Jerome Wirth’s Enigma team, runners up in last year’s Queen’s Cup final, earned their ticket through to the quarter-finals  in 2012 after defeating Jean Francois Decaux’s La Bamba De Areco 12-10 at Coworth Park this afternoon. By winning all three of their league games Enigma finish the clear leaders of Group Two and so are guaranteed a place in the last eight. This win was crucial for them as their opponents had notched up one win (against Piaget) last week and so were keen to keep their quarter-final hopes alive.

So with both teams needing a win the tension was evident, especially in the latter half of the match. It was also a close battle in the early stages with the score reading 6-6 at half-time. Although the majority of the Enigma team found the flags in the first three chukkas, it was left to Facundo Pieres of La Bamba to score their six goals.  When La Bamba failed to score at all in the fourth and fifth chukkas though, Enigma had a chance to pull further ahead. Although they were a little slow off the mark in the fourth, only finding the flags twice, Matias MacDonough made sure that they were in a dominant position by scoring three of his team’s four goals in the fifth chukka. This gave them a 12-6 lead going into the final chukka. Despite this impressive run of goals though, it all came to a stop in the sixth as Enigma  did not score again. La Bamba now had an opportunity to close the gap and Nico and Facundo Pieres scored four times in the last chukka. Unfortunately for them this flurry of goals came too late to secure any extra time. They will now have to wait and see if Richard Mille wins the league match of the competition tomorrow afternoon. A victory for Richard Mille will see La Bamba knocked out of the competition.