ON A spectacular day weather-wise at Cirencester Park Polo Club on Sunday members and guests were treated to two great clashes.

Bardon Polo ran out narrow 10-8 winners over El Remanso in the prestigious Bledisloe Warwickshire Cup, one of the most coveted 22-goal tournaments in the calendar.

And then to cap the afternoon, Nina Clarkin’s England Women’s team ran out easy winners over the United States in the Kings Head Hotel-sponsored ladies’ international. England won by 11-4½. Both matches were played on the Ivy Ground at the club.

In the Warwickshire Cup it was Martin Valent who put the first goal on the board for Bardon in a slightly messy opening chukka.

Juan Gris Zavaleta and Alec White also found the posts as El Remanso hit back to lead 2-1.

Juan Martin Nero opened the second chukka equalising for Bardon Polo by flying almost the whole way down the field and scoring, to the delight the crowd.

But the best was yet to come as El Remanso’s Fred Mannix scored from the halfway line – the polo equivalent of a hole in one – riding one of Cirencester member’s Mikey Howe’s ponies, Yellow.

It was Juan Martin Nero who closed the chukka as he opened it by scoring another goal.

Mannix and Zavaleta then worked brilliantly together in the third chukka to make the score 5-4 to El Remanso.

The fourth chukka saw the scoreboard turning over rapidly as Bardon hit back to regain the lead.

The fifth chukka ended El Remanso’s hopes.

They missed an equalising penalty, and then were left stunned when Nero powered up, and flew around the pitch peppering the goal, as his Bardon side struck three goals in as many minutes to take full control of the match.

Although El Remanso didn’t give up the battle for a minute, their play now had an edge of desperation.

Zavalata closed the gap again to 9-8, but Nero was having none of it, and made no mistake with his final goal to complete the scoring at 10-8.

“Andras Tombor played really well,” said Nero of his Bardon patron. “We had a lot of fun today.”

Nero also won the inaugural Polo Quarterly horsemanship prize, winning a Husk rug.

“I like the award a lot. It is a pleasure to receive it and it is a really nice idea.”

The atmosphere was noticeably friendly in the ladies international which was a more free-flowing game than the men’s match.

Shouts of “Sorry” and “Thank You” could be heard from the grandstand. Sister double-act Nina Clarkin and Tamara Fox were on fire as always but it was Clarkin who was named The Polo Magazine’s Most Valuable Player.