Autumn 2011

hurlingham polo association magazine

winter iSSUe october 2011

winter 2011

el capitan [Hilario Ulloa leads Zacara to Gold Cup victory] santa barbara [100 years of competition & Hollywood glamour] princely sums [The success of William & Harry’s charity polo] cowdray diary [Thai Polo’s Harald Link on his 22-goal debut]

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Team New Zealand, Cartier International Polo 2010. Photo: Rory Merry.

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hurlingham [contents]

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Ponylines

News from around the polo world, plus interviews and the Chief Executive’s column

20 Talk Featuring breaking in ponies, the Kangaroo League, and the University of Virginia polo center

28 Profile Cover: Hilario Ulloa Photo by: Clive Bennett

Harald Link tells of how his life is enhanced by polo and his memorable debut at the Gold Cup

30 Heritage Celebrating one hundred years of achievement at the illustrious Santa Barbara Polo Club

36 Travel © CENTaUR PHOTOGRaPHiC, KiM KUMPaRT PHOTOGRaPHy

Memorable horses were just one of the many charms of Emma Treichl’s riding tour of Morocco

40

Philanthropy

Princes William and Harry’s support for several charities has been boosted by their polo playing

47

Action

Reports and pictures from across the globe, including the Queen’s and Gold Cups, Sotogrande, the Pacific Coast Open, and the Belgian Masters Cup

66 Archive Herbert Spencer reports on the heritage of the Calcutta Polo Club as it nears its 150th anniversary

foreword Roderick Vere Nicoll Publisher

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There are several aspects that I particularly enjoy about being the publisher of Hurlingham. Firstly, the broad range of people I meet and secondly, I have a very good excuse to watch and play polo in the UK and abroad. In this issue, we cover both of these themes. Starting out in Ponylines, Lyndon Lea is the One to Watch. Lyndon first started to ride and play polo in 2000, participated in first high-goal game in 2005 and won the Gold Cup this year – quite a feat! Then we salute Herbert Spencer – who has been Deputy Editor of Hurlingham from day one – on being made a Life Member of the HPA. In Talk, Bill Clark shares with us his insights on making ponies, a subject he is extremely knowledgeable about given that he has studied it for the last 50 years. Read about his novel approach of trimming the ponies in such a way that they are played without shoes. Profile sees Harald Link, who is one of the most interesting people I have met in polo, recount his experience of playing in the Gold Cup and underline why it is a must to participate in (even if you do not win a game!)

In Features, we celebrate 100 years of polo at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, which has hosted an abundance of Hollywood stars, an English team in 1939 and Prince William and his bride this past July. Action covers Cartier’s final curtain call as the sponsor of the International, which saw England defeat Brazil with Prince Philip giving the prizes.

The weather was horrendous for the finals of both the Queen’s and the Gold Cups yet both games were outstanding. Then we cross the channel to Belgium and cover a re-enactment of a Thirties polo game which used equipment and rules common to the era. From there we head south to the French Riviera for the Gold Cup in Saint-Tropez and to Spain for the polo in Sotogrande.

On www.hurlinghampolo.com we streamed the final of the Gold Cup and the International. There are 30 minutes of highlights of the games still up on the site, as well as others clips from the action this summer. During the month of July alone there were over one million hits on the website.

contributors Joan Tapper writes about people, arts and culture for Santa Barbara magazine, MoreIntelligentLife.com and Robb Report, among others. For Thames & Hudson’s The Most Beautiful Villages series she brought to life the history of small towns of California, the American Southwest and the Pacific Northwest.

Her new book, with photographer Gale Zucker, is Craft Activism.

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Charlotte Metcalf a writer Ad minciduisi tat. Utisalit, se tieand award-winning documentary-maker who doloboreros nisi.Perat.

Iscip euipisit wis has made many acclaimed filmsaliquisin Africa nis ad dolor iril dignim ex eum for Channel Four andconse the modthe exBBC, exeraesto consequam, United Following the publication dolutateNations. modolor tionsequam quisl ipisis of book,num Walking Away, about her nimher ip euis eu feumsan vendipisexperiences, sheblandrem turned tonostrud writing fullmod exerit iusci te vel time.

She knows iure venim dolorelittle et about polo, but is full of admiration for the support the Princes’ charities give to Africa.

Clive Bennetttat. hasUtbeen official Ad minciduisi alit, the se tie photographer at Cowdray Park for six doloboreros nisi.Perat.

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Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited.

While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. All the information contained in this publication is correct at the time of going to press.

HurlingHam magazine Publisher Roderick Vere Nicoll executive editor Peter Howarth editor Arabella Dickie Deputy editor Herbert Spencer Contributing editor Sarah Eakin editor-at-large Alex Webbe art Director Hillary Jayne Chief Copy editor Chris Madigan Senior Copy editor Sarah Evans Copy editor Ming Liu

The HURLINGHAM Polo Association magazine (ISSN 1750-0486) is published

by Hurlingham Media. The magazine is designed and produced on behalf of Hurlingham Media by Show Media Ltd. It is published on behalf of the Hurlingham Polo Association by Hurlingham Media. The products and services advertised are not necessarily endorsed by or connected with the publisher or the Hurlingham Polo Association. The editorial opinions expressed in this publication are those of individual authors and not necessarily those of the publisher or the Hurlingham Polo Association. Hurlingham magazine welcome feedback from readers: hurlinghammedia@hpa-polo.co.uk

SHow meDia editorial managing Director Peter Howarth 1-2 Ravey Street, London EC2A 4QP + 44 (0) 203 222 0101 info@showmedia.net www.showmedia.net

HurlingHam meDia 47-49 Chelsea Manor St, London SW3 5RZ +44 (0) 771 483 6102 hurlingham@hpa-polo.co.uk www.hurlinghampolo.com Colour reproduction fmg (www.wearefmg.com) Printing Gemini Press (www.gemini-press.co.uk)

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ponylines [news] Cornwall Beach Polo, Ralph Lauren, St. Moritz Polo World Cup and much more

TONY RAMIREZ / WWW.IMAGESOFPOLO.COM

ONE TO waTch Lyndon Lea, 1-goal patron of Zacara, played the last matches of the 2011 British Open for the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup with his reins hand in a cast. The 42-year-old amateur, who started polo in 2000 and played his first high-goal game in 2005, won the coveted Gold Cup in July, adding to a run of major victories. Zacara took California’s 20-goal Pacific Coast Open in 2007, Florida’s Joe Barry Memorial Cup, 2010, and the Ylvisaker Cup, 2011.

Lea, a partner in the leading consumerfocused investment firm Lion Capital, has also won England’s premier medium-goal tournament, the Royal Windsor, in 2004 and 2008. All this despite a spate of polo injuries over the past five years, including a broken back, twice broken collarbone, shoulder surgery, that hand, and a cracked cheekbone. Lea keeps a string of 180 ponies, 50 in England and 130 in the US. In 2012 his Zacara team will play 20-goal and 26-goal (with 10-goaler Facundo Pieres) in Florida and the 22-goal season in the UK.

www.hurlinghampolo.com

hurlingham [ ponylines]

Chief executive

Prince PHiliP PresentAtion the hurlingham polo association (hpa) made an unusual, surprise presentation to hrh the Duke of edinburgh at this year’s hpa Cartier international Day, ‘in recognition of his 90th birthday and his support of our sport over many years as a player and patron’. prince philip has been patron of the hpa since 1952. herbert spencer, who was responsible for the association’s historical display for the Coronation Cup Centenary, produced the royal presentation together with hpa chief executive David woodd (pictured left, with the prince). an eton calligrapher was engaged to pen a scroll with a résumé of prince philip’s polo career from the time he took up the sport in 1949. when the prince arrived at guards polo Club, tony ramirez from images of polo photographed him with members of his 1969 windsor park team – lord patrick Beresford, the marquis of waterford and paul withers – together with the gold Cup. windsor park had won the cup three times, in 1957, 1966 and 1969. ramirez then printed the photograph on the spot and it was added to the framed scroll, whereby woodd then presented it to prince philip during the hpa luncheon before the Coronation Cup match.

HPA Honours Herbert sPencer Congratulations to Hurlingham magazine’s deputy editor, herbert spencer (pictured left with wife Judith), who has been made a life member of the hpa in recognition of his more than 40 years working in the international polo community. hpa chairman nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers (pictured right) presented the award at the association’s Coronation Cup Centenary dinner on 21 July. after reviewing spencer’s long career as a polo historian, publisher, photographer and media consultant, Colquhoun-Denvers said: ‘his role behind the scenes is seldom known of… but his advice to the hpa and many of us in the polo world has always been sound, sensible and extremely welcome.’ life membership of the hpa is the second honour spencer has received from a governing body of the sport. in 2006 he received the us polo association’s image award for Contribution to the public appreciation of the sport of polo. spencer published polo’s first coffee-table book, Chakkar, in 1971; an international magazine of the same title in the eighties; and his second book on the sport, A Century of Polo, in 1994. he is also a columnist and feature writer of Polo Times, and is the principal polo writer for Horse & Hound. www.hurlinghampolo.com

© Centaur photographiC; tony ramirez / www.imagesofpolo.Com

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as the last few games of the last few tournaments wrap up, the 2011 season has been perhaps better than expected. membership closed higher than in 2010 but at some clubs there has been comparatively little polo during the end of the season. the torrential downpour that preceded the gold Cup will not be forgotten, and it was a huge credit to Cowdray that the final could not only be played, but also was played on a ground which did not cut up, enabling us to enjoy one of the best finals in recent years. it was a battle between established players and the new boys on the block – and it was sad there had to be a loser, especially as it was Joachim gottschalk, who was playing his 14th gold Cup having never won it. a week later, the weather smiled on international Day, the centenary of the Coronation Cup, and the 27th and final year of Cartier’s long-running sponsorship of the day. following a display of fast, open polo in the morning, the Coronation Cup was perhaps less exhilarating but credit must go to José Kalil, who brought the Brazilian team to england and got them on to the field on rented and borrowed horses. his injury did not help their team, but they displayed a sporting and gentlemanly approach from beginning to end. it is very much hoped that we will see a Brazilian team in the high goal in 2012. in the Junior hpa/pony Club, the Cirencester team missed a 30 in the closing stages of the gannon to allow Cowdray to win for the third year. in the remainder, it was good to see some talented young players and though the numbers of teams were down, the standard was up. after the championships, it was excellent to host a visiting schoolboy team from zimbabwe which was coached and managed by Johnny and hilary Campbell. Johnny also managed to play in a tournament at Cirencester and catch up with old friends from his Cowdray days. there has been correspondence on giving the player who is following the right of way over the player turning, with some saying it does not allow the better players to take control by retaining possession of the ball. however, the overwhelming consensus of players and spectators is that it has made for a more enjoyable game, both to play and watch. there has also been further discussion on a home-grown player rule. the hpa is considered by many, both english and overseas players, to be much too fair, and it is often accused of leaving too many players from overseas on very competitive handicaps. looking back through the minutes of stewards’ meetings, this has been a major issue for over 50 years. as i write this, our 14-goal team is off to italy, hopefully to qualify for the world Championships in argentina in october. it is quite a venture and we have been very lucky to be supported by richard Britten-long. shortly afterwards, an under-18 team will play in a tournament against south africa, the usa and argentina in China. then in the new year, China – an increasing force within polo – will host an international tournament on snow for 16 teams. interesting times.

hurlingham [ ponylines] Cornwall BeaCh Polo An estimated 2,500 spectators braved strong winds to watch the fifth Veuve Clicquot Polo on the Beach at Cornwall’s Watergate Bay on 6 September. Starting with a half-goal handicap advantage, First Great Western – led by England squad star James Harper – trailed the Joules players (Tim Vaux, England squad player Jamie Le Hardy and Richard Blake Thomas) for the first half of the match, before fighting back in the third and fourth chukkas to earn a victory of 8½-7. Commentator Caspar West said: ‘Poor Richard Blake Thomas, losing his stick at one point didn’t help Joules, but it was an absolutely fantastic effort from both teams.’

