By Bridget McArdle McKinney
There we have it, folks, the Final Four of one of the world’s most rigorous and prestigious polo Tournaments, the high-goal 2013 British Open Polo Championship being held as usual at Cowdray Park, have captured their berths in the Semi-Finals. These amazingly powerful teams are Zacara (Facundo Peries, Lyndon Lea, Rodrigo Andrade, and Matt Perry), El Remanso (Alastair Paterson, George Hanbury, Guillermo Terrera, and David Stirling), Talandracas (Juan Jauretche, Lucas James, Juan Martin Nero, and Edouard Carmignac) and Dubai (Rashid Albwardy, Nico Pieres, Adolfo Cambiaso, and Alec White).
No cake walk, their places were hard-fought and hard-won with many a near loss and cliff-hanger along the way, including the oh-so-close win by Talandracas against Sheikha Maitha’s UAE Team in the final seconds at 13 to 12 to shut UAE out of quarter-final contention. There were also dashed high hopes for Les Lions, Twelve Oaks, and La Bamba.
Narrowed down from a field of 16 high-powered teams duking it out for nearly a month in a staggering 45 matches in the run for the Grand Slam-ranking Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup on 21 July, these four teams will meet on 18 July with Zacara facing Talandracas for the Tramontana Cup and Dubai facing El Remanso for the Ellerston Cup according to the official Tournament fixtures schedule. The winners of these two matches will step into battle in the Finals field – IT’S TIME TO GET EXCITED!
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