The Alemania Bank Hofmann team beat Mexico 10 goals to 9 in the final of the Agua Alta Scappino Cup. Brothers Pancho and Valerio Aguilar, without doubt, the most outstanding polo players in the world after the Gracida brothers played the best polo of the week and deserved to win. Their German “team mates”, in particular, Bolko Kissling with a 0 goal handicap, made a significant contribution. Only very occasionally does a 0 handicapper score an average of 2 goals per match. In the words of Alberto Ardissone, the level of the game was “at the level of Sotogrande” and the level of the parties “up there with the Rio carnival”. All the matches were very competitive and there were three draws in six days of matches.

Alberto Ardissone’s efforts to get eight teams of this level together could be seen with the presence of five professionals from Argentina. Among them stood out Andrea Vianini, with a 7 goal handicap, on winning the Scappino Pininfarina Cup with the Guadalajara Maestro Tequilero team. Vianini is currently in England playing polo with Princes and Harry.

 

 

The Peruvian, Guillermo “Chino” Li, the best player in his country and current professional at the Club Costa Careyes, also shone. This year, he competed in the Agua Alta Scappino team; finishing however in fourth place in the Cup of the same name.

Without a doubt it was the most international tournament of the year both on the field and in the stands. Players from eleven different countries took part. The Chilean Juan E. Jaramillo played in the final on the Mexico BE! Team and with a great game of his patron Pepe Valdes and Miguel Gomez de Parada, they came very close. The player who completed the BE! quartet was Spencer Young, who traveled from Australia to win the Cup for the second time.

 

 

 

The promising thing for Mexico is that the best players in the pre-selection of the Polo World Cup (Mexico 2007) took part in the Agua Alta Scappino Cup, among them, Diego Velarde, Chucho Solórzano, Miguel Gómez de Parada, Diego and Gonzalo Solórzano and of course the Aguilar brothers.

Ardissone not only managed to bring together several important patrons from the world of polo, such as the CEO of Pirelli, Titta Ferrario, Mexican Pepe Valdés, the Swiss banker Pierre Louis Chardier and the Canadian magnate Ed Pope, he also drove the development of young players like Diego González Díaz from Guadalajara, Constanza Marchiorello from Argentina, Manuel Matos from Portugal, as well as his son Alberico Ardissone.

The participating teams were Alemania Bank Hofmann, Mexico Be!, San Marino Valdo, Italia Agua Alta Scappino, Guadalajara Maestro Tequilero, Canada Bombardier and USA Pfizer.

 

 

 

Text: Mario Ramírez ± Photo: Nacho Andrade / Scappino.