Richard Mille defeated the well respected La Bamba De Areco team on The Queen's Ground at Guards this afternoon, winning the Royal Windsor Horse Show Cup 9-7. This trophy was played as a league match for the Cartier Queen's Cup and with two 10-goalers on the field - Pablo MacDonough for Richard Mille and Facundo Pieres for La Bamba, the many spectators knew that they could be in for a great game.

In fact, the scoreline does not do justice to what was a fast-paced and and flowing game. Despite some great play and lovely runs down the field from La Bamba De Areco, the goals went the way of Richard Mille for the first four chukkas. Surprisingly, La Bamba failed to score at all in two of these chukkas.

Meanwhile MacDonough was in fine form and fantastically supported by Tomas Garcia Del Rio. Even his patron, Prince Bahar Jefri scored once in the second. So with the score at 7-2 at the end of the fourth this looked to be Richard Mille's game. 

In the fifth, Facundo Pieres began to find his form, scoring thee goals in quick succession, to only one in reply from Garcia Del Rio. Suddenly La Bamba were back in the game. And with the score reading 8-5 at the start of the sixth, and knowing the calibre of players on the field - including two talented Englishmen, Oli Cudmore and Max Routledge -the final result seemed no longer certain. Although Garcia Del Rio scored immediately at the start of the sixth chukka, both Pieres boys (this season it is Facundo and his younger brother Nico in the La Bamba line-up) found the flags. Unfortunately for the red shirts this rally came to late for them and they had to concede a 9 - 7 defeat.

Ten goal tangle: Pablo MacDonough v Facundo Pieres on The Queen's Ground at Guards Polo Club (Images of Polo)