Lucchese and Talandracas begin the British Open with wins
By Alex Webbe
Lucchese (John Muse, Lucas James, Nico Pieres and Luke Tomlinson) controlled the game throughout, leading 4-2 at the end of the first half and riding on to register an 8-5 win over HB Polo (Ludovic Pailloncy, Ignacio Toccalino, Pite Merlos and Sebastien Pailloncy) Wednesday afternoon in their 2014 Veuve Clicquot British Open debut.
A stagnant opening chukker saw Lucchese score the only goal of the period. A punchless HB Polo offense trailed 1-0.
Two more Lucchese goals went unanswered in the second period. HB Polo was shutout for the second consecutive chukker and found themselves behind, 3-0.
HB Polo finally got on track in the third as they scored their first two goals of the match. Lucchese managed just a single goal but continued to lead, 4-2 at the end of the first half.
The two teams traded goals in the fourth chukker with each side scoring twice. Lucchese maintained their two goal lead, 6-4.
With an emphasis on defense by both sides, the scoring in the fifth chukker was limited. Single goals by each team kept Lucchese in front, 7-5.
Lucchese scored the final goal of the game in the sixth while its oppressive defense blanked HB Polo for the third time. Lucchese (1-0) celebrated the 8-5 win, and will be looking forward to facing El Rosario (0-1) at 5PM on Saturday. HB Polo’s (0-1) next game will be against Talandracas (1-0) earlier that same afternoon
TALANDRACAS 12, EL ROSARIO 11 OT
In the second British Open game of the day, Talandracas (Edouard Carmignac, Juan Martin Nero, Polito Pieres and Santiago Stirling) started their climb back toward a tournament final with a 12-11 overtime win over El Rosario (Alejandro Penafiel, Salvador Ulloa, Francisco Elizalde and Rob Archibald) in Wednesday’s late British Open match. Talandracas made their way to the final of the Cartier Queens Cup where they lost to a powerful Zacara team.
Talandracas took control of the game from the onset, scoring three first chukker goals. El Rosario managed just a single goal in the opening seven minutes and trailed 3-1 at the end of the period.
Defenses tightened in the second. Talandracas and El Rosario were both held to single goals. Talandracas continued to lead, 4-2.
Two more Talandracas goals in the third chukker went unanswered. At the end of the first half it was Talandracas in control of a 6-2 game.
El Rosario regrouped during the halftime intermission and returned to the field in the fourth chukker focused and prepared to stage a comeback. This time it was El Rosario who outscored Talandracas 3-1, cutting the lead to a manageable two goals, 7-5.
Talandracas fired back in the fifth scoring three times. El Rosario responded with two goals of their own. Talandracas had extended their lead back to three goals, 10-7.
Just when it looked as if Talandracas was going to put it away, El Rosario’s Francisco Elizalde tied it up at 11-11 with 40 seconds on the clock forcing a sudden-death overtime chukker.
A resolute Talandracas team returned to the field for the overtime chukker where Polito Pieres took control of the ball from the throw-in and raced down the field to score the winning goal, 12-11, in the opening 14 seconds of play.
British Open play continues on Thursday with Black Bears (Guy Schwarzenbach, Facundo Sola, John Paul Clarkin and Patrick O’Dwyer) meeting El Remanso (Hugo Lewis, Charlie Hanbury, Pelon Stirling and Guillermo Terrera) at 1PM while King Power (“Top” Srivaddhanaprabha, Pablo Llorente, Gonzalito Pieres and Marcos di Paola) faces Enigma (Jerome Wirth, Chris Mackenzie, Sapo Caset and Guillermo Willington) at 3PM.
"Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly" 
Rabii Benadada
