Santa Clara clinch ‘The Memorial by Piaget’ title: Polo Recap
Tommy Biddle lit the lamp impressively for nine times and had an assist, as Santa Clara clinched the title of ‘The Piaget by Memorial’ after it powered a 10-8 victory over Hawks in the finals that held at the Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington on May
30, 2011.
The two teams started the game quite maturely. However, it was the Hawks that obtained the first goal in the opening period. Martin Estrada was replaced with J.J. Celis, who opened the scoring to put the Hawks ahead onto the score-board. In the counter-offence,
Tommy Biddle managed the tying goal to close out the first chukka at 1-1.
In the second set of play, Santa Clara received three goals while holding the Hawks only for a single goal. Biddle set the pace with three back-to-back goals. From the other side, Robert Orthwein notched a goal to keep his side in the game. The chukka ended
with Santa Clara sitting on top by two goals, 4-2.
The Hawks succeeded to dominate the field in the third set of the play with four goals, while limiting Santa Clara only for a solitary goal. It was the best show from the Hawks’ players, who took the game into their favour. Orthwein scored two goals of which
one came on a penalty shot, while other from the field. In the later time, Julian Mannix added two more goals to expand the lead of up to two goals. In the dying moments, Biddle scored another goal to close out the first half at 5-6.
The Santa Clara attack came alive in the fourth and fifth rounds respectively, keeping the opponent off the score-board. Biddle converted a couple of spot shots in the fourth frame to regain the lead in the game.
In the fifth chukka, John Chavanne and Biddle scored one goal each to take an insurmountable 9-6 lead, with one chukka left to play.
The final period was opened by a couple of goals from Mannix, getting one on a spot-shot while other from the field effort. Biddle in the concluding moments scored another goal to seal the Santa Clara victory at 10-8.
Tommy Biddle stole the show by scoring nine out of the total ten goals, while his team-mate, Chavanne, added another one in the triumph. From the other side, Julian Mannix marked four goals while his team-mates, Robert Orthwein and Martin Estrada, accounted
for three and one goal, respectively.
Owing to best performance, Julian Mannix was honoured for MVP award while Lady of Joe Casey was named as Best Playing Pony of the event.
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