LAHORE, Mar 13 (APP):Diamond Paints, Barry’s and Master Paints/Rizvi’s chalked out contrastive
triumphs in the ongoing Diamond Paints National Open Polo Championship for
Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup here at the Lahore Polo Club (LPC) grounds on Tuesday.
Diamond Paints edged past Army by 8-6 in the first encounter
of the day. Macos Araya was top scorer for the winning side as
he produced an impressive hat-trick while Mir Huzaifa Ahmed and
Mumtaz Abbas Niazi scored a brace each and Eulogio Celestino
converted one. From the losing side, Ignasio Negri also struck
a hat-trick while Major Omer Minhas banged in a brace and
Miguel Luis Duggan hit one, but their efforts couldn’t bear
fruit for their team.
Army started the match with a field goal to take 1-0 lead
which was soon not only equalised by Diamond Paints, but they
also struck one more to take 2-1 lead. The second chukker was
evenly poised as both the teams scored two goals each, with
Diamond Paints having 4-3 lead. The high-voltage third chukker
was also dominated by Diamond Paints, who struck three as
compared to Army’s two goals, as the score was 7-5, in favour
of Diamond Paints. The winning side added one more goal in their
tally to enhance their lead to 8-5 in the fourth chukker while
in the fifth and last chukker, Army struck one to reduce the deficit to 8-6.
Barry’s played brilliantly against Rijas Aces/PAF and
outclassed them by a big margin of 12-4 in the second match of
the day. Juan Maria Ruiz (Tito) was hero of the day for Barry’s
as he slammed in superb six goals while Nafees Barry, Ramiro
Zavaleta and Bilal Haye scored a brace each. From the losing side,
Juan Cruz Araya struck a brace while Faisal Shahzad and Deigo
Araya hit one goal apiece.
Barry’s fully dominated the first two chukkers as they thwarted two goals in the
first chukker and pumped in fabulous five goals in the second chukker to take healthy
7-0 lead. They added one more in the third chukker to further enhance their lead to 8-0
but then Rijas Aces/PAF made a comeback by scoring a brace to make it 8-2 and then
added one more in the fourth chukker to further reduce the margin to 8-3. Barry’s converted
one more goal to stretch their lead to 9-3.
In the fifth and last chukker, Rijas converted a goal off 30-yad penalty to make it 9-4 but
after that it were Barry’s, who prevailed and slammed in three more goals to take insurmountable
12-4 lead, which remained intact till the end and declared Barry’s the ultimate winners.
Juan Cruz Losada struck six to guide Master Paints/Rizvi’s to a thumping 8-4 victory over Newage/BBJ Pipes in the third and last match of the day. Hamza Mawaz Khan scored the remaining
two goals to complete the tally for the victorious team. Salvador Ulloa hammered a hat-trick for the
losing side while Ahmed Zubair Butt converted one.
Master Paints/Rizvi’s scored the opening goal which was leveled by Newage/BBJ Pipes but by
the close of the first chukker, the winning side converted one more to take 2-1 lead. The second
chukker was evenly poised as both the teams hit one goal each with Master Paints/Rizvi’s having
3-2 lead. Newage/BBJ Pipes then scored an equalizer in the beginning of the third chukker to make
it 3-3 but after that, both the sides produced one goal each which leveled the score at 4-4. Master Paints/Rizvi’s then dominated the next two chukkers fully and slammed in fabulous four goals to win
the match by 8-4.
