Duke of Wellington Trophy

King Power snatched a 9-8 win over Noor Khadra’s Green Gates to win the Duke of Wellington Trophy. This 12-goal fi nal was a tight game, with the advantage swapping regularly between both sides. Green Gates had a 4-2 advantage at the end of the second and looked in control of the game, Gonzalo Ferrari and Cesar Crespo delivering a strong partnership to put Khadra’s team ahead.

The pressure started to show in the third though. King Power successfully converted four penalties and with Marcus Cork fi ring through a fabulous goal just before the bell King Power now had the advantage, 7-6. Both of Green Gates’ goals in this chukka had come from penalties too.

With all to play for, Ferrari started the fourth with a fi eld goal to level the scores and a subsequent Green Gates penalty put them ahead once more. However with two Green Gates penalties going wide in this chukka King Power were still in contention. Jeronimo del Carril, who was later named The Most Valuable Player, made the most of this by fi rst levelling the scores and then firing through the winner from the subsequent line-out with only seconds left on the clock. Pili Pichimahuida, who had been played by Marcus Cork in the second half of this match, received the Polo Times Best Playing Pony prize.

With 14 teams entering the 2021 tournament, the sub fi nal matches were no less competitive. Honours here went to Ojo Caliente, who beat Polo Performance 8-7. The sub sub fi nal for the Smith’s Lawn Bowl saw a win for Asian Art. They beat Emlor 8-7.5. ✸

King Power: Marcus Cork (2); Segundo Darritchon (3); Raphael Singh (0); Jeronimo del Carril (7). Green Gates: Noor Khadra (0); Charles Cooney (3); Gonzalo Ferrari (5); Cesar Crespo (4). Ojo Caliente: Ana Escobedo (0); Zac Beim (2); Jonny Good (4); John Paul Clarkin (6). Polo Performance: Jonathan Hare (0); Temur Nadeem (3); Nicolas San Roman (4); Federico Boudou (5). Asian Art: Raffi Bruckner (-1); Louis Hine (2); Nacho Gonzalez (4); Michel del Carril (6). Emlor: Spencer McCarthy (1); Richard Tyrone (5); Hugo Taylor (3); Ed Hitchman (4).