Orchard Hill have won an early prize of the Florida high-goal season. They took the 2015 Joe Barry Memorial Cup, a 20-goal tournament at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, beating Villa Del Lago 15-13 in a final that turned into a duel between two Argentine cousins.
The line-ups
Orchard Hill fielded Steve Van Andel, Lucas Criado, Facundo Pieres and Remy Muller. Villa Del Lago answered with Jim Zenni, Agustín Obregón, Polito Pieres and Julián de Lusarreta. With a ten-goaler on one side and a nine-goaler fresh from a handicap rise in Argentina on the other, everyone expected the cousins to trade goals all afternoon, and they did.
How the final unfolded
Facundo opened the scoring with a 60-yard penalty inside the first 80 seconds, de Lusarreta equalised from open play, and the first chukker finished 2-2. Orchard Hill led 7-6 at half-time after two late penalties from Facundo, but Villa Del Lago surged in the fourth and went 10-7 clear before Van Andel pulled one back.
The fifth chukker decided it. Facundo scored four in a row: a 30-yard penalty, a 130-yard neck shot, a 150-yard gallop from the throw-in to put his side ahead, and a goal out of a scrum in front of the posts. Polito and Criado traded goals to leave it 13-11. Villa Del Lago came back to 14-13, yet Facundo struck again with 2:11 on the clock to seal the win.
The numbers
- Facundo Pieres scored 12 goals, five of them from penalties, and took the MVP award.
- His pony Shelty was named best playing pony.
- Polito Pieres scored nine for the losing side, five from the penalty spot, with de Lusarreta adding four.
- Criado scored two for Orchard Hill and Van Andel one.
The subsidiary final
Earlier in the day Audi (Marc Ganzi, Lucas Lalor, Nic Roldan and Fred Mannix) won the Bobby Barry Memorial Cup 12-10 over Lechuza (Luis de Borbón, Marcos Alberdi, Juan Martín Nero and Tomás Goti). Roldan, the American eight-goaler, scored eight of Audi’s twelve.
It is a promising start to a winter season that will build towards the 26-goal tournaments, and it is hard not to enjoy a final where the two best ball-handlers on the field were related.
Sources: Spirit of Polo
