La Dolfina have started the Argentine Triple Crown the way they finished last year’s. They beat Ellerstina 18-12 in the final of the 76th Tortugas Open, played on court 7 of the Tortugas Country Club in Pilar, to take the first leg of the 2016 Triple Crown.
Cambiaso leads the way again
Adolfo Cambiaso scored 11 of La Dolfina’s goals, three of them from penalties, and finished the tournament with 22 goals in total. The rest of his team chipped in: Pablo Mac Donough three, and David Stirling and Juan Martín Nero two each.
For Ellerstina, Facundo Pieres scored five, every one of them from the penalty line. Gonzalo Pieres added three, with Pablo and Nicolás Pieres two apiece.
The line-ups were the same two quartets that have dominated these finals: La Dolfina’s 40 goals of Cambiaso, Stirling, Mac Donough and Nero against the 39-goal Pieres family. Their previous meeting in a Triple Crown final, the Argentine Open at Palermo last December, had been decided by a single goal, so a six-goal margin here was a statement of intent.
The numbers behind it
- It was La Dolfina’s tenth consecutive Triple Crown title.
- It was their 37th straight win.
- Six teams between 32 and 40 goals of handicap took part in the tournament.
What the Triple Crown is
The Argentine Triple Crown consists of the Tortugas Open, the Hurlingham Open and the Argentine Open at Palermo, played in that order. Tortugas comes first, and next in line this year is the 123rd Hurlingham Open, followed by the 123rd Argentine Open at Palermo.
La Dolfina won all three in each of the previous three seasons, and an 18-12 victory in the opening final is the kind of margin that suggests they are as strong as ever. Ellerstina, who have met them in so many finals, lost this one by six goals.
The Pieres family will want to put right in the next two legs what went wrong at Tortugas, and La Dolfina’s winning run now stands at 37 matches.
Sources: La Arena
