Cartier Queen's Cup league stages draw to close with penalty shootout at Smith's Lawn

The final Cartier Queen’s Cup league matches took place today, with two teams scoring their first wins of the tournament. La Bamba de Areco defeated Talandracas 14-9 at Manor Farm in Sussex, while Hilali Noordeen’s Sifani defeated Valiente/Dubai 13-11 at Guards Polo Club, winning the Richard Watt Cup. There were changes in both sides’ line-ups with La Bamba patron, Jean Francois Decaux, replaced by the young Englishman Alex Webb. Tommy Beresford was unable to play for Talandracas due to injury and his place was taken by Juan Cruz Merlos, who is currently playing the 15-goal tournaments with the Black Bears.

These results meant that both Talandracas and Valiente/Dubai avoided having to take part in today’s penalty shootout. A second win for Talandracas would have put them up against Michael Bickford’s La Indiana who now automatically qualify as second best team in Group One, behind King Power Foxes. A Valiente/Dubai win would have pitted them against Britannia El Remanso and Zacara in this evening’s penalty shootout for the second placed team in Group Two, behind Dubai. So this left Charlie Hanbury’s Britannia El Remanso taking on Lyndon Lea’s Zacara at Guards Polo Club at 6pm today. Zacara came out best, winning 3-2, thanks to some sharp shooting from Pablo MacDonough.

So the four teams that automatically qualify through to next weekend’s quarter finals are:

1. Dubai

2. King Power Foxes

3. La Indiana

4. Zacara

The following teams finished in this order to play in the knockout stages (Tuesday 31st May and Wednesday 1st June):

1. Britannia El Remanso

2. Apes Hill

3. La Bamba De Areco

4. HB Polo

5. Valiente/Dubai

6. Talandracas

7. Sifani

8. RH Polo

A complete schedule of who plays who is available at http://www.guardspoloclub.com/tournaments/cartier-queens-cup-2016