Lahore : Pebble Breakers and Barry’s won the opening matches of the Punjab Polo Cup 2017 of Emporium Mall played here at the Lahore Polo Club ground.
The match started with a fine field goal from Saqib Khakwani while another field goal from Guy Gibrat doubled the lead of Pebble Breakers in the first chukker. The only goal scored in the second chukker came from Hissam Hyder while the third chukker remained goalless. The fourth and conclusive chukker saw both the teams scoring one goal each with Raja Taimur Nadeem converting for Pebble Breakers and Hissam hitting for Newage to finish the match at 3-2, in favour of Pebble Breakers. The second encounter of the day proved to be a high-voltage match between Barry’s and Army, which saw both the teams scoring altogether 14 goals with the winning side (Barry’s) all alone hammering 10 goals while the remaining four came from the losing side (Army), which had also two and half goal handicap advantage.
Barry’s started their opening match with a brilliant brace with George Meyrick and Hamza Mawaz scoring one goal each. The second chukker high-flying Barry’s team pumping in fabulous five goals with George Meyrick thwarting three and Raja Samiullah two to make it 7-0. Army made their presence felt in the third chukker when they hit their first goal through Manuel Toccalino but Hamza then fired two brilliant goals to stretch Barry’s lead to 9-1.
The fourth and last chukker began with Samiullah’s fabulous field goal to make it 10-1. After that, Army staged a comeback and thrashed three goals – one each by Omer Minhas, Ahmed Butt and Brig Zulfiqar – but it was too little too late situation, as when the final whistle was blown, Barry’s were leading the encounter by 10-4. With two and half goal advantage for Army, the final score was 10-6½.
