By Alex Webbe
Polo fans will get a preview of the 2017 English polo season with the onset of Cowdray Park Polo Club’s 22-goal Jaeger-LeCoultre Trippetts Challenge with action scheduled to begin at 3pm on Friday with a game between Talandracas (Jack Hyde, Pelon Stirling, Guillermo Caset and Edouard Carmignac) and El Remanso (Charlie Hanbury, Oliver Cudmore, James Beim and James Harper) on Manor Farm Field 1.
Tournament play continues on Saturday with a 1pm game between Murus Sanctus (Corinne Ricard, Hilario Ulloa, Facundo Sola and Dirk Van Reenen) and Sommelier (George Hanbury, Juan Gris Zavaleta, Fred Mannix and Alec White) on the River Field as teams and players warm-up for the Queens Cup and the British Open for the Gold Cup.
The 2017 Jaeger-LeCoultre Trippetts Challenge will welcome last year’s British Open winner in the King Power Foxes (Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, TBA, Gonzalito Pieres and Facundo Pieres). Boasting 10-goal brothers in Facundo Pieres and Gonzalito Pieres, the King Power foxes will be making their first appearance in the Jaeger-LeCoultre Trippetts Challenge when they face La Bamba de Areco (Jean Francois Decaux, Diego Cavanagh, Magoo Laprida and Rodrigo Rueda, Jr.) in an 11am contest followed by the 2017 debut of the defending championship La Indiana (Michael Bickford, Nic Roldan, Agustin Merlos and Luke Tomlinson) lineup at 1pm.
El Remanso (Charlie Hanbury, Oliver Cudmore, James Beim and James Harper) will make their first high-goal appearance of the season in a Wednesday encounter with La Indiana. The 4:30pm match will be the only one of the day.
Two Thursday matches will see the King Power Foxes battle Sommelier at 11am. Murus Sanctus and La Bamba de Areco will follow with a 1pm game that will signal the final preliminary contest of the tournament.
The final of the 2017 Jaeger-LeCoultre Trippetts Challenge is scheduled to be played on Sunday, May 21st with the winner of League A (El Remanso, La Indiana and Talandracas) meeting the winner of League B (King Power Foxes, Murus Sanctus, La Bamba de Areco and Sommelier).