El Remanso 10 - 7 Zacara
The first game of the 2012 high-goal Cartier Queen's Cup saw the Hanbury's El Remanso team defeat the highly regarded Zacara team 10-7. Guillermo Terrera was in fine form for El Remanso, scoring a hat-trick in the first chukka. Two further goals in the second, as well as two goals from David Stirling, gave them a 7-3 advantage at the end of the second.
Although Zacara's Hilario Ulloa and Ignus du Plessis scored in the first two chukkas and Ulloa had scored a double in the third to close the gap, it was not enough to close the gap on El Remanso's strong lead from the first two chukkas. As Terrera had found the flags once more too, the score now read 8-5 at half-time.
After a really fast first half, it seemed that both teams had run out of steam in the second half, with neither side scoring in the fourth. Although goals still proved elusive for Zacara in the fifth, Terrera scored once more to put El Remanso a little further ahead. He repeated that feat in the final chukka and, although Ulloa scored twice it was too late to make much inroad into the Hanbury team's lead.
EFG Bank Aravali 12 - Talandracas 9
EFG Bank Aravali won a tough contest against last year's Queen's Cup winners Talandracas. Eduardo Novillo Astrada was on great from and was ably supported by Mark Tomlinson and Marcos Di Paola. However their opposition was equally tough today with both Lucas Monteverde and Milo Fernandez Araujo in fighting form throughout the six chukkas on the number one ground at Guards Polo at Coworth Park.
EFG Bank Aravali kept their heads when their patron retired in the fifth chukka and his place was taken by 0-goaler James Carr, keeping ahead by scoring two further goals to only one in return from the grey shirts. With the score reading 11-7 at the start of the sixth, Talandracas upped their game and it suddenly seemed possible that they may close the gap and put the match into extra time. And although Milo and Lucas remained focused on scoring goals, the tension was evident and when a penalty went wide their chances of some extra time were over.Eduardo Novillo Astrada v Lucas Monteverde on the number one ground at Guards Polo At Coworth Park (Images of Polo)