NEW DELHI, November 23: Four first-round matches were played in the Baria Cup (four goal) polo tournament, which got underway today with 14 teams participating at the Army Equestrian Centre Polo ground.Of the teams competed today, Cafe Polo defeated Chaugan 3-2, Waltzing Matilda/RVC downed Amazonians 5-1, Army Polo and Riding Club (Red) beat Horse and Wagon 5-3 and Kohinoor struggled past Riviera 3-1/2-2.
In the first match, Bhanwar Singh, Bill Sweetland and Ben Sweetland scored a goal each for the winners while Faisal Ali struck both goals for the losers. For Waltzing the scorers were Kevin Coventry (3) and Capt AS Randhawa (2) while for the losers the lone goal came from Bajrang Singh.
Army Polo were benefited through the goals by BP Singh, Dfr Bhawani Singh (2) and Bhawani Singh while for Horse and Wagon the scorers were Buchi Prakash (2) and Ramesh Kumar.
Shailendra Singh (2) and R.S. Yadav were the goal-getters for Kohinoor while Aroonpal Singh scored both the goals for Riviera.
From tomorrow the Baria Cup tournament will be concurrently held with the President's Cup tourney, a prestigeous event, at the Jaipur Polo ground. The participating teams are Kashmir, Sahgal Stud/Nike, Army who have been drawn in Pool A while Oberoi Blues and Aravali Polo are in Pool B.
In this tournament, country's top-ranking players will be seen in action besides five British and one Argentine players.
Since Pool A has three teams, the matches will be played on round-robin basis while Pool B teams will play a series of two matches each to qualify for the final. The top-finishing team in Pool A will be the other finalist. The finals are slated for Sunday, November 28.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.