The 86th. Tortugas Open, the second leg of the Triple Crown in Argentina, resumed on Sunday October 15, with a double League B matchdate, that took place at the Argentine Association of Polo Headquarters, in Pilar. The Tortugas Open sees ten teams up to 40 goals, in participation.
Las Monjitas and Hiper played the opening game, with the former presenting a significant change – South African Nachi du Plessis had to sub in for the injured Uruguayan player, Pelón Stirling; this meant a change of positions within the lineup – the back, Juan Martín Nero, had to play as a 3, in order to allow Nachi to take his place. With regards to Hiper, while Las Monjitas aimed to win their first match after losing to La Irenita, Hiper seeked for their second, after a very impressive victory over La Aguada.
Hiper’s Gonzalo Ferrari opened the scores with only 15 seconds in the first chukka, followed by another one a few minutes later, to put Hiper 2-0 up. However, Las Monjitas Rufino Bensadon and Nachi du Plessis scored one each to tie at 2-all. By the start of the second chukka, Hiper re-took the lead, courtesy of Teo Lacau, but afterwards Las Monjitas bounced back -thoroghout the second and third, four goals produced by Rufino Bensadon and one by Juan Martin Nero, allowed the orange jerseys to outscore Hiper 6-2, which meant that the scoreboard read a 8-4 in favour of Las Monjitas. Although Teo Lacau scored for Hiper at the start of the fourth chukka, Las Monjitas were unstoppable; it was expected a close contest, but Las Monjitas had clearly other ideas in mind. They dominated the match through a very solid team play and, what’s more, every time Hiper scored, Las Monjitas replied quickly in order to widen their advantage; by half time, Las Monjitas reached a commanding 10-5. Everything would remain the same in the two following chukkas – by the end of the sixth chukka, Las Monjitas were 14-8 up.
However, Hiper were not about to surrender; in the seventh chukka, the powerful Torito Ruiz came to the rescue. Altough he had already produced a couple of goals in the two previous chukkas, Torito kept Hiper’s hopes alive with two goals, and closed the gap to two (13-15), with only one chukka left.
A very intense last chukka followed – with two minutes in regulation time, Lukin Monteverde found the flags. And although Hiper outscored Las Monjitas 3-1, with goals by Torito Ruiz, Fran Elizalde and Teo Lacau, the efforts didn’t pay off. At the end of the day, Las Monjitas were victorious by a narrow 16-15. Not quite the result they envisaged, perhaps, but a very important victory, indeed, to maintain the hopes for what’s next in the Tortugas Open.
In the following match, La Hache clashed against La Irenita.While La Hache made their debut at the Tortugas Open, La Irenita has already won their previous contest in an epic match against Las Monjitas.
Both lineups played a very even first half, that saw a 1-all at the end of the first chukka. La Hache and La Irenita fought hard until the fourth chukka, when the Ulloa-Panelo lineup took off, and earned a two goal advantage. However, Paco de Narvaez and Polito Pieres scored in the last seconds to step into half time with La Hache leading by a narrow 8-7.
But the equaliser started to break up from the fifth chukka onwards, when the overturned in La Hache’s favour, and led by a lethal Benjamin Panelo when it came to penalty conversions. Halfway in the sixth chukka, La Hache claimed the widest gap, 11-8, but La Irenita fought back. Finally, that sixth chukka closed with La Hache 13-10 up.
The momentum for La Hache came in the seventh chukka – they overwhelmed La Irenita by scoring enough goals to reach an impressive 17-10 lead. The heavy score was “softened” by two penalty conversions by Vizcacha MacDonough. With only one chukka left, La Hache were 17-12 up, and the deal was almost said and done. And it was sealed in the last chukka with goals by Toly Ulloa and Benja Panelo, to secure a remarkable 19-12 win for La Hache, the runner up of the Hurlingham Open, in their debut match of the Tortugas Open.
THE 86th. TORTUGAS OPEN WILL CONTINUE ON MONDAY OCTOBER 19, AT THE ARGENTINE ASSCIATION OF POLO, IN PILAR, AS FOLLOWS:
1pm: La Natividad La Dolfina vs. Don Ercole
4pm: La Ensenada vs. La Zeta Kazak
THE FINAL OF THE 86th. TORTUGAS OPEN IS SET TO BE PLAYED ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7.
86th. TORTUGAS OPEN – Teams & Fixture
Cover photo by Prensa AAP.