Ellerston and Dubai in semifinals; shootout to determine the remaining two playoff teams

By Alex Webbe

Spanish Gold Cup, polo,

Ellerston (Johnny Williams, Ali Patterson, Gonzalo Pieres and Facundo Pieres) scored

an 11-10 overtime win over UAE (HH Sheikha Maitha Al Maktoum, Jack Richardson,

Lucas Monteverde and Pablo MacDonough) in Monday’s Hublot Gold Cup action at the

Santa Maria Polo Club at Sotogrande, Spain.  The victory earned Ellerston a berth in

Thursday’s semifinals where they will join a Dubai team (Martín Valent, Patricio Cieza,

Luis Domecq and Adolfo Cambiaso) that qualified with its third win of the season over

HB Polo (Ludovic Pailloncy, Sebastian Pailloncy, Ignacio Toccalino and Pite Merlos).

In other Monday action, Ayala scored a 17-10 win over Dos Lunas and Royal Salute

beat El Rosario 16-12.

For the second time this season, however, there is a deadlock for the final two semifinal

positions forcing a shootout to take place on Tuesday morning between HB Polo, UAE

and Ayala (Inigo Zobel, Guillermo Willington, Pablo MacDonough and Juan Jauretche),

each team possessing a 2-1 record.

HB Polo had scored Gold Cup wins over Scapa (10-7) and Halcyon Gallery (9-8) while

losing to Dubai (11-9) in Sunday action; UAE downed Dos Lunas (12-11) and Royal

Salute (11-10), suffering their loss to Ellerston (11-10 in overtime); and Ayala racked up

wins over Royal Salute (16-14) and Dos Lunas (17-10) while falling to Ellerston 15-11.

Both Dubai and Ellerston will be looking for their second high-goal championships with

the season opening Bronze Cup going to Dubai and Ellerston taking the Silver Cup

(Ellerston didn’t compete in Bronze Cup play).  The remaining two semifinalists will be

looking for their first titles of the season. Spanish Gold Cup, polo,.