was named Best Playing Pony.
ZACARA 14, CRAB ORCHARD 8
In earlier competition, Zacara snuck out to a 5-4 halftime lead before burying Crab Orchard, last year’s Triple Crown winner, by the score of 14-8 in the finals of the Les Armour Cup, the C. V. Whitney Cup subsidiary.
Mariano Uranga scored three goals in the first half for Zacara, with Facundo adding a pair for a 5-4 lead after three chukkers of play.
Adolfo Cambiaso, a man many consider to be the best player in the game, scored single goals in the first and second periods while Hilario Ulloa and George Rawlings added single goals in third.
An inconsistent pace of play and five missed penalty shots produced a game that was atypical of the Crab Orchard attack, while the Zacara team just continued to improve with each minute.
A pressing Zacara attack resulted in two penalty opportunities, which Pieres converted for goals with Crab Orchard held to a single goal from the field from Nachi du Plessis. The Zacara lead grew to two goals, 7-5, as the fourth chukker came to an end.
Goals from the field from Sebastian Merlos and Pieres gave Zacara nine goals on the day. While du Plessis and Cambiaso each converted a penalty goal and Ulloa scored once from the field. The Zacara lead had been cut to a single goal, 9-8 as the teams entered the final chukker.
Pieres added two goals on penalty conversions and a goal from the field in the final chukker while Sebastian Merlos scored three times in the 14-8 victory.
Facundo Pieres led all scoring with eight goals and was named MVP. Pieres’s Agua Marina was also named Best Playing Pony.
LAS MONJITAS 9, PIAGET 8
Las Monjitas exploded for four goals in the opening chukker of play in the 26-goal Wellington Cup, and despite spotting Piaget two goals by handicap, held on to score a 9-8 win.
Agustin Merlos and Eduardo Astrada scored two goals apiece in the opening seven minutes of lay while holding Piaget scoreless from the field. The two goals spotted Piaget by handicap had the score standing at 4-2 in favor of Las Monjitas after the first chukker.
Astrada added two more goals in the first half with Piaget’s Lolo Castagnola scoring single goals in the second and third chukkers. Las Monjitas built up a 6-4 halftime lead.
Three unanswered goals by Las Monjitas in the fourth (a penalty goal from Agustin Merlos and a pair of goals from Astrada) were combined with shutout defense, and Las Monjitas extended its lead to five goals, 9-4.
Piaget tightened its defense in the final two chukkers, betting unanswered goals from Melissa Ganzi and Nachi Heguy (penalty shot) in the fifth and two more in the sixth, but the rally began too late, and Las Monjitas rode off with the 9-8 win.
Agustin Merlos was recognized as the MVP.
Astrada’s horse Yolanda, was honored at Best Playing Pony.
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Meet Sharon Salzberg at The International Polo Club Lecture Series
Annual Polo Ball at Nespresso Grande Pavilion
