La Irenita battle to win mighty Shield

La Irenita, named after the MacDonough family’s bloodstock breeding enterprise in Argentina, captured the Indian Polo Challenge Shield, a competitive, 18-goal tournament that had attracted 17 teams in midsummer. It is played as part of the Hurlingham Polo Association’s 18-goal Victor Ludorum competition.

In a tight match, sadly played in persistent drizzle, La Irenita defeated Simon Arber’s Four Quarters Orange 5–4. This low score was testament to how evenly matched the finalists were in both attack and defence. In fact only three goals had been scored by half-time – with the score reading 2–1 to Four Quarters!

Ignacio Negri had opened the scoring in the first chukka for Four Quarters Orange, but La Irenita had to wait until the third chukka to get themselves on the scoreboard. This was thanks to the successful conversion of a 30-yard penalty by Matias MacDonough. Arber then fired through a field goal to keep his Four Quarters squad ahead by one at the break.

Matias converted a second penalty to level the score in the fourth, with his uncle, Pablo, firing through a goal to put La Irenita into the lead for the first time. However, Simon Prado, later named the Most Valuable Player, picked up a lovely pass from Gonzalo Ferrari to again level the scores.

Pablo and Irenita La Kiosquera, who later received the Best Playing Pony prize, raced the ball from the half-way line to goal early in the fifth. It was not surprising that La Kiosquera stood out – just a month earlier she had been named Best

When Matias converted another penalty in this fifth chukka La Irenita suddenly found themselves with a two-goal advantage. With just three minutes left to play, Negri converted a penalty to close the gap, but a subsequent safety 60, also off the stick of Negri, went wide, ensuring this game finished in five chukkas and La Irenita would be heading home with the magnificent Shield.

The sub final, which had been played earlier in the day, saw victory for last year’s main finalists

The Teams

La Irenita: Gilberto Sayao (0); Will Harper (4); Pablo MacDonough (9); Matias MacDonough (5).

Four Quarters Orange: Simon Arber (0); Gonzalo Ferrari (7); Ignacio Negri (6); Simon Prado (5).

Emlor: Spencer McCarthy (2); Max Charlton (6); Paco O’Dwyer (6); Hugo Taylor (4). Limitless Delaney: Ramzy El-Ashkar (1); Benjamin Crowe (3); Juan Cruz Merlos (6); Alfredo Bigatti (8).