Twice is nice for Duende
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August 28, 2006 3:38 PM
Mike Hakan took a fancy to the Spanish word "duende." It means
ghost or goblin, but it also has a figurative meaning that suggests magic and
enchantment.
"I take it to mean 'being in the zone,' " Hakan said.
When the amateur polo player founded a team eight years ago, he named it
Duende.
Since then, Duende has come to mean "dynasty" at the Santa Barbara
Polo & Racquet Club.
For the second consecutive year and the third time in four years, Duende won
the championship of the Pacific Coast Open, the club's premier high-goal
tournament.
Duende's Agustin "Tincho" Merlos received his second MVP award
after he scored nine goals in Duende's 13-11 victory over Windsor Capital
before about 1,000 brightly attired spectators on a sun-splashed Sunday
afternoon.
Hakan's team also won titles in 2003 and 1998, the year of its inception.
This triumph brought Duende double the glory. The winning foursome went to
two different podiums, once to receive a gleaming silver Tiffany & Co.
trophy for winning the third leg of the Triple Crown of Polo, sponsored by
Lexus, and on the other side of the field the traditional Pacific Coast Open
cup was awarded to them by Bombardier.
All that hardware came their way in the wake of a hard-fought game that
tested nerves and tempers on both sides.
"There was tremendous pressure on these guys," Hakan said.
"They went to the edge of composure and came back. It was WWF out there at
times."
Paco De Narvaez of Duende got into a scuffle with Windsor's Sugar Erskine
midway through the second chukker, and both players were sent off the field for
the remainder of the period.
De Narvaez did a lot of tough defensive work while scoring three goals. Both
he and Merlos hail from Argentina.
A penalty goal by Merlos broke a 6-6 halftime tie, and Duende led the rest
of the way.
It was
11-10 going into the final period after Chris Nevins of Windsor Capital scored
on a breakaway in the final seconds of the fifth chukker.
Carlitos Galindo, an 18-year-old playing at Duende's No. 1 position, made
his only goal a big one. After a penalty shot by Merlos was stopped, Galindo
knocked the ball in to give Duende a 12-10 lead.
Jeff Hall, a solid 29-year-old pro who grew up near the local polo fields,
scored five goals for Windsor. Nevins had four and Erskine two. The three of
them live together in Houston.
In contrast to the rough-and-tumble final, the consolation game earlier in
the day was a wide-open affair that often resembled a horse race.
Grant's Farm/Klentner Ranch scored the last four goals to defeat Jimmy Choo
13-10.
Jeff Blake put Grant's/Klentner ahead 8-4 with a spectacular 200-yard
breakaway, with Jimmy Choo's Ruki Baillieu in hot pursuit. Baillieu went on a
tear with four straight goals in the fifth chukker to close the gap.
Mariano Gonzalez then took over for Grant's/Klentner. He put an exclamation
point on the victory by scoring his ninth goal on a "splash hit," a
penalty shot that soared high between the posts and landed in the pool at the
polo field condominiums.
"We planned it so our horses would be peaking at this tournament,"
said Andy Busch, the co-sponsor of Grant's Farm/Klentner Ranch. "The
horses are the ultimate athletes out there."
Hall's 14-year-old mare Suzie paid the ultimate price in a dreadful accident
near the end of the third chukker. She went down on both forelegs, breaking one
then the other, and had to be put down after she was loaded into a van and
removed from the field.
"That was very sad," Hakan said. "That was the only bad
accident of the year."
e-mail: jzant@newspress.com