Talandracas 12 – 8 Desert Palm Polo Club
Black Bears 10 – 7 Cibao La Pampa
The final two semi-final tickets for 2024 have been won by Talandracas and Black Bears. Hugues Carmignac’s team put up a strong performance over Desert Palm Polo Club to win their quarter-final 12-8. Talandracas’s Polito Pieres was the top goal scorer of the tournament coming into this match and added to his tally today. Team-mate Rosendo Torreguitar, who had a standout game, also excelled at finding the flags. In fact Talandracas’s consistency put them ahead 3-2 at the end of the first chukka and kept them in front for the rest of the match. Talandracas failed to score in the fourth but had created enough of a barrier to protect themselves from such a situation. Desert Palm had several opportunities to get on terms with Talandracas - this game was closer than the scoreline suggests - but the Desert Palm sent too many penalties wide. They were more cohesive in the second half but could not get themselves ahead to win.
The second match saw Guy Schwarzenbach’s Black Bears come from behind to win this quarter-final 10-7. Juan Pepa’s Cibao La Pampa were leading 4-2 after the second chukka, thanks to four goals from Benjamin Panelo. Fortunes reversed in the third and Black Bears seized a 6-4 lead at half-time. Facundo and Gonzalo Pieres fired through two goals apiece, while team-mate Hazel Jackson did a great job in keeping Panelo away from the play. There was still all to play for though. Black Bears failed to score in the fourth, but Cibao La Pampa struggled to make any major inroads into their opponents’ scoreline. Then, thanks to some memorable play from Jackson in the fifth, plus some accurate penalty taking by Facundo Pieres, the Bears now found themselves ahead 8-5 going into the final chukka. With both teams scoring in this period, the Black Bears claimed the win. Schwarzenbach stepped up to receive the Gerard Leigh Cup from James Gerard Leigh, grandson of the Club’s former Chairman, Col William Gerard Leigh.
Images copyright Pablo Ramirez
