Two thriling semi-finals at Smith's Lawn yesterday (Thursday), sponsored by The Westbury Mayfair Hotel, saw victories for Max Gottschalk's Les Lions ll and Ali Albwardy's Dubai. The teams now go forward to this Sunday's final at 3pm and will feature the talents of the Merlos brothers - Sebastian and Agustin - for Les Lions ll in action against the talented partnership of Adolfo Cambiaso and Pablo Macdonough.

However Les Lions ll also have their young three-goal player to thank for their ticket through to the final. Chris Mackenzie produced an outstanding performance on The Queen's Ground to help keep Les Lions ahead throughout the six chukkas. Their opponents, Lechuza Caracas, tried hard to keep in the game but were always trailing by a couple of goals. At the final whistle Les Lions won the match 11-9. This will be the first time that this Guards-based team has reached the final of this competitive high-goal competition and a delighted Max Gottschalk stepped up to recieve the Westbury Mayfair Trophy from Azad Cola. Les Lions' Agustin Merlos received the Best Playing Pony Award for Batuda, whom he had played in three of the six chukkas. He probably would have been named Most Valuable Player if there had been such an award as he produced a spectacular goal from at least 100 yards out.

The second semi-final, on The Duke's Ground, was a faster-paced final with the pundits refusing to guess the result in the early stages of the game due to the appearance of Cambiaso for Dubai and the Pieres brothers for La Bamba De Areco. It was Dubai though who scored first and had a two-goal advantage early in the first chukka. Although La Bamba had closed the gap before the first bell to just one goal - they could not find that extra edge to give them an advantage throughout the game.

The middle chukkas produced some really fast paced and flowing play which was a delight to watch. Both Pablo Macdonough and Gonzalito Pieres produced some spectacular runs up the field to score. Unfortunately the pressure got to both teams in the final minutes of the match and penalities marred the final chukka.  However Dubai had maintained their advantage and so won the game 14-10.

Rashid Albwardy, younger son of Dubai team patron Ali, received the Hubert Perodo Trophy from the late high-goal patron's wife and sons.

Picture Credit: Images of Polo