Albwardy family hat-trick Albwardy family hat-trick - Dubai Polo Club

Spotlight
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EQUESTRIO July/August 2010
HARCOURT DEVELOPMENTS QUEEN’S CUP
GUARDS POLO CLUB, UK, 18/05 - 13/06/10
Albwardy family hat-trick
for Dubai
Dara Williams and Lucy Monro
Adolfo Cambiaso led Dubai to their fourth victory -
and his personal seventh - in the final of the 50th
Queen’s Cup at Guards Polo Club and 18 year old
captain Rashid Albwardy secured one of polo’s
most prestigious trophies at his first attempt
in a particularly historic year.
July/August 2010 EQUESTRIO 31
Photo: © Rory Merry.

Photo: © Rory Merry.
Photo: © Rory Merry.
Spotlight
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EQUESTRIO July/August 2010
Rashid was in the saddle as Dubai captain for
the first time, having cut his teeth in high-goal
last season with a highly impressive debut
in the British Open. At just 17 he was the
youngest player to contest the Gold Cup and was quick to
make his mark; scoring 13 goals during the course of the
tournament in which Dubai finished runners-up to La Bamba
de Areco.
As debuts go it was impressive in the extreme and
Rashid’s return to the high-goal saddle this season has been
even more so. His Queen’s Cup win is the fourth for his father
Ali Albwardy’s squad - with previous wins in 2003, 2005 and
2006. The victory narrows the gap on record holders Ellerston,
who have won no less than six times in the recent past, but
perhaps most significant is that it represents a hat-trick for the
Albwardy family, with Rashid joining his father Ali and older
brother Tariq on the roll of honour. Rashid was to joke after the
win that, “At last I am no longer the black sheep of the family!”
For Adolfo Cambiaso, who sent through the deciding
goals of the final, the win was equally satisfying, for it was
the seventh time he had carried off the trophy and the victory
represented a hat-trick of another kind, coming as it did on
the heels of wins in the Argentine and US Opens.
As well as producing historic moments for its participants,
the tournament itself was celebrating a milestone. The Queen’s
Cup - presented to Guards by Queen Elizabeth II in 1960 - was
celebrating its 50th anniversary. One of the most prestigious
trophies on the polo planet, it forms an essential element of
the British Triple Crown, that comprises the Queen’s Cup, the
British Open and the Warwickshire Cup. From the first final,
which saw success for Sir Evelyn de Rothschild’s Centaurs 50
years ago, the list of winners of the Queen’s Cup reads a list
of polo’s greats and the tournament epitomises the growth of
Great Britain, and of Guards in particular, as a major stage for
international polo.
LEFT: The Dubai team played tight and hard throughout the final,
Adolfo Cambiaso demonstrating his brilliant best in the final minutes
of the match to secure the title by a two-goal margin.
Spotlight
No less than 14 teams entered the tournament this time
around, although Apes Hill, who narrowly defeated Sumaya
12:11 in extra time last year, were not defending their title.
Nevertheless, two of their 2009 players, Luke Tomlinson
and Charlie Hanbury, were on the field, in the colours of
Talandracas and El Remanso respectively.
The tournament did not produce obvious finalists in the
early stages; but the 14 were narrowed down to semi-finals,
sponsored by Westbury Mayfair Hotel, with Max Gottschalk’s
Les Lions II meeting Victor Vargas’ Lechuza Caracas, and Ali
Albwardy’s Dubai pitched against their nemesis from the 2009
Gold Cup, Jean-Francois Decaux’s La Bamba de Areco.
TITANIC CLASHES IN SEMIS
Both semis proved a veritable clash of the titans, although
Les Lions II got through to the final thanks in no small way
to the skill of their young 3-goal South African player, Chris
Mackenzie. Gottschalk had also enlisted the combined 18goal
talents of brothers Agustin and Sebastian Merlos, but it
was Mackenzie who helped to keep his side ahead throughout
the match.
Despite a gallant fight by Lechuza Caracas, Les Lions II
rode out the winners 11:9. It was, as a result, the first time that
a Les Lions team had qualified for the Queen’s Cup final, and
a delighted Gottschalk received the Westbury Mayfair Trophy.
Agustin Merlos received the Best Playing Pony award for his
Batuda, played in three of the chukkas.
The second semi-final was a much faster encounter, with
Dubai’s Cambiaso on sparkling form, but facing a strong
opposition in the shape of the Pieres brothers, Gonzalito and
Facundo - the 20-goal combination with whom he had battled
fiercely throughout 2009 before finally triumphing over their
Ellerstina squad in the biggest tournament of them all, the
Argentine Open in November.
That win had returned the maestros’ world no. 1 ranking,
that Gonzalito Pieres had briefly held during 2009, and
Cambiaso saddled up with Dubai for the British high-goal
season fresh from a second consecutive Open victory having
won the US Open with Crab Orchard. The Dubai line-up was
a new one for 2009 with Rashid playing at no. 1 supported by
Pablo MacDonough and 2-goaler Francisco Vizmara as well as
Cambiaso. It was a combination that was to prove a winning
July/August 2010 EQUESTRIO 33

Photo: © Rory Merry.
one. Of MacDonough’s addition to the squad for 2009 Rashid
would later joke with great good-humoured appreciation of the
10-goaler, “He seems to be doing a good job!”
With everything to play for Dubai were on titanic form from
the outset, opening the scoring and quickly establishing a twogoal
lead early in the first chukka. La Bamba closed the gap
to a single goal but were never able to gain the advantage.
Despite a series of penalties in the final chukka - a result of
pressure building up on both sides - Dubai kept their lead and
earned their place in the final by a comfortable 14:10. Young
Rashid Albwardy received the Hubert Perodo Trophy from the
wife and sons of the late patron.
FINDING INCOMPARABLE FORM IN THE FINAL
And so, to the final. Dubai and Les Lions II were led onto
the field by the Honourable Artillery Company and proceedings
began with customary pomp and ceremony under the watchful
eye of Her Majesty The Queen. The first goal was sent through
by Cambiaso, but was answered by two from Agustin Merlos.
A 30-yard penalty conversion by Cambiaso and a brilliant
under-the-neck shot from his team mate Pablo MacDonough
soon saw Dubai with an early lead.
In the second chukka, Dubai maintained their advantage,
5:3, but then Les Lions rallied to equalise and were to dominate
the third chukka, with goals from both Merlos brothers putting
then just in front, 6:5, at treading-in time.
Four minutes into the fourth chukka, MacDonough took
the ball the length of the field to bring Dubai level and two
superb shots from Cambiaso saw the squad return to the lead,
although this was reduced by a goal from Sebastian Merlos to
close the chukka 8:7.
The match was still anyone’s and in the penultimate chukka
scores were again equal at 9:9, until Sebastian Merlos regained
the lead for Les Lions with a good field goal.
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EQUESTRIO July/August 2010
Photo: © Rory Merry.
ABOVE: Dubai captain Rashid Albwardy secured the
trophy at his first attempt with a win that marked a
hat-trick for the Albwardy family. Rashid’s name now
joins those of his father Ali and his brother Tariq on the
Queen’s Cup roll of honour. The win was the Dubai
team’s fourth victory in the tournament that is the first
leg of the British Triple Crown and the seventh victory
for Adolfo Cambiaso.
TEAMS
Dubai
Rashid Albwardy 1
Francisco Vizmara 2
Pablo MacDonough 9
Adolfo Cambiaso 10 22
El Remanso
George Hanbury 1
Charlie Hanbury 4
David Stirling 9
Jaime G. Huidoboro 7 21
Photo: © Rory Merry.
Les Lions ii
Chris Mackenzie 1
Agustin Merlos 9
Sebastian Merlos 9
Max Gottschalk 1 20
Enigma
Jerome Wirth 1
James Beim 7
Matias MacDonough 8
Malcolm Borwick 6 22
RECENT WiNNERS Of THE QUEEN’S CUP
Spotlight
It was in the final chukka that the maestro did what he
does so incomparably, scoring a hat-trick in three minutes to
capture the Queen’s Cup, 12:10. Afterwards, he paid tribute
to the Dubai team, and said how great it was to have a recent
record such as his - referring to his victories in the 2009
Argentine Open, this year’s US Open and, now, the Queen’s
Cup. “I am obviously doing something right!”
A thrilled, but innately modest, Rashid Albwardy received
the cup from HM The Queen, who was accompanied by Pat
Doherty of Harcourt Developments.
Clearly delighted but with poise and charm far beyond
his years, Rashid went on to say at the press conference
after the match that he was hoping to win the British
Open Championship, and to play for many years to come,
particularly in Argentina and the USA; at which point his
father, interjected with good humour from the audience,
“What about school?”
The Queen this year presented two awards for Best Playing
Pony. The first went to a seven year old mare and retrained
racehorse, Menina, played by Agustin Merlos in the first and
fifth chukkas; the other to a 12 year old gelding, owned by
Rukki Baillieu and played by Cambiaso in the third and sixth
chukkas. The Most Valuable Player Award was presented to
18 year old Chris Mackenzie of Les Lion II.
Her Majesty was then presented with a De Witt Queen’s
Cup 1960-2010 ladies’ watch, one of two timepieces
commissioned specially by the Swiss watchmaker to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the tournament. The other
commemorative model is a men’s watch, both timepieces
being produced in limited editions of 50.
Earlier in the day, Jerome Wirth’s Enigma had met the
Hanbury brothers’ El Remanso in the subsidiary final for the
Harcourt Developments Trophy. El Remanso dominated the
game but Enigma - despite being down 0:6 at the end of
the second chukka - put up a determined resistance. It was
too late, however, for them to reduce the gap in time, and El
Remanso were victorious, 11:6.
A day that was without doubt Dubai’s closed with attention
already focussing on the next leg of the British Triple Crown,
the British Open. Rashid Albwardy will hardly have time to
catch his breath before starting out on the second stage of
his declared pursuit of victory when the Gold Cup tournament
opens at Cowdray Park on 22nd June.
2000 Geebung
2001 Not played
2002 Emerging
2003 Dubai
2004 Labegorce
2005 Dubai
2006 Dubai
2007 Loro Piana
2008 Ellerston
2009 Apes Hill
2010 Dubai
July/August 2010 EQUESTRIO 35