During the presentations, Panina, ridden by Blake Thomas, was awarded Best Playing Pony as Harper picked up the Most Valuable Player trophy. Veuve Clicquot Polo on the Beach will return to Watergate Bay in September 2012. watergatebay.co.uk/polo

hooked on Polo

TONY RAMIREZ / WWW.IMAGESOFPOLO.COM

Tom MacGuinness is CEO of Horseware Ireland, the company that revolutionised the horse rug industry with its waterproof Rambo Turnout rug, and which makes other innovative products. Former winner of the Irish Amateur A Showjumping Championship, he turned to polo relatively recently but now finds it totally compelling.

I had never thought about trying my hand at polo, even though I have been eventing and showjumping for years – until my company launched a line of polo clothing. Siobhan Herbst (Polo Wicklow) persuaded me to try a lesson and in the spirit of product research, I thought, ‘Why not?’, although I had no idea of what the game involved. Now I have 16 ponies, a 2-goal Argentinian professional (Federico Pieres) and either practice or play every day.

What is unique about polo is the combination of factors; I love the ponies – they are just incredible animals. I had never played any ball sports, so I find the hand-eye coordination that is required absolutely hypnotic. Then there is the team strategy and politics involved and understanding the rules.

The first real game of polo I ever saw was the 2008 finals of the Argentine Open between Ellerstina and La Dolfina. I had only had a few lessons at that point and the match was truly unforgettable. The most memorable polo game I have played was against Adolfo Cambiaso [pictured, right, with Tom] this July, when I played in the Gaucho Sunset Polo match at Ham. It was quite hard to concentrate on my own game as I was so engrossed in watching Adolfo literally do anything he wished with the ball. However, I managed to score two goals, so it was an incredible day. If someone had told me in 2008 that one day I would play against the great Cambiaso, I would have told him to get his head examined!

I have now graduated to more intensive lessons with the aim of improving my handicap to 0. I will be 60 soon, so I feel that I have to ‘get good – and fast’. This winter I plan to go to Palm Beach and Argentina for some intensive training. It is incredible how one good tip can make a vast improvement to my game, as I found out from the fantastic Jimmy DeAngelis. aS told to traCey Sheeran www.hurlinghampolo.com

ralPh lauren droPS ‘Polo’ name But keePS Polo ConneCtion Long established as a global leader in luxury products, the label formerly known as Polo Ralph Lauren decided in August to drop ‘Polo’ from its name. One of the first large-scale manufacturers of polo shirts, Ralph Lauren emblazoned his garments with the now renowned emblem of a polo player astride a pony. He named his original line, a range of ties, ‘Polo’ in 1967 and introduced the range’s polo shirts featuring the polo player and pony emblem in 1972. Polo has also played a central role in the brand’s advertising, featuring Nacho Figueras in its fragrance ads as well as developing the Black Watch line representing Figueras’s team.

The company’s connection with the sport of kings is set to continue with its sponsorship of a team at the 28th St Moritz Polo World Cup on Snow in January 2012. The celebrated event, held on the frozen lake of the charming Swiss resort, has attracted enthusiastic spectators from around the world since its launch in 1985. kaja jorGenSen

the love of my life Pony’s name Sex origin height

Autour du Monde Mare England 15.1h

Autour du Monde is a chestnut mare and a half-sister to Harbinger, the Group One winner of the 2010 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. Autour was bought as a yearling and began a brief racing career with trainer Patrick Haslam in 2006. She was two when Philip Baker and

I bought her as part of our retraining programme.

She always had a great temperament, was soft and kind, and willing to learn. As it happened, her racing stud wanted to buy her back for breeding due to her Harbinger relationship, but she was such a great polo pony it wasn’t worth it. We don’t rush our young horses, especially if they show potential, and Autour did from the beginning. I have seen my horses played by the Piereses, Carlos Gracida and Cambiaso, but to see her with Juan Martin Nero (above) and Matías MacDonough was a real pleasure. She was just awarded Best Retrained Racehorse at the Queen’s Cup this year. Glynn henderSon

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hurlingham [ ponylines] ChukkAS Cowdray Park had a three-day auction of the house’s contents in mid-September. 1,122 lots were sold to bidders in 34 countries for just under £8 million. The most notable item of polo memorabilia was a George VI silver tray with the inscription: ‘Viscount Cowdray on the Occasion of his Marriage 19th July 1939 From The Polo Players who have Enjoyed His Hospitality’ signed by what looks to be the entire British polo fraternity of the day including Louis Mountbatten and Winston Guest. The estimate was for £1,500 and the price realised was £13,750.

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Guards Polo Club has named Neil Hobday as the new CEO. A former Scots Guard, Hobday has worked with the International Management Group (IMG) and Donald Trump. Jock GreenArmytage (a playing member since 1975) will succeed Colonel Paul Belcher – who held the post for the past 10 years – as chairman.

A Steward of the HPA since 2002, he had considerable success with his Saracens team in the Eighties and Nineties. Joining him as a Steward will be high-goal patron of the Les Lions team, Joachim Gottschalk. Guards is undergoing an extensive renovation of grounds 1 and 2 with the assistance of Alejandro Battro and Nick Hallam.

holDeN whITe CuP The 8-goal Holden White Cup is named after an American, Mike Holden White, who ran a team at Cowdray called Polo Cottage. The 2005 tournament was remarkable for many reasons. Firstly, six out of the 32 teams entered each had two family members. Secondly, two teams from Cirencester made it to the final. Martin and Ludo Ephson’s Poulton side met Jane and Freddie Dear’s Apache side. Martin Ephson (above, second from left) had won the tournament in 2001 and the Dears won the 8-goal Archie David at Guards earlier this summer. To win a tournament in England is difficult but to win it with two patrons is a great feat! Thirdly, the amateurs on both teams scored. In the opening minutes Martin Ephson produced an excellent shot. A penalty conversion by Freddie Dear opened the third chukka. Ludo Ephson (above, far left) scored in the third and the fourth to tie the game. With seconds left on the clock, Poulton scored to win 6-5.

Finally, seven out of the eight players on the field had their handicaps raised at the end of the season, with the eighth aged over 50, and thus too old for a handicap raise. MelANIe vere NIColl

The International Polo Club Palm Beach is upgrading three of its eight fields which saw 130 games played during the 2011 season.

Fields 2 and 3 are being shifted to the west and the stick-and-ball field will be moved next to the tennis courts. The first step is killing the grass and excavating the topsoil. The new drainage and irrigation systems will be installed followed by new topsoil, laser grading and the sprigging of Bermuda 419.

The Pro AlveAr Polo CuP

Audi, Dubai and Lovelocks Polo Stud will sponsor La Dolfina in the Triple Crown in Argentina. After many years, Jaeger-LeCoultre is leaving La Dolfina and joining BMW and Standard Bank to support La Aguada. Range Rover, Etiqueta Negra and Citibank are sponsoring Ellerstina. Pilará and Piaget are backing a new line-up of players, quarterbacked

by Bautista Heguy. La Martina is equipment supplier to La Aguada and Pilará-Piaget. The new team Estancia Grande with veteran players (Lucas Monteverde, Lolo Castagnola, Sebastian and Agustín Merlos) are backed by Grupo Sancor Seguros and Casablanca.

A beautiful crowd congregated in Windsor at the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club for the annual Pro Alvear Polo Cup. The charity event has become one of the most popular social events in polo, and has helped to raise over £110,000 for Fundación Pro Alvear, which supports the educational, social and economic development of the Argentinian Pampas region. The charity has launched, and supports, projects aimed at fighting poverty and protecting hundreds of children.

Six teams battled it out for the prestigious Asprey trophy, with two teams – Automat (captained by Marc Noyer-Maingard) and AllSaints Spitalfields (captained by Lyndon Lea) – meeting for the final. Following an intense final chukka, AllSaints Spitalfields victoriously lifted the cup thanks in part to a brilliant performance by Facundo Pieres.

Guests were treated to tea and Pimm’s in a Moroccan tent while watching the polo and listening to The Noisettes perform. The guest list included Princess Madeleine of Sweden, Prince Ernst August of Hanover, Edouard Guerrand-Hermès, and Poppy Delevigne, Florence Brudenell-Bruce and Marissa Montgomery, pictured above. Some of the very best polo players from around the world also attended, including the Pieres brothers, Nachi Heguy, as well as players from the Genghis Khan polo team from Mongolia. INDIA lANGToN AND AMANDA ShePPArD

CLIVE BENNETT; MARCUS DAWES

The Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club in China placed an order for ponies to be sourced in the UK. 400 were tried by Santiago Gaztambide, James Harper and John and Henry Fisher. 120 have been gathered and are awaiting an import licence into China.

The ponies range from five to 11 years old with an average price of £8,000. They will be quarantined in Holland and flown to China in time for the snow polo next year.

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hurlingham [ ponylines]

rege ludWIg’s neW guIde Polo for the 21st Century is the first of a four-book series by renowned international polo instructor and coach Rege Ludwig that will put into print over 30 years of experience gained from teaching polo to every level of player from -2 to 10 goals.

This book is subtitled Introduction and Overview and gives a broader insight into the game and sport of polo. Coach Ludwig’s book

looks at the past, present and future of the game, while providing a guide to the fundamental concepts of polo. He outlines the key elements of the sport – riding, hitting and strategy; and highlights the essential partnership of player and horse that leads to success in playing this exciting game.

Throughout the book, diagrams and drawings by Jean Abernethy illustrate players’ positions for a range of penalty shots, as well as fouls and both offensive and defensive play.

As a coach, Ludwig has enjoyed great success with some of the great US high-goal teams such as Isla Carroll, Outback, Grant’s Farm and Aspen.

‘The purpose of the first book,’ he states, ‘is to lay the foundation for the topics of the following books, which includes the next book on the subject of riding for the purpose of playing polo, after that a book on hitting the ball, then a book on the strategy of polo.’

The next part of the series is a range of 20-page booklets, with each booklet dealing with a particular subject within any one of the three major elements of polo: riding, hitting and strategy.

Polo for the 21st Century is available to purchase at thai-polo-club.com, at the price of US$50 plus postage.

sAddle uP WITH… FAcundo solA nationality: Argentine Age: 21 Handicap: 6 (Argentina), 7 (UK) Facundo Sola began playing polo at age four and credits his family for the support they have given him (pictured here being manhandled by his godfather, Milo Fernández Araujo). This is Sola’s first season in England, where he played for Talandracas, winners of the Queen’s Cup – and after which his handicap was raised from 6 to 7.

Why have you played so well in england?

We had a very competitive team with great spirit and friendship, and fantastic horses.

Talandracas also has a wonderful private facility where we can practise and train.

What are your plans for Argentina?

I am playing in the Cámara and dream of being invited to play in the Argentine Open.

What is your most memorable game?

The quarter-final of the Queen’s Cup against Cambiaso and Dubai. It was the most amazing final four minutes. It taught me that if you keep trying, anything is possible.

LEO CAVALLO; MARTIN BROWN

FIP IX World Polo The European Playoffs for the FIP IX World Polo Championships were played at the Villa Sesta Polo Club near Siena in Tuscany from 22nd September to 2nd October. 14-goal teams from Italy, England, France, Germany and Holland competed, while Spain dropped out just before the start. France had a young team of four professionals who played good open team polo. The Italians (Argentines with Italian passports) were captained by Alfio Marchini, the Italian patron who plays high goal in England and in Argentina. The English team had patron Nick Britten-Long playing at one and Ed Hitchman at back. In the middle were two rising English professionals, Max Charlton and Jack Richardson. The Dutch team could only muster a 12-goal side as they would only play with 100 per cent Dutch nationals. As a result, they lost all of their games. That left the English, French and Italians to battle it out for the two spots. The French lost both of their games in the last seconds to the English and the Italians. This means England and Italy will join Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico, Pakistan and the USA to vie for the championship at Estancia Grande, in San Luis in Argentina from 10 to 21 October. roderIck vere nIcoll www.hurlinghampolo.com

What is your approach to polo?

To play at the best level I can. I just want to play all the time, to practise and learn new moves. Training is part of the normal life of a high-goal team, and everybody is involved in the programme. I also enjoy the gym and found that yoga helped a lot after a bad accident on my wrist last year. Although I wouldn’t say I’m a natural yogi!

What did you like about england?

The sense of history. You always hear about Windsor, the Cowdray Gold Cup, the Queen’s Cup. Food of champions at Darnley’s in Haslemere. Jacket potatoes with cheese and tuna. Living at Whitley Farm with my horses in quiet, peaceful surroundings. Practices and asados (if there’s sun!). Driving on the wrong side of the road. I had the best first season in the UK, and would very much like to return.

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hurlingham [ talk ] 1 The author on Molly, leading two ‘greenies’ 2 With Vieva, a ranch-worked Quarter Horse with a thoroughbred conformation

break pointers With over 50 years spent working with ponies, Bill Clark has a wealth of insights to share. Here, he explains his tips to achieve equine excellence

20 21

In 1978 Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings recorded ‘Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys’. Mammas should also discourage their babies to grow up and play green ponies as amateurs. In May my 57th season commenced. My made and green ponies are up to slow galloping five miles on a track with ‘dead sand’ and barefoot. They ‘be’ fit while their owner is a wee bit behind, because of a late spring with 73 years astraddle in the saddle.

A tome of my mistakes in the selection, purchase, care and training of polo prospects will herein be offset by these simple, economic guidelines: One: Keep your ponies outside (even in winter-cold New Jersey) 365 days a year, except in lightning storms. Have run-in sheds with come-and-go straight stalls, high and dry with rubber mats and no bedding.

Two: Feed only the best hay or grass in pastures with constant fresh water and ionised salt. My ponies have dapples in the summer on grass alone. Give only a handful of grain for the ingestion of supplements or electrolytes. Pellets will put a bloom on a pony quickly but acidity is caused because of fast passage through their digestive tracts. A horse in the wild does not eat grain. Impactions have caused the loss of too many great ponies and a lot of tears.

Three: Keep ’em barefoot unless you have to hack to polo over rocky terrain or paved roads. Read Grove Cullum’s 1934 Selection and Training of the Polo Pony to learn that Tommy Hitchcock played all his ponies and raced his thoroughbreds barefoot. This will be my fourth season barefoot and the trim every five weeks is with a discipline set forth by Gene Ovnicek – a Colorado farrier and master of barefoot hoof care.

Four: Don’t waste time with thoroughbreds off the track or backyard prospects unless that’s all you do. While my preference is a ranch-worked, four- to five-year-old lazy thoroughbred between 14.3h and 15.2h, I’d also settle for a ranch-worked, bomb-proof Quarter Horse [QH] with many thoroughbred

conformation points: well-defined withers, good slope to shoulders, short back with well-balanced neck, big feet (not tea cups), good-angled pasterns, kind eyes, not base wide or narrow, etc. Out of 23 ranch-worked prospects since 1972, only two have not played polo day one after one week of stick ’n’ balling.

In 73 years in the saddle I’ve probably ridden 1,000 horses. Here are some standouts: Enrique Avendano’s Carioca (with terrible scars on her rump) would actually turn her head and look at me as if to ask if she did well after a period of play. I always complimented this very gracious lady and wept when we lost her to an impaction.

The best horse that I ever rode was Shenanigans. He was completely white (not grey) at age two. From Pony Club eventing to

‘Keep ’em barefoot unless you have to hack to polo over rocky terrain or paved roads’ foxhunting and to polo, he was magnificent.

He could be ridden without saddle or bridle in the pasture. He loved polo and bumped like ‘Night Train’ Lane [the American football player]. He and his half-brother, The Black, were purchased from goat rancher ‘Tooter’ Shanklin of Rocksprings, Texas, at age two and shipped east at four.

The Black was 100 per cent thoroughbred.

Our vet said Shenanigans’ blue pigment under his white hair indicated that his mama was an Appaloosa – but he had no spots whatsoever. He played until age 24.

Dude, an Appaloosa with spots, was purchased for $450 off the ‘back of a truck’ with six others. He competed successfully in Pony Club at the USET [United States Equestrian Team] Foundation’s New Jersey facility and the Kentucky Horse Park. When he was returned to me for polo, he had been

ridden with ‘light contact’ – the original oxymoron. He lived to be 34 here on the farm.

Muldoon The Wonder Horse does everything right, is a QH but looks like a thoroughbred, day-worked cows at three and played polo day one at four as if he had played for 10 years. In time he may make it to the Pantheon of the Best along with Shenanigans.

At the age of 77 I can tell you all the things I do not know in making polo ponies but constantly seek to learn. Monte Foreman taught me to stand in the irons and give a preparatory cue with a sharp tap on the pony’s neck for a quick response stop. In the winter I watch hours of Aussie Clinton Anderson programmes, to learn groundwork for lateral flexion and side passes to one-rein stops for developing a better stop on a horse that is ‘heavy’. The side passes are to improve responsiveness to leg pressure in flying changes of leads, not the Argentine method of throwing the upper body towards the desired lead. Same with Craig Cameron’s tip of only turning a pony halfway with the reins on a roll back towards a fence. If a pony tends toward high-head carriage, we will speed up reaching the desired level with a Mikmar training bit or an adaptation of an AbbotDavies rig by Ann Rees of Tonbridge, Kent, UK, versus hours of jogging about with hands fixed to force bending at the poll.

My ranch-worked prospects are provided

by Ord Buckingham of Kaycee, Wyoming. If I need a made pony, I buy from or through the ‘Gentleman of High-Goal Polo’ - Julio Arellano. I have known him since he was a child and played a lot of polo with his dad.

Gone are Harold Barry, Cecil Smith, Billy Wayman and Ray Harrington who were superb horsemen and pony makers. In a pony game at Retama years ago, Harold Barry agreed with me that a young man on a ‘Paint’ horse was an excellent horseman.

His name was Archie Salinas whom I never met. On the amateur level I would name Charlie Armstrong as a great craftsman both in breeding and producing polo ponies. www.hurlinghampolo.com

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hurlingham [ talk ]

Phil Heatley (left) and Tim Gannon

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Set up by US Open winner Tim Gannon, the Kangaroo League took a more relaxed approach that put the love of polo first, as Phil Heatley, polo manager at Hobe Sound Polo Club, Florida, explains

In the Kangaroo League we’ve found that people are truly playing polo for fun.

That’s why they come

Credit goes to Tim Gannon, as the inspiration for the most popular brand of polo seen in South Florida for decades. One of the founders of Outback Steakhouse, Tim’s Outback Polo team was the dominant franchise in American polo at the turn of the century, winning dozens of events including an astounding five US Opens.

Although he had fulfilled his dream of playing high-goal polo, Tim wasn’t ready to hang up his spurs, which is how he and I ended up creating a new league for people who want to play the game of kings for the fun of it. Not for the trophies. Not for the crowds. And definitely not for the disputed calls that all too often have both teams at each other’s throats.

After discussing a wide variety of options, Tim and I decided on an approach that no one had ever considered: one that puts the love of polo first and foremost. It’s exactly the way tournament polo is supposed to be played: umpires, flaggers behind the goals, an excellent announcer, and of course a world-class field in top playing condition.

everyone else, he thoroughly enjoys the Kangaroo League.

Thanks to the success of the Outback 4-, 8- and 12-goal tournaments and now the Kangaroo League, Hobe Sound Polo Club became one of the most popular polo venues in the country. Over 150 players participated in more than 100 club matches this season. And by rotating games among the five club fields, we were able to provide the best low-to-medium goal polo on US Open quality fields. Between four and five hundred spectators typically attended the club’s Saturday afternoon feature game, and the Kangaroo League even added a new twist. Once the day’s games conclude, players, friends, and families stay long after the game is over. Tailgating has really taken off. It’s become the ‘in thing’. People bring their grills, they grab their friends, and everyone stays afterward. Kids are running around all over the place. This is what polo is all about. It’s a lifestyle.

Phil Heatley was talking to Eric O’Keefe. www.hobesoundpoloclub.com

leaps and bounds The players ride out in their white breeches and game jerseys, the whistle blows, and everyone gives their all. There’s just one difference. We don’t keep score.

And what a difference that makes. The net result is that in the Kangaroo League we’ve found that people truly are playing polo for fun. That’s why they come to polo.

They encourage one another all game long, and when the final whistle blows, everyone is wearing a smile. People are grinning from ear to ear. The Kangaroo League brings out the best in people, which is why it has absolutely exploded in popularity.

Like the game of polo itself, participants in the Kangaroo League run the gamut.

In addition to Tim, a three-time US Open winner, one of the league’s other stalwarts is Ed Robbins, the founder and owner of Bluewater Creek Polo Club in Florence, Alabama. Ed typically lines up alongside his daughter Teena Tucker and his grandson Juddy Carlton. John Walsh, the host of America’s Most Wanted, typically plays in Hobe Sound’s 8-goal tournaments. But, like

www.hurlinghampolo.com

hurlingham [ talk ] The Beluga team (from left): Alejandro Traverso, Anastasia Rodzianko, Misha Rodzianko and Alexis Rodzianko

Russian spirit Thanks to recent coverage on two national TV channels, polo in Russia is attracting both audiences and sponsors, with Moscow Polo Club leading the way. Tracey Sheeran reports from Russia One of the ongoing challenges for polo is developing greater mainstream media coverage for the sport. As polo has to compete for sponsorship budgets with more broad-based, ABC1-profile sports such as Formula One, golf and sailing (all of which can better demonstrate solid TV ratings and quantifiable audience demographics), the challenge for polo is to ensure media exposure and then deliver measurable results to sponsors to justify their investment.

In Argentina, high-goal polo is regularly shown live on national television and is covered as a mainstream sport. However, in most countries, TV coverage is generally limited to satellite channels which show some international matches, but often months later. Other polo events generally struggle to get any media exposure at all.

One polo club that has managed to buck the trend is the Moscow Polo Club, which www.hurlinghampolo.com

‘Polo is not just a great day out for corporate guests. It is a sound marketing investment’ has consistently delivered larger audiences to its sponsors. Club president Alexis Rodzianko explains: ‘Over the last two seasons, both NTV and RT [formerly Russia Today, the international satellite TV channel] have attended the Russian Open and broadcast highlights of the day.’

He continues: ‘This year, RT ran a fourminute piece, which included interviews with our polo professionals who gave a masterclass for spectators before the final match. Combined with footage of the game,

it delivered fantastic publicity for the sport and our sponsors.’

In addition to the RT feature, which reached an estimated 1.4 million viewers, the national channel NTV also covered the Russian Open in its main evening sports bulletin, adding a further three million viewers. When combined with national press coverage and articles in the international polo media, the Moscow Polo Club was able to present an annual media review to their sponsors (Beluga Vodka, Range Rover and Ahmad Tea), demonstrating a total media value of over $420,000 and an audience of 4.6 million. Such public exposure is a great boost for the sport, which fell into decline after the revolution in 1917, and which has only recently been revived, thanks in part to the foundation of the Moscow Polo Club in 2006.

Rodzianko, who is also the president of the Russian Polo Players Federation continues: ‘Having reliable data on the media exposure of our events helps us build longterm relationships with our partner brands.

When they can see wider publicity achieved, which delivers a great return on sponsorship investment, it justifies their ongoing support for the club. Polo is not just a great day out for their corporate guests. It is a sound marketing investment.’

Polo has great, untapped potential for sponsorship, but for a sport that has been played for thousands of years, it is surprisingly under-marketed. Polo faces a ‘catch-22’ situation in that, until the sport delivers measurable media audiences, the major sponsorship agencies such as IMG and Octagon will decline to represent the sport.

Also, being a niche sport, media interest tends to be concentrated on the society or lifestyle aspect of the game, and so polo has a way to go before being included in regular sports programming schedules. However, clubs that focus on involving the media and tracking their coverage can build a solid base for developing sponsorship revenue.

‘In Moscow we are fortunate to have solid club membership,’ says Rodzianko, ‘but sponsorships are central to our development strategy. In order to give brands measurable value for money, we know that growing public interest in the sport, attracting larger crowds to our events, and getting our tournaments featured in the media are the keys to developing polo in Russia.’

Watch the RT feature online at: rt.com/sport/ argentina-polo-russia-sport-001

hurlingham [ talk ]

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1 The 2011 champions with their coach, Lou Lopez (far left), Rob Rinehart (back row) and university president Teresa Sullivan (far right) 2 The arenas were recently upgraded with granite sand footing that costs between $6,000 and $10,000, depending on the arena’s size

Virginia Polo Center For more than 50 years, polo has been played at the University of Virginia. Coach Lou Lopez describes how what started as a single field became a two-arena venue attracting trophy-winning students Polo has been at the University of Virginia (UVa) since 1953. Students and polo fans Malarkey Wall, Don Hanna and Sandy Bowers persuaded Professor Oglesby to let them build a skin field (a dirt field that is used for outdoor polo) on his farm near the university. With those meagre beginnings, a vision was born.

Since then, the university has seen a number of polo sites, culminating in a 75-acre parcel of land at Forest Lodge, secured by donation. A board of directors, formed of Virginia Polo alumni, was set up to develop the property and to also fundraise to finance its construction.

Today the Virginia Polo Center provides a means for current university students to pursue their passion for polo. The centre permanently houses the UVa polo teams that compete annually in the United States Polo Association’s National Intercollegiate Championship. The centre maintains a string of 56 polo ponies and the site includes two arenas, a grass polo field, turnout pastures and a 35-stall main barn with wash stall and tack room. The centre also recently upgraded the indoor and outdoor arenas with footing made up of a manufactured granite sand product that drains well outdoors after a strong rain, allowing for immediate use. In the indoor arena, this

footing provides a fast surface and, combined with magnesium chloride flakes, added for dust control, no watering is necessary.

The UVa polo teams use the facility from September to April and are divided into three groups: a Men’s Varsity Team, a Women’s Varsity Team and a Virginia Club Team. Each team has two co-captains who are responsible for organising and managing their team’s string of ponies and practice schedules.

Student members are also assigned various responsibilities at the centre, like bringing the horses in from pasture each morning, feeding, cleaning tack, watering the barns and doing stalls. Furthermore, a studenttaught boot camp also provides instruction

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for student equestrians, which, once completed, permits them to join the club.

Students who demonstrate a financial need may apply for assistance from the Raymond Bruce Vere Nicoll Scholarship Fund, which allows young people from all walks of life to play polo. The fund is available to students who are academically qualified, demonstrate an ability and interest in polo, and whose character and industry are proven.

For more information, see rbvns.org.

The men’s team have won 10 National Championships and the women’s team five.

Virginia players have also won three Connie Upchurch Memorial Sportsmanship Awards, 10 PTF Intercollegiate Player of the Year awards, and taken home 37 National Collegiate All-Star awards.

On Friday nights during the autumn and winter seasons, club and varsity games give members the opportunity to play in front of a crowd. These games are legendary, with fans lining the outdoor arena to cheer on their favourite players. Each Saturday morning during the autumn and winter seasons there is a Polo Boot Camp for UVa students interested in learning the game. The centre also offers a programme for high school students during the academic year and to community members during the summer.

For more information, visit vapolo.org www.hurlinghampolo.com

hurlingham [ talk ]

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developing talents Switzerland was the fourth country to host the IPA, nurturing the skills of young players in Zurich, writes Christie Fearnside

Following three successful stints at clubs in Buenos Aires, Hurtwood and Moscow, the first Julius Baer International Polo Academy (IPA) to be staged on mainland Europe landed at Polo Park Zurich in July.

Sponsored by Swiss private bank, Julius Baer, IPA gave its students access to a group of expert international coaches who led them through the academy’s intensive fiveday programme, focusing on key areas of the sport including riding technique, ball striking, game strategy, fitness, nutrition and sports psychology. Sixteen players of all ages and abilities from Germany, Switzerland and the UK took part in this, the IPA’s most advanced programme to date, with coaches flying in from Argentina,

Ireland and the UK. Local coaches from Switzerland were also involved.

Eduardo Amaya, one of IPA’s coaches, and known in Argentinian polo circles as ‘El Profe’ or ‘The Teacher’, says IPA has taken a holistic approach to its five-day courses, analysing and developing each aspect of the student’s game. This ‘institute of sport’ approach uses the latest training advances including video analysis, personal fitness and nutrition, and mental conditioning.

Commenting on what makes the IPA unique, fitness director David Smith, whose background includes preparing Olympic medal winners, said: ‘We don’t work on generic fitness programmes, we look at how a player moves; what will make them more

efficient; how they can protect themselves against injury; how their mind works during training and competition; and how to design programmes that make them more successful at polo.’

He continued: ‘The movements of polo are complex, they require certain key muscles to be strong and flexible, without adding bulk, and it’s an advantage for a player to have great stamina, and carry minimal extra weight.’

Polo Park Zurich, a 20-minute drive from the city centre, was founded in 1998 by Markus Graff, and has a richly deserved reputation for being a hotbed for the development of youth polo in Switzerland.

With over 60 members and 150 privately www.hurlinghampolo.com

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3 1 Students run through their training drills 2 Professional player and coach Roddy Williams was one of the coaches that flew in 3 IPA coach Eduardo Amaya demonstrating the video playback

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owned ponies, the club is due to host the FIP European Championships in 2012.

As well as supporting the IPA through its title sponsorship, Julius Baer also demonstrated its commitment to talent development by supporting the IPA scholarship programme, which enabled 15-year-old Lukas Sdrenka, a promising young German player, to travel from his home town in Hamburg and attend the five-day course.

Andrea Schneider, director, head of events and sponsoring at Julius Baer commented: ‘Julius Baer’s polo sponsorship is highly focused on talent development and the bank was delighted to support the first International Polo Academy to be www.hurlinghampolo.com

IPA has taken a holistic approach to its five-day courses, analysing and developing each aspect of the student’s game

staged in Switzerland. This academy allows young players to improve their skills in collaboration with qualified coaches, and we hope that it is the first of many to be held both here in Zurich and around the world.’

Summing up his experience in Zurich, Sdrenka commented: ‘The last five days have been an incredible experience. Since the IPA took place I’ve been putting the theory into practice, and my approach to the game has definitely improved!’

Following the completion of the course, each student was given a personal development programme and also a video analysis of their five days spent at the Academy. With special access codes, they can also review their private collection

of video analysis on the IPA online TV channel hosted by Dartfish, world leaders in video analysis technology for sport, and partners of IPA. IPA director Charlie Froggatt summed up the week: ‘Polo Park Zurich has been a great venue for our first intensive course on mainland Europe. The coaches have been really impressed with the level of commitment shown by the students.

He continued: ‘With IPA now offering a range of specialist training services, such as mental conditioning, video analysis, and fitness and nutrition, we hope the success in Zurich can be replicated in more countries as we continue to build a brand which represents excellence in polo training.’

hurlingham [ profile ]

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Harald Link

Harald Link made his Gold Cup debut this year with his Thai Polo team. Here, the founder of the Thai Polo & Equestrian Club recalls an unforgettable occasion and describes his love for the game of kings illustration phil disley

We had lost by seven goals, Joachim Gottschalk had scored within 30 seconds of play (‘Joachim never goes forward. He always protects the back,’ so they had said). Les Lions had shown us that they were real predators, and I felt elated. Great horses, sunshine, a fantastic field. I had played 22 goals for the first time with and against winners of the Argentine Open and La Camera, and I had scored the last goal.

The most important factor was the horses. I used to have 14 stabled at Chalk Pit farm yet wanted to reduce my playing in Europe, having so many commitments in Asia. So I had given some away, sold some, sent some to Thailand and now have only one left. One so wonderful and strong that I can play her in two chukkas.

Somehow by the grace of God – and Andrew Hine, Roderick Vere Nicoll, Bruce Merivale-Austin and Marcos Di Paola – I got a high-goal patron string within three days, and they played so well that I never felt outhorsed, not even once.

Thirteen years ago, at a time when the Asian crisis was at its worst, Hugh Dawnay came to Thailand to host a polo clinic. My daughter Caroline and I went, and I was hooked. From the first day, I felt that polo was the sport for me. I loved horses but had not ridden properly for 20 years. I felt like a sack of wheat on the saddle, yet a very happy one. My friend Oliver Winter then flew to Brunei to buy 28 horses, which arrived by a Tupolev soon after and I took four (one of which is still with us at the age of 25).

I am sure that polo helped me survive the Asian crisis a relatively sane man. During the week I thought of polo while the world was falling apart. Customers did neither pay nor buy, banks tripled their interest rates, suppliers were screaming and shouting, staff needed to be paid and good ones kept from leaving. One urgent meeting followed the next. Capital had to be raised, partners to be lobbied and the little orders there were to be obtained. Except for on the weekend; then it was only polo and no thought of either this www.hurlinghampolo.com

war without bombs nor the crazy IMF, who subscribed a diet to a patient dying of starvation. Polo saved my life during that time, and now I was playing the Gold Cup. I rarely feel great after losing. So this loss against Les Lions, and the happiness I felt (despite missing a 30-yarder) was something special. (I always like to hit 30-yard penalties, because I believe this is the one contribution I can give to my team and one day, I wish, I will not miss any more. Hope dies last!)

The contentment was short-lived, however, after we lost the next game against Salkeld by eight goals. Before the game we really thought we had a chance of winning.

A very serious team meeting at Roderick’s beautiful house near Cowdray followed. What we all knew is that a team is only efficient when it plays like a team. It also helps when you are fast, anticipate and offer yourself as a target. All these points we had forgotten.

I think not one of us played well in the second game. What could go wrong, had gone wrong. Nick Clarke and his men on the other hand played very well. When I finally asked Luke Tomlinson – who is normally quite a fine gentleman – to cool it, he replied that he got paid to beat us by the highest margin possible. Maybe he said it because Nick was standing next to him, but probably, as Andrew put it: this is the Gold Cup! We came out of the meeting very determined to make amends. And so we did in the next game.

Adrian Kirby can be really proud of his reputation. After learning from the pros what a giant-killer he is, riding off every good pro on this earth, I had imagined him to be at least seven feet tall and riding six Bucephalus stallions twice the size of any mare in the kingdom. During the game when our number 1 Lucas [Di Paola] admonished me for not marking Adrian closer, Adrian remarked, being in earshot: ‘This is like asking him to mark Facundo or Cambiaso’. Despite all this, it ended up being a really close game. We only lost by one goal. Pite [Merlos] and Marcos [Di Paola] with Lucas played really well.

For me, what had really helped was the response to a question I had asked three-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Gracida at the sidelines of one of the earlier games. (This is, by the way, what made the Gold Cup so special for me, beside the games: to meet so www.hurlinghampolo.com

many old acquaintances or friends, and make new ones. Play against great players, meet with them for lunches, talk to current and former greats and see their performances close up. What other sport can offer this to us?) In my question to Carlos I wanted to know why Juan Martin Nero had won every ride off I had seen. One of his comments was that Nero uses both hands on the reins.

As I was so fortunate to have Rege Ludwig continually by my side, I asked his advice on whether I should keep both hands on the reins when I was not hitting the ball.

Rege had always complained about my long, slow turns. One time he asked me: ‘Is it that you just cannot do it, do not want to do it or are you just afraid?’ I analsyed it thereafter, and came to the conclusion that I was indeed afraid. I was worried that the horse would slip and fall on top of me. Even my motorcycle

Play against great players… talk to former and current greats and see their performances close up. What other sport can offer this?

‘Ninja turtle/Hunchback of Notre Dame’ armour would not help me then.

Once I started to practice with two hands on the reins, I noticed that I did not look down at the horse so often when turning and felt a much safer grip on it. As I was using both hands now most of the time, I also did not forget to use both when turning, contrary to before. In the end my turning improved a lot and I looked around more. This made all the difference to my game when playing team 1870. To score another goal at the end was a really nice bonus. And here it was again, the feeling of elation after a lost game!

In between and before the tournament, I witnessed and experienced a great deal. All thoroughly enjoyable. I watched England’s win over New Zealand with a very happy John Tinsley and David Woodd; we played a

number of practices at Chalk Pit, Zacara, Coworth Park, with some of the best players in the world; I rode one of Alan Kent’s horses at his picturesque farm (where I may stable my horses next time), and watched Clare Milford Haven and Roderick win the Texaco; I enjoyed the generous hospitality at Melanie and Roderick’s, and Robyn and Andrew’s homes (which are always in such exquisite condition, you wonder where all the maids and butlers are hiding). In addition, I witnessed Ousama Aboughazale’s joy at learning about his win at the races in Chile (apparently the stallion was a real steal); joined a lovely dinner at Gracidas; and was touched that Lila Pearson came to watch our game (she even brought the next generation along). I became a member at Coworth Park (they smile at you when you come with your dirty whites to sit among their distinguished hotel guests); enjoyed the patrons’ meeting at the Park House hosted by Robin Butler (it’s fun to listen to polo politics and all the divergent views, especially when they make friendly fun of each other) and followed Jim Gilmore’s invitation to Ellerston’s fine Asado (Jim had once flown ten hours to Thailand to give me counsel on how to build our first field at Thai Polo; no wonder players like it so much). I also watched Zacara coached by Andrew on their way to victory and played the British Polo Day charity match at the Lloyd Webbers’ – what a glorious day of polo!

I am convinced, having played practices at Zacara and watched their games, that the coach’s contribution is tremendous. Given that many games are won by a single goal, we can clearly see that a good coach provides this special edge. Well done Andrew and your team of determined players and patron!

‘You have to play the British Open at least once in your life!’ ‘Why?’ ‘It is like climbing Mount Everest.’ ‘I do not want to climb Mount Everest’ ‘Still, you have to play the British Open at least once in your life!’ That was the conversation that had taken place between Andrew and myself last year. He was right. Although we ended up at the bottom of the league (18th of 18 teams) I felt so happy about my first experience at the Gold Cup, so grateful to many people. I will make an effort to be back next year. Other teams beware: we might even make it to 17th!

hurlingham [ feature ]

Santa Barbara’s jewel of polo celebrating its centenary, this illustrious club has played host to hollywood stars, heirs of america’s most prominent companies and now royalty. Joan Tapper looks back at a colourful 100 years

On weekend afternoons, from April to October, there is always excitement on the green fields of the Santa Barbara Polo Club (SBPC), though that usually involves horses, not aircraft. On Saturday, 9 July, however, when a helicopter touched down on the grass, bringing the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for a charity tournament and luncheon, it added a glittering international flourish to the season-long celebration of the club’s 100th anniversary.

Beyond Prince William’s participation that day in The Foundation Polo Challenge, the festivities included a high-goal season that attracted three 10-goal players to Southern California, a gala dinner, and www.hurlinghampolo.com

david lominska / www.polographics

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The Californian weather and famously green fields make the club a ‘polo paradise’, and home of the Pacific Coast Open, being played here in 2011

publication of an illustrated history of the SBPC, the third oldest in the United States.

The story is worth retelling – thanks to larger-than-life characters, triumphs and losses, family ties, desperate times, and new heights of achievement.

Inside the vintage polo clubhouse, the hunter-green walls are lined with decades of photos of winning teams accepting the silver cups, bowls, and other awards – including the Tiffany-crafted trophy that Catherine handed to Prince William – that are safely locked in glass-fronted cases. The club’s saga, however, predates the building and even the adjacent fields. It begins on 18 April 1894, when Santa Barbara’s first polo exhibition match took www.hurlinghampolo.com

place as part of a spring flower festival. On a rain-soaked field at the foot of a downtown racetrack, a team from Santa Monica beat one from Riverside six to nothing.

Gradually a local contingent managed to learn the game, and by 1902 Santa Barbara had its own club with 40 members. In those early days, a few jokers used bicycles or roller skates, but there were enough serious riders – including the town’s mayor, Dr Elmer Boeseke – to have the group recognized by the United States Polo Association (USPA) in 1911, marking the official birth of the Santa Barbara Polo Club.

The years between the two World Wars were the golden age of the sport in Santa

The years between world war i and world war ii were the golden age of the sport in santa Barbara

hurlingham [ feature ] This page (from top) Pacific Coast Circuit winners 1938; Harry East, Alec Bullock, Eric Tyrrell-Martin and Pete Jackson; spectators at the club, c.1930 Opposite (from left) Gerald Balding, Robert Skene and Lord Cowdray, 1939

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Barbara. The mayor’s son, Elmer ‘Long Legs’ Boeseke, Jr, was emerging as a nationally known player, and as teams arrived by train, grooms would be seen walking their horses through town to fields surrounding the area.

Max Fleischmann, heir to a Cincinnati yeast company and an avid player, moved to Santa Barbara, which he had visited during World War I. In 1923 he bought a burnt-out eucalyptus grove and began to put in a polo field. After three years of nurturing the turf, the first chukka finally took place. In 1928, Fleischmann added an adjoining 40 acres.

The SBPC had found its home.

And what a home it was – backed by mountains, and near a beach where horses could be exercised – blessed by unparalleled weather. The club’s fashionable social scene drew polo players from Hollywood and beyond. Will Rogers, Spencer Tracy, Walt Disney and Darryl Zanuck all took to the field for Sunday games, as did banker Averell Harriman, who owned an East Coast stable.

Even Paul Butler – founder of Illinois’s Oak Brook Polo Club – enjoyed Santa Barbara, says his son, Michael, who got a taste of the atmosphere as a young boy in the Thirties.

‘I went with my father, who was a friend of Max Fleischmann and who had shipped his ponies there,’ he recalls. ‘Dad and Max wanted to go out… probably to be naughty, and they talked [actor] Leo Carrillo into babysitting me.’

Changes were underway, though. By 1939, when a British team – including future Polo Hall of Famer Robert Skene – played a practice match in Santa Barbara while en route to the celebrated Westchester Cup tournament in New York, Fleischmann had already sold off the fields. And after the United States declared war, the club was transferred to the Jackson Family who would own it for almost two decades. The reality of the worldwide conflagration hit home after a Japanese submarine lobbed some shells onto the coast. No damage was done, but things other than polo were on everyone’s mind. A year later all play was suspended, and soldiers were stationed on the club grounds.

Polo revived after the war, and Santa Barbara became home to the prestigious Pacific Coast Open tournament and its coveted five-foot-high, silver-and-gold trophy.

In the years that followed, a new set of personalities entered the scene: team sponsor Vic Graber, future Polo Hall of Famer Billy Linfoot, and the Walkers of Long Beach.

‘My whole family was involved in polo,’ remembers Daniel Walker, now a club trustee.

‘Grandfather started playing after World War II. Father came to Santa Barbara in 1958 specifically to play polo.’ There is a picture on the clubhouse wall, he adds, showing four generations of his family on the field decades later: his grandfather still playing at 90; his father, Kenneth; his brother, Henry, who www.hurlinghampolo.com

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This page (clockwise from left) Actor Michael Douglas (middle) presenting the trophy to Colt Cup finalists, 1976; the Walkers line up at the 1990 Wickenden Cup; SB Polo Club trustees: Norman Ringer, Glen Holden and Ken Walker Opposite Hollywood star, Jayne Mansfield, with finalists

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During the Sixties there were wild parties in the clubhouse, where the dancing would spill out onto the fields subbed a few chukkas for their grandfather; himself; and son Matthew.

At the time, Santa Barbara was the place to play in the winter. Robert Skene, an admired 10-goal player, took over as manager in 1961, and his athleticism, knowledge of horses, and strategic acumen inspired and drew top teams.

That year, there was a new owner, too, when Aloha Airlines founder Ruddy Tongg acquired the club. He was determined to bring the country’s top tournament west, notes his son Ronnie, who played as a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara and in 1962 won the US Open with teammate Skene.

‘The politics in those days was really something,’ adds Ronnie Tongg. Nevertheless, somehow his father was still ‘able to swing it and brought the Open to Santa Barbara, not only in 1963 but also in 1966.’

Yes, Santa Barbara polo was glamorous again, with movie stars like Jayne Mansfield and Zsa Zsa Gabor driving up the coast to hand out the trophies. Fess Parker, of Davy Crockett fame, played. A real character was Barbara Hutton’s son, Lance Reventlow, says Joel Baker, who remembers playing as

a teenager in Santa Barbara. ‘One time Lance gave me a ride home. He was racing stock cars and this thing had no muffler, and it shook as it went down the road at what seemed like a hundred miles an hour.’

This being the Sixties, there were wild parties in the clubhouse, too, where the dancing would spill out onto the fields.

As the decade ended, though, the music stopped, and the silence was deafening.

Ruddy Tongg sold the club to the Azusa Citrus Company, which was eyeing the green fields for a supermarket site. In 1969, with memberships dwindling, the situation looked dire. Bob Skene, who had been away for a few years, was called back to manage the club.

Though Azusa owned the polo fields, it could not get permission from the county to develop them. And it could not sell as long as the club kept up rent payments on its lease, something that Skene made sure of. ‘Father said, “We have to save the club,”’ remembers his son, Curtis. ‘He drove around and got cheques for dues to pay the rent.’

‘Bob Skene kept the club alive,’ says Baker.

‘He and his wife, Elizabeth, put their own

money and time into it.’ Again and again the world-famous polo player attended county supervisors’ meetings to convince them of the club’s value to Santa Barbara. The supervisors had little interest in polo but even less in a supermarket development. And finally in the early Seventies, club members came up with a plan that won county approval: a polo-playing builder named Harry Hicks would build condominiums on eight acres of the property, generating money for the club to buy the remaining 60 acres from Azusa. Cheers all around… until a real estate downturn sent Hicks into bankruptcy.

Heroically, Ambassador Glen Holden, Dr Norman Ringer and Kenneth Walker picked up the flag. Working with the bank that was foreclosing on the condos, in December 1975 the three established a trusteeship in perpetuity, as long as the field was used for polo activities. Holden, a polo player since the mid-Fifties and a former US ambassador to Jamaica, was in charge of operations, paying the bills until the club began to break even. Walker, a banker, supervised the development of tennis courts and 350-stall www.hurlinghampolo.com

stables. ‘Dr Ringer was president,’ Daniel Walker says, adding that even his mother was involved in improving the grounds. ‘If it’s not a eucalyptus, my mother planted it.’

The three trustees set up the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club to manage the property, renovate the clubhouse, and lay the foundation for the rebirth of polo in the area.

‘You can’t beat Southern California, the ocean and mountains, and the weather.

People love to come here. And the fields are the best in the world,’ insists Holden.

‘Professionals promote it to their patrons, and the best polo players in the United States play here.’

That includes men like Daniel Gonzalez, a former international 10-goal player and coach of the Argentine national team, who calls the place ‘polo paradise’ because of the warm people, the perfect weather, and the facilities. Gonzalez’s son, 8-goaler Mariano, considers Santa Barbara ‘my second home, and one of the best places in the world to play’. Celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone and Tommy Lee Jones have brought their teams to the fields as well.

In 1998, the club added the distinction of holding the Federation of International Polo World Cup, after the original host club had to pull out. Pat Nesbitt, patron of the Windsor Capital Group team and now a board member of SBPC and secretary of the USPA, argued that the tournament should come to Santa Barbara, although as host, it would have to www.hurlinghampolo.com

round up the hundreds of horses needed for all the teams. (Using a common pool evens the competition.) ‘What was notable was the way the polo community came together to pull it off,’ recalls Nesbitt, who served as executive director of the event. ‘It was almost like the Olympics; everyone contributed.’

And everyone came. Some 30,000 people watched the matches over five days, which included a US entry captained by Andy Busch, the Anheuser-Busch heir.

Busch, a 5-goaler and the highest-ranking amateur at the time, liked the setting so much he returned to play with his Grants Farm team in the Pacific Coast Open in 1999, moving to the area permanently in 2002.

‘From a polo player’s perspective,’ Busch says, ‘what’s incredible with the weather and the fields is that you’re guaranteed to play twice a week. There are no rainouts. You have competitive polo on a wonderful field.’

And you have a sport that unites the generations. ‘Polo is a lifestyle,’ says Justin Klentner, who became an SBPC board member in 2007. ‘That’s why families are involved. I’ve seen three generations of Walkers on the field at the same time.’ There is a Holden dynasty, too, that includes Glen’s son, ‘Jeep’, son-in-law Mike Sheller, and grandson Glen Holden III, or ‘G3’.

The club’s stake in the future extends from a consideration for its environment (it collects debris instead of hosing it down and tests storm drains regularly during the rainy

season) all the way to its polo school, which teaches and trains teenagers on scholarship through the Santa Barbara Youth Polo Association. For high school and college students, ‘it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play polo’ and compete nationally, says the director of the programme, John Westley.

‘The scholarship keeps the entry fee to a minimum, and we provide the horses.’

This season, spectators watching the highgoal competition at the club saw world-class players like Adolfo Cambiaso, Sapo Caset and Gonzalito Pieres, as well as Paco de Narvaez, Miguel Novillo Astrada, Sugar Erskine, and up-and-coming local Santi Torres, all putting on heart-pounding demonstrations of athleticism and skill.

And then of course there was July’s Foundation Polo Challenge, which welcomed newlyweds William and Kate. The event saw some 2,000 guests come from all over the US. ‘It’s a meeting place for the world’s most prestigious men to compete at a sport that they love,’ says Daniel Walker about the SBPC. ‘At the end, they’ll shake hands and share a drink at the bar.’

‘I’ve got to give credit to God for giving us this place,’ says Glen Holden. ‘But we’re keeping it up. It’s one of the best clubs in the world… a jewel of polo.’

A jewel which has been polished for a century – and ready to sparkle for a century more.

Portions of this article first appeared in Santa Barbara Magazine, sbmag.com,© 2010

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daughters of Atlas

When Emma Treichl led a girls’ group to Morocco on a riding adventure, they were thrilled to discover local horses as colourful and as stunning as the mountainous scenery Even after 20 years-plus of polo, the trusting benevolence of horses never fails to amaze me. The mutual reliance and continual dialogue, sometimes negotiation, between rider and horse is the fundamental fascination of any riding experience. And so with this in mind, I committed myself and my nine-year-old daughter, my friend Charlie and her 11-year-old daughter Laura, to an exotic equine adventure, Moroccan style, at the foot of the Atlas Mountains.

Flying from Gatwick to Marrakech, we set off one morning braced against an April breeze. It was a dream of Charlotte and Laura’s to ride by day and camp by night, perhaps less so Charlie’s and mine, as we imagined outdoor showers and aching limbs.

However, we were swept along by their

enthusiasm and perhaps also a little curious and excited about a new challenge.

Planning the trip took a while, but with the help of Natural High, the safari and wilderness travel company in Shaftesbury, we began formulating a tailor-made five-day holiday. Sophie Chauvat from Cavaliers de l’Atlas was the only operator in Morocco capable of organising this sort of caravan and once we had persuaded her that we weren’t satisfied with riding in circles around a camp, I was satisfied that we had an exciting and realistic itinerary.

Although I spend nearly all my spare time on a horse, either hunting or playing polo, I am cautious with horses I don’t know. My daughter, on the other hand, is very trusting and was determined to ride Arab stallions

during our adventure. Charlie calls me ‘Health and Safety’, so I suppose it’s a balancing act.

Once we arrived in Marrakech, we threaded our way through the noisy, bustling city, as throngs of mopeds and mules surged along the wide avenues skirting the terracotta city walls. To the children’s delight, horses, mules and donkeys were everywhere, and there were frequent calls that we should take them home and feed them up.

After a short drive, we arrived at Tafoukt, Sophie’s stables in the Palmeraie on the outskirts of the city. Our steeds were somewhat underwhelming: I apologised to Etoile, a slim grey Arab/Berber cross, as I gingerly lowered my six foot-plus frame onto his petite 15-hand back. We did not immediately hit it off, so I swapped to an www.hurlinghampolo.com

even smaller pony, Nokia. (At the very least, I thought, I hope we can communicate!) My daughter was smitten by an 11-hand grey called Jester. He looked like a perfectly formed carousel pony, complete with handle on the front of his saddle.

We set off through the Palmeraie for a short promenade, together with our guide, and by evening had retreated joyfully from the bustle of Marrakech to the Amanjena hotel, staving off the privations of the great outdoors for one last night of indulgence.

The next morning, we set off down the road to Ouarzazate, the Atlas Mountains drawing ever closer. We stopped en route at the Tuesday market in Ait Ourir where we saw everything on sale from second-hand mobiles to freshly grown produce. Despite being three women and two girls in jodhpurs looking conspicuously out of place, I was struck by how little attention was paid to us and how people just got on with their everyday business.

We finally headed off on our journey, through winding and ever diminishing roads, nearly getting lost on the way, as we bounced along grass-covered tracks until, somewhere between Ait Ourir and Taddert, we were met with our ponies tied to olive trees at the side of the road. Our guides, Poppy Sarlandia and Simohamed Damou, were waiting patiently.

Just as we mounted, the wind picked up.

Still, we threaded our way up through fields and hills towards lunch, and finally arrived at a tent on the hillside overlooking the lake.

At this point, the wind was nearly blowing us off our horses and I hoped that the tent had www.hurlinghampolo.com

been well fastened to the ground. Inside, we suddenly felt better. Seated on huge cushions, we were served kefta, Moroccan barbecued meats, with salads, locally-baked bread with olives followed by dates and figs and mint tea.

After this wonderful, and slightly undeserved, lunch we emerged from the tent, warm and satiated, to be confronted with what had turned into a storm. We sheltered in the lorry as the ponies were prepared and I suggested rather reluctantly that our ponies be led to the camp. So far, we were not off to a good start.

As we approached the camp, however, our spirits lifted as the wind suddenly died down.

Reaching the camp, we were amazed: there was a cluster of large white tents, one for the girls and one for Charlie and I, along with two very civilised outdoor latrines and showers.

Before settling into our luxurious accommodation, however, we managed an evening ride. There was an eerie calm after the storm, and we set off through the hills for a relaxing jaunt. Upon returning to our camp, we had a sumptuous meal of chicken and lemon tagine. Across the valley, through the penetrating blackness of unpolluted night sky, houses were clustered around the foot of a hill, their lights flickering with recently supplied electricity, while we were making the reverse adjustment to life without.

During the night, the winds rose once again and the tents flapped wildly, but fortunately by morning, the storm had passed and we woke after a good night’s rest. We set off again, after a delicious

While our daughters were dreaming of riding by day and camping by night, we just imagined outdoor showers and aching limbs

Opposite A picnic lunch under the Austrian pine trees in the royal game reserve where the king hunts mouflon, a wild sheep This page Views from the road, taken from horseback, including farmers at the Tuesday Market in Ait Ourir (top right)

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breakfast and feeling renewed, with our two guides. This was our first, full day’s trekking.

We had agreed previously that each day the ride would consist of two-and-a-half hours in the morning and again in the afternoon with a two-hour break in the middle. Charlie and I take our daughters hunting regularly, so this seemed a realistic time frame.

At noon, we were greeted by a picnic under the Austrian pine trees in the royal game reserve where the king hunts mouflon, a wild sheep. Again, everything was freshly cooked over a barbecue. We lay on the cushions under the warm sun. I thought that it couldn’t get much better. Eventually, we dragged ourselves back onto our ponies and set off for the town of Tahhant. Along the way, we met a collection of characters who could have been from another world: old ladies collecting fodder, donkeys carrying fully-laden baskets, children herding sheep, women washing their clothes in the stream, to name but a few.

We arrived at the camp early and grazed our ponies in the fields. We were becoming very well acquainted with them.

Laura’s pony, Luna, who I felt at times deserved a ‘tic’ added to the end of her name, was a beautiful chestnut mare, who was more or less well-behaved until you got in the way of her personal space. Nokia was a very easy pony, if a little unexciting. Indeed, I was beginning to regret having spurned Etoile, so

requested her back, realising that I should have listened… Charlotte’s little pony was bombproof, ‘a mother’s delight’ as they are described in Horse & Hound, although she needed to be kept near the front so as to avoid both of them dropping back to first gear.

Charlie’s Hamid looked straight out of Arabian Nights, with flaring nostrils and tiny hooves, although he never put a foot wrong.

That night, we made camp and were entertained by musicians from the local village as we dined beneath a full sky of stars.

The next morning, after a leisurely start, we set off through the undulating landscape, which was green and lush: fields of swaying corn, almond groves in flower, lines of olive trees with wild flowers growing everywhere.

There was such an abundance of flora and fauna, enabling the children to chase butterflies while terrapins and frogs swam in the streams. Donkeys were everywhere, carrying water, wood or ferrying people

Our rhythm was dictated by the pace of our ponies, putting us in synch with everything around us and making us unobtrusive

around. Not only was it fascinating to see life from the back of a horse, but the girls were also experiencing something entirely new.

Our rhythm was dictated by the pace of our ponies, putting us in synch with everything around us and so making us unobtrusive.

I was pleased to think that we were not interrupting or changing the existing way of life or the environment.

In five days, our only minor drama occurred near the end of the trip, as Hamid, Charlie’s pony, dropped a shoe. Simo, one of our guides, was unable to put it back, so we swapped ponies and poor Simo and the pony walked the last couple of miles – although Hamid tried to drag Simo off his feet as he saw the rest of the group leaving without him.

On the last day we trundled on through the most glorious landscape, the sun beating down with a breeze to cool us. Finally, we reached a small stream and sat beneath the trees for our last picnic lunch. As always, the cook had prepared everything in advance and the kebabs and salads were heavenly.

At last Sophie, the chef d’équipe in charge of this amazing organisation, came to collect us and we headed back to Marrakech.Typically, she found Charlotte and Laura’s favourite lollipops for the ride, and also our trip’s soundtrack, The Essential Barbra Streisand, which played on the car stereo the whole ride back.

Natural High organises riding safaris in Africa and beyond, +44 (0)1747 898104; naturalhigh.co.uk/riding. www.hurlinghampolo.com

Opposite The first morning of trekking, in the mountainous region near Ait Ourir, where the trail begins This page (from left to right) the writer with her daughter, Charlotte, and friend, Charlie, and her daughter, Laura, at the Amanjena hotel

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princes and polo From the mountains of northern Kenya to the sunny coast of California, princes William and harry are raising the profile of polo with their dedicated, and often groundbreaking, charity ventures. Charlotte metcalf reports

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High on the plateau of the remote and mountainous African Kingdom of Lesotho, it’s snowing. Six-year-old Tshekane, a herd boy, pulls his new blanket tightly round him and is grateful for his new shoes. Just months ago his clothes were thin and worn and he was barefoot. Some of his friends had not even survived the harsh winter. But now Tshekane is warm. Later he will walk to night school where he is learning to read. In Samburu country in northern Kenya, 10-year-old Gabriel walks behind five bony cows. Though he is watchful, it is quiet and

he feels safe, now that the poachers and Somali bandits are no longer marauding around, stealing livestock and slaughtering elephants for their tusks.

It is 9 July and on the other side of the world, in glorious Californian sunshine, Prince William and his new bride arrive by helicopter at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club to join 2,000 guests for The Foundation Polo Challenge. ‘Oh how posh!’ fawned the American celebrity website perezhilton.com, describing the VIP tent with its white flowers and custom-made Tiffany

linen, the rows of gleaming Audis (Audi was one of the sponsors), the three-course lunch menu ‘designed’ by Giada De Laurentiis and the sterling silver and gold trophy, crafted by Tiffany & Co silversmiths, 18 inches high and weighing 14.7 pounds.

It is hard to imagine a world further from the hostile mountainsides of Lesotho and the remote valleys of northern Kenya, yet the two people who are linking those worlds as never before are Princes William and Harry. Over the spring and summer, the Princes have spent almost all their spare time playing polo to

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Kim Kumpart photography

raise money for children like Tshekane and Gabriel, immeasurably improving their lives and those of their communities.

Not just that, they have raised polo’s profile to hitherto unknown heights, despite the fact that the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles have been playing polo for as long as most people can remember. There is no doubt that The Santa Barbara Foundation Polo Challenge was the highlight of the southern Californian season this year.

Veteran journalist, Steve Fox, whose book Polo in Paradise: Celebrating the First Century of the Santa Barbara Polo Club is published this Christmas, was there. ‘Santa Barbara is the third-oldest polo club in America,’ he says, ‘Yet it’s always been very private. What the Royal visit did was focus attention on the game and people came who’d never thought about watching polo before. People were coming from all over America even with tickets at $400 and VIP tickets at $4,000. There is no question that there is a bit of a starstruck element here. When William and Kate walked down the red carpet there was a real media frenzy, a mass of paparazzi and microphones but they were so humble and approachable that everyone took them to their hearts.’

Former US Ambassador Glen Holden, their host and long-standing trustee of the club, greeted William and Kate. ‘Their helicopter landed on the lawn of my own residence and so I invited them into my home. The Duchess was just so attractive and natural. They have a really special touch. It’s not just that they’re good-looking and young, it’s their whole way of being and the fact they’re so at ease with everyone that’s brought such a new sense of excitement to the game,’ he enthused.

Ambassador Holden was also impressed by William’s skills on the polo field: ‘He was riding ponies he had never even seen before.

He wasn’t given a single free shot and made four goals. He played fabulously. My son was playing that day and said that when Prince William went to “camp”, to change his boots and so on, he was so much fun, joking around with everyone and laughing.’

Claire Tomlinson, an old friend of the Prince of Wales, is a regular on the polo field.

Her sons are friends with William and Harry and she has known the Princes, taught them and watched them play since they were children.

She agrees wholeheartedly with Ambassador Holden’s view. ‘They like to be treated as sportsmen rather than celebrities so they never pull rank on the polo ground,’ she says.

It is when talking to the people who are involved in the Princes’ charities that the extent of their achievements really becomes apparent. The Foundation Polo Challenge in Santa Barbara is alone anticipated to raise over $1 million. Charlie Mayhew runs William’s www.hurlinghampolo.com

Opposite The Princes at Coworth Park, 2011 This page Prince William and Wesley Ru in action, and prize giving at the Foundation Polo Challenge, 2011

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‘The Princes have been so clever at seeing how they can work together, and create synergy with their charitable interests’

charity, Tusk. Ivory poaching was the stimulus that started Tusk in 1990 but now its primary focus is to ensure sustainable community development alongside wildlife protection.

William spent his gap year in Kenya and came across some of the work Tusk was doing.

‘In 2004 Robert French Blake, their polo manager at the time, telephoned me out of the blue and asked whether Tusk wanted to be a beneficiary of a polo match Prince William was playing at Coworth Park, along with two of Princess Diana’s charities,’ Mayhew remembers. ‘It was fantastic. I could hardly believe it. Back then I think that match raised about £15,000 or £20,000 for us but they played again in 2005 and it has gone from there. It is a total gift for us.’

‘Thanks to the funds they’ve raised, we’re really expanding,’ continues Mayhew. ‘Tusk has helped to fund the creation of a number of community-owned and managed conservancies linked to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in northern Kenya where, in the Nineties, Somali bandits were slaughtering elephants for ivory and stealing cattle. We’re also funding the refurbishment and construction of several schools in Kenya and supporting environmental education for young Africans through our initiative PACE, Pan-African Conservation Education.’

Prince Harry also raises money for an African charity, Sentebale. Like many, I have,

till now, dismissed Harry as a bit of a party animal, far less committed to serious causes than his older brother. Just one look at a gallery of photographs on YouTube of Harry working in Lesotho was enough to make me realise how utterly wrong I had been.

Prince Harry spent two months working in Lesotho during his gap year as a guest of Prince Seeiso, younger brother of the King of Lesotho. Lesotho is a little known, rugged, mountainous country, geographically stranded in the middle of South Africa. Harry was so affected by the vulnerable, forgotten children he met there that he set up Sentebale five years ago.

In 2007 the charity opened its office in Lesotho and currently works with 12 local partners. It provides night schools for herd boys like Tshekene (some children walk up to five miles in the dark to reach them), and residential camps providing help and encouragement to children affected by HIV and AIDS. One in four people in Lesotho is thought to be HIV positive, the third highest prevalence in the world, with an estimated 200,000 children orphaned by the disease that still carries terror and stigma.

One YouTube photograph shows Harry holding a 10-month-old baby who had been raped by her uncle, believing that only sex with a virgin would prevent him from contracting HIV. In all, Sentebale supports 25

Tusk TrusT, Chris JaCkson/GeTTy imaGes

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Opposite Playful games with a rock python at Mokolodi Education Centre, Botswana, 2010 This page, clockwise from top The Princes in Lesotho, 2010; Prince Harry on his gap year, Lesotho, 2006; Prince William working with Mountain Rescue England & Wales, 2009; game guards at the Lekurruki Community Conservation Project, Kenya.

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projects helping Lesotho’s abused, disabled and orphaned children.

Kedge Martin has been running Sentebale for two years. ‘Helping children is one of Prince Harry’s absolute passions,’ she says.

‘Harry started Sentebale, which means “forget-me-not” in Sesotho, not only as a call to action for the forgotten children of Lesotho and beyond, but also in memory of his mother, Princess Diana, and her amazing work with disadvantaged children and young people. It is extraordinary how very like his mother Prince Harry is,’ Martin continues. ‘He’s highly compassionate with a lot of empathy and has an incredible gift with children.’

In January 2010, Sir Charles Williams, legendary Caribbean entrepreneur and fierce polo player, invited Harry to launch the Sentebale Polo Cup (whose winning trophy is a statue of a Lesotho horseman) at his club, Apes Hill, in Barbados. ‘Thanks to Sir Charles’s extraordinary generosity, we were able to launch the Cup at zero cost,’ says Martin.

‘Harry’s brainchild has just taken off, not only raising significant funds but also raising awareness of the plight of so many children across Africa. This year alone, £600,000 has been made for Sentebale through polo.’

Last year Tusk’s Charlie Mayhew took both William and Harry on a tour of Botswana to see projects that Tusk was supporting there.

Then they went on to see what Sentebale was doing in Lesotho. ‘They’ve been so clever at seeing how they can work together and create synergy with their charitable interests,’ says Charlie. Now the Princes have set up a forum that meets twice yearly at St James’s Palace.

Representatives of all the charities they support come together and are encouraged to work together.

Mike France of Mountain Rescue England & Wales, a smaller, British charity of which Prince William is a patron, describes being at his first Princes’ Forum: ‘I thought goodness, gracious! How are we all expected to do this?

But the Princes encouraged us to think outside the box and it worked.’

France’s charity depends entirely on 3,500 volunteers and sometimes uses helicopters to rescue people, from fallen climbers to lost children and people with dementia. ‘I think mountain rescue is close to William’s heart as he worked with RAF Search & Rescue during his gap year and he’s now a qualified search and rescue pilot.’ Thanks to the Princes’ Forum, Peak District Mountain Rescue now organises adventure days for children from WellChild and Centrepoint (two more of Prince William’s charities). The charity takes children climbing and caving, ensuring that even the most disabled can do things.

‘I’ve had mums in tears saying they never expected their child to be able to do that. Like all organisations, you can get insular and what’s so good about the forum is we were forced to look around, stop moaning and look at what we could offer – plus we have made so many good contacts. For the last five years we’ve picked up cheques through polo matches totalling over £100,000. We’re over the moon about that. It’s a great honour and we know it is. William’s just bent over backwards to support us. Basically, he’s just such a nice guy. You don’t hear a bad word about him.’

Increasingly, the Princes are now collaborating in their charity work and polo is the one sure way of raising money and drawing attention to their causes.

Harry was supposed to play the second Sentebale Polo Cup in Dubai this year but

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Charles sainsbury-PlaiCe / www.CsPPhoto.Co.uk

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the Princes have raised millions through polo for charity and are also drawing a new, younger crowd to the game

cancelled his trip due to the various uprisings in the Arab world. Instead, the match was rearranged at Coworth Park on 12th June, and Prince William’s Tusk team played against Harry’s Sentebale team, to the delight of the VIP crowd and sponsor, Royal Salute scotch whiskey. Again, on 2 July, on the grounds of Lord and Lady Lloyd Webber’s Berkshire estate, Watership Down, the British Polo Day Charity Cup benefited both Tusk and Sentebale. Luxury watchmaker, Richard Mille, was the sponsor and host, following the establishment of his first polo team that made its debut at Cowdray Park. Richard Mille’s team, consisting of Pablo MacDonough, Prince Rashid of Jordan, Harald Link and Saeed Bin Drai, won against Prince Harry’s team and the day attracted over 400 VIP guests, including Prince Seeiso of Lesotho. Richard Mille also donated a one-off, 18k red-gold RM 033 automatic calibre watch to support the work of both Tusk and Sentebale. It is expected to raise substantial interest amongst collectors when it is auctioned later this year. Just a month earlier, on 1 June, Prince William dashed to Chester Racecourse, fresh from his honeymoon, to lead his team to victory at the Audi Polo Challenge. Again, proceeds went to charities – Mountain Rescue, ESSA (England Schools’ Swimming Association) and Skillforce.

Andrew Hine was Captain of the English Polo Team for five years and now runs Polofix, which began hosting charity polo days six years ago. The days together have raised £350,000. ‘What is so great about the Princes is that they really give their time to talk to people and that’s so important,’ he says. ‘As sportsmen, they’re not wrapped in cotton wool. No one is allowing them to win.

It’s very refreshing that they play so competitively.’ Indeed, Wesley Ru, president of the Santa Barbara Polo Club, admitted to being ‘royally beaten’ when he played against Prince William in June. ‘The impact they’ve had on the game is to make it cool and contemporary. More people now want to play www.hurlinghampolo.com

as well as to watch,’ adds Hine.

The Princes have raised millions through polo for charity and are also drawing a new, younger crowd to the time-honoured game. A few years ago when they started they were raising between £15,000 and £20,000 a game and now that amount has risen to £60,000 or more. Ambassador Holden, who knows as much about polo as anyone, says, ‘The Princes have come along at exactly the right time. They are young and attractive and approachable. They have definitely injected the game with a new energy.’

Everyone is clamouring to see more of the Princes playing polo, not least the charities who have benefited so much. Depending on their military careers and on Prince William’s married life, no one can say how much polo they will be able to play in their increasingly heavy schedules. Even in the highly unlikely event that they never play a match again, their contribution to both the game and to charity remains unmatched.

Opposite (above) Hedley Aylott and Prince William at the Audi Polo Challenge, 2011 (below) Prince Harry plays at the launch of the Sentebale Polo Cup, Barbados, 2010 This page Alejandro Muzzio and Prince Harry at the British Polo Day Charity Cup, 2011

the action [drama] catch up with all the latest action from around the world Samba dancers at the opening ceremony of the coronation cup

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herbert Spencer reports on a David and goliath encounter at the highly exciting British open – rain notwithstanding

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celebrating the 40th anniversary of international Day and the coronation cup’s centenary with historical fanfare

52 Queen’s Cup

Despite appalling weather, talandracas battle to victory with a last-minute penalty goal in the seventh chukka

54 Julius Baer Beach Polo

the scenic island of Sylt is the backdrop for one of germany’s most popular polo events

56 Sotogrande

richard Mille and Las Monjitas enjoy victory at Spain’s Santa Maria polo club

58 Belgian Polo Masters teams recreate a 1931 polo match

60 Genghis Khan Challenge two brothers from the Mongolian genghis Khan polo & riding club triumph at ham

61 St Tropez

corinne Schuler’s gassin polo club provides an exquisite setting for thrilling play, as five teams participate in this year’s gold cup

62 Pacific Coast Open

an exciting final fought between Lucchese and piaget closes the battle for the West coast’s most prized polo trophy

64 Heritage Cup

inspired by images of an 1885 Sandhurst team and Louise hitchcock, this unique event is now in its sixth year

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Gold Cup The David and Goliath showdown at this year’s British Open made for one of the most exciting, if wettest, tournaments in recent years, writes Herbert Spencer championship in 2010 and 2001 and runnersup in 2009 and 2004; La Bamba de Areco with the 10-goal Pieres brothers Gonzalito and Facundo, who captured the Gold Cup in 2009, and Loro Piana, champions in 2008 and runners-up in 2007.

All these were knocked out in the quarterfinals or semi-finals – and not one of the five 10-goalers playing in the tournament made it through to the final.

Instead the finalists were two teams that had never before won one of England’s top 22-goal tournaments (the Queen’s Cup and the Gold Cup): Lyndon Lea’s Zacara and Joachim Gottschalk’s Les Lions.

There were a number of new line-ups in the tournament including Piaget, the only team that made it through the leagues undefeated, falling only in the quarterfinals, and newcomers Thai Polo fielded by Harald Link, owner of Thai Polo & Equestrian Club in Thailand. Salkeld with three 7-goalers defeated La Bamba de Areco with two 10s in league play and

reached the semi-finals – an example of how lower-rated sides beat the powerhouse teams.

On paper, Les Lions with the 9-goal Merlos brothers Sebastian and Agustin might have been seen as favourites. Zacara, however, had earlier proved to be real giant-killers, first trouncing titleholders Dubai in the quarter-finals and then knocking out Jean-François Decaux’s La Bamba de Areco in the semi-finals.

In the end it was Zacara that won the coveted Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup, beating Les Lions 12-11 in one of the most exciting finals of recent years.

The day of the final was also one of the wettest in memory. It rained heavily right up to the start of the match, so much so that I asked Cowdray Park polo manager Chris Bethell, as we sheltered from the downpour in the Hurlingham Polo Association gazebo, how many times a final had been postponed because the ground was so wet as to be too dangerous to play. Only once, he said, back in the Eighties.

TONY RAMIREZ / WWW.IMAGESOFPOLO.COM

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The 2011 British Open Championship for the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup at Cowdray Park Polo Club in July will long be remembered for a variety of reasons, not least the David and Goliath upsets that denied any of the perennial powerhouse teams a place in the final.

With 18 teams entered in this tournament – the polo world’s most popular and cosmopolitan high-goal pro-am – recent new rules of the game have meant that teamwork, accurate passing and effective penalty-taking often counted for more than masterful individual play by the superstars who have tended to dominate the action.

This in turn has meant that well-balanced and determined teams with 6-goalers, 7s and 8s could compete on more equal terms with sides built around 9s and 10s.

Not one of the most successful teams of recent years made it to the final. Missing were titleholders Dubai with 10-goaler Adolfo Cambiaso, winners of the

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Opposite Hilario Ulloa leads Chris Mackenzie during a torrential downpour in the final 1 Sebastian Merlos has an outstanding season and was raised to 10-goals in the UK 2 Ulloa scores a goal in the semifinals with a broken mallet

The finalists were two teams that had never before won one of England’s top 22-goal tournaments Then, in 1991, Cowdray Park built its Lawns Two ground with state-of-the-art drainage. The club’s grounds manager, Julian Russell-Hayes, had kept it in prime condition throughout the tournament. Lawns Two is arguably the best ground in England and capable of handling any weather, which it did for this year’s final. The heavy rain finally stopped, Bethell allowed half an hour for the surface water to drain down, and the final started just 16 minutes late.

This 2011 British Open final was fast and open despite the somewhat sodden turf. It was a real cliffhanger with the game tied up and the lead changing several times.

Zacara took an early lead with two goals

by Gonzalo Deltour. Les Lions’ Agustin Merlos scored once, leaving Zacara ahead 2-1 at the end of the first chukka.

Les Lions held Zacara scoreless in the second period, equalising and snatching the lead with two goals by Agustin Merlos and a third by his brother Sebastian, ending the chukka 4-2 up.

Agustin Merlos added two for Les Lions before Zacara decreased their deficit with two goals by Hilario Ulloa and one from Deltour, leaving Les Lions