Guards Polo Club Official Yearbook 2017 Official Yearbook 2017 | Page 179

Black Bears’ Max Charlton powers past Clarita in this 15-goal final
LA M ARTINA QUEEN ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER’s CENTENARY TROPHY
BLACK BEARS
PROVE STRONGEST
G
uy Schwarzenbach led from the
front to ensure that it was his
Black Bears team that won the first
15-goal final at Guards Polo Club in 2016.
In a fast-paced match, the Bears defeated
Chris Mathias’s Clarita 7-6 in four chukkas
to claim the La Martina Queen Elizabeth
The Queen Mother’s Centenary Trophy.
Teo van den Broeke, Style Editor of Esquire
presented Guy with the trophy on behalf of
the La Martina team.
The young Argentine, Juan Cruz Merlos,
son of former Black Bears’ high-goal
player Pite Merlos, showed a maturity
way beyond his 18 years in this match
and it was no surprise that he was later
named La Martina Most Valuable Player.
Clarita’s Chris Mackenzie, who was always
in the right place at the right time to pick
up the long shots from teammate George
Meyrick, received the Polo Times Best
Playing Pony Prize. This was awarded for
Nebraska, a nine-year-old, grey Argentine
mare whom Chris had played in the final
chukka when scoring a crucial goal.
The standard of play from all 11 teams
in the 2016 entry was impressive and
so not surprisingly the sub final was an
equally close affair. Alan Fall’s Mad Dogs
defeated Romilla Arber’s Four Quarters
Black 8-7 in a match earlier in the day.
Black Bears: Guy Schwarzenbach (1);
James Lester (3); Max Charlton (7); Juan
Cruz Merlos (4). Clarita: Chris Mathias
(0); Freddie Horne (3); Chris Mackenzie
(6); George Meyrick (6). Mad Dogs: Alan
Fall (0); George Pearson (2); William
Emerson (5); Alejandro Novillo Astrada
(8). Four Quarters Black: Romilla Arber
(0); Tom Brodie (3); Richard Le Poer (6);
Chris Hyde (6).
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