Talacrest Prince of Wales’s Championship Cup

from Polo Times Sept 21

by Edit

Nutrition Focus: Back to Basics

FINAL

4AUG 22 AUG

Where: Guards Polo Club, Windsor

Photography by ©www.imagesofpolo.com Park Place Win Talacrest 22 Goal

Borodin’s team secures inaugural 22 goal

Celebrations between Park Place team mates Juan Britos and Facundo Pieres as they win the inaugural edition of the tournament

As we all know only too well, 2021 has been a year of many fi rsts, and many that we would rather not remember. However, as the country emerged into non-mask wearing relative normality a positive and fantastic fi rst to celebrate was a brand new 22 goal tournament at the illustrious Guards Polo Club – the Talacrest Prince of Wales’s Championship Cup. In its inaugural year it was Andrey Borodin’s Park Place team who secured the maiden victory and so claim their place at top of the inscriptions on this impressive trophy.

Appropriately for a title sponsor who is the world’s most experienced classic Ferrari dealer, having sold in excess of 1,750 Ferrari, to the value of more than $1billion, the teams were not introduced on the fi eld on horseback but from an impressive array of Ferrari. A former high goal polo patron himself, John Collins said when signing this new partnership: “I have been involved with polo at Guards Polo Club for more than 30 years and so am thrilled to be able to support the Club in this high-goal competition. I know from fi rst-hand experience of playing high goal at Guards that the opportunity for players to compete at the highest level on the best grounds is invaluable.”

And so, amid much fanfare and expectation befi tting a new 22 goal tournament here in the

The victorious Park Place team with tournament sponsor John Collins of Talacrest Ferrari

UK, fi ve teams entered this fi rst edition of the Talacrest Prince of Wales’s Championship Cup, with each team playing the others over the previous three weeks.

Park Place fared well through the qualifi ers and went into the Final not only with an undefeated record, but also with an earlier close win against fellow fi nalists, Monterosso, earlier in the tournament. However, it was all to play for as Alessandro Bazzoni’s Monterosso certainly made Park Place work hard for their 5-4 fi nal tally, keeping themselves in contention throughout, with little between the two teams. With strong defensive play from both sides it was a low scoring match, but certainly high on skill which delighted the packed Guard’s grandstands. At half time it was a narrow 3-1 Park Place lead on the boards as guests trod in the divots on the Queen’s Ground.

In the fi fth chukka Facundo Pieres scored again and a penalty fi nding the posts for Park Place kept them ahead by a two goal margin. But high goal is super fast, fl uid and hard to predict, so the 5-3 score did not see Park Place resting on their laurels. This pressure led to a rule infringement by the boys in blue resulting in Ignacio Toccalino successfully converting a penalty to put Monterosso very much back in contention with just one goal difference on the Guards scoreboard. It was truly edge-of-the-seat stuff as Facundo Sola had two chances for Monterosso in the sixth, but sent them wide. So, in a match that had been close throughout and with nothing in

reply from Bazzoni’s line up the score stayed at 5-4, confi rming Park Place’s victory. John Collins, the founder of Talacrest and sponsor of this new high-goal tournament, produced some amazing prizes for all players – and match offi cials – on Finals Day, including Cartier watches for the winners.

The Subsidiary Final saw Bardon convert a penalty in extra time to take a 10-9 win against UAE Polo Team to secure the Talacrest Trophy. Sheikha Maitha’s UAE Polo Team and Andras Tombor’s Bardon, had met before in the qualifi ers and UAE team had comfortably

Park Place (22)

Juan Britos (8) Andrey Borodin (0) Will Harper (4) Facundo Pieres (10)

Park Place patron Andrey Borodin receives the magnifi cent trophy from tournament sponsor John Collins won 13-8. So Bardon came to the Subsidiary Final clearly having done their homework and dominated the fi rst half. Matias Machado, who was later named the Talacrest Trophy Most Valuable Player was outstanding in the fi rst half, putting Bardon comfortably ahead 7-2. UAE Polo Team, no stranger to the big occasion, closed the gap in the second half, forcing this match into extra time. This was the fi rst time in the entire tournament that overtime had to be played. Bardon were awarded a penalty early into the extra time which Fran Elizalde converted to win the match 10-9 in a fi ttingly close score which refl ected the tightness of the entire game.