US Polo team named for Westchester Cup

By Alex Webbe

Well, the suspense is over.  The United States team that will be meeting England for

the Westchester Cup has been announced.  The team will consist of Marc Ganzi (1),

Polito Pieres (9), Nic Roldan (8), and Mike Azzaro (8) and will total 26-goals.  Miguel

Novillo Astrada has been named as the teams coach with Julian Hipwood serving as

the assistant coach.

A 28-goal English team will field Mark Tomlinson (6), James Beim (7), John Paul Clarkin

(8) and Luke Tomlinson (7).  The US will receive two goals by handicap.

The match is scheduled to be played on Sunday, July 28 at the Guards Polo Club, and

will be the first time the cup has been played in England in 16 years.

The Westchester Cup is the oldest international competition in the sport, dating back to

1886, and currently rests in the hands of England.  Originally played as a best-of-three

series, England won the initial two competitions against fledgling US teams that were

just getting the hang of the game, but went on to dominate, winning 10 of the next 13

meetings.

The Westchester Cup was last played as a best-of-three series in 1939, and has only

been played for three times since.  Over the course of those three games, the United

States won once (1992) and England won twice (1997 and 2009).

Through the efforts of the USPA, this year’s Westchester Cup is scheduled to be aired

on NBC Sports Network on Sunday, August 11, EDT.