King Power Foxes – 13
Top Srivaddhanaprabha (1), Hugo Lewis (1),
Gonzalito Pieres (10), Facundo Pieres (10)
HB Polo – 8
Ludovic Pailloncy (1), Ignacio Toccalino (8),
Ignacio Laprida (8), Sebastien Pailloncy (3)
King Power Foxes remain unbeaten, after a convincing win over the Pailloncy brothers’ HB Polo Team at King Power’s home ground. HB Polo received two goals on handicap at the start of the match and so the score looked fairly respectable in the first half, despite this team failing to score at all in chukkas two and three. Of course, when you are facing a team of the calibre of King Power Foxes, you cannot allow them any advantage and so by half-time, with the score reading 10-6 to Top Srivaddhanaprbha’s team, the final score was not too much of a surprise.
Facundo and Gonzalito Pieres dominated the goal scoring, putting through 7 and 5 goals respectively. The youngest member of the Foxes, Hugo Lewis, added one in the fourth chukka too. Cristian Laprida and Ignacio Toccalino worked hard to keep HB’s hopes alive, scoring some excellent field goals, but they were no match today for the mighty King Power Foxes and their impressive horsepower. –Diana Butler
UAE – 12
HH Sheikha Maitha Al Maktoum (0), Lucas Monteverde (8),
Pablo MacDonough (10), Santiago Stirling (4)
Sifani – 10
Hilali Noordeen (0), Max Charlton (7),
Augustin Merlos (9), Malcolm Borwick (6)
UAE and Sifani provided a much more even-handed game, producing some lovely flowing polo, especially in the second half. UAE were the favourites before this game started, having already produced an excellent victory over the highly fancied Dubai last week. So despite some great runs from Sifani’s Agustin Merlos in the first half, it was Pablo MacDonough and Lucas Monteverde of UAE, who were firing through the goals before half-time. By the break the score was reading 7-3 and it looked as if VPS Healthcare Sifani were out of contention.
The second half though was a different game. Sifani’s Max Charlton started to make his presence felt and with Malcolm Borwick successfully converting penalties, Sifani were now in control of this match. They had closed the gap to 8-5 at the end of the fourth and levelled the score to 9-9 in the fifth. Suddenly this was anyone’s game. Could Hilali Noordeen’s team beat the highly regarded squad from the UAE? Unfortunately, the answer this time was no. Class players like MacDonough and Monteverde invariably capitalise on their opponents’ mistakes and so successfully converted two penalties in the fifth. That said, Charlton produced a lovely backhand to save a MacDonough penalty in the sixth and Borwick converted three penalties in the final two chukkas. Sifani had clearly found their form but it was too late and they continue to hunt for a win in this year’s tournament. –Diana Butler
http://poloist.net/king-power-foxes-consume-hb-polo-uae-down-sifani-at-the-2015-cartier-queens-cup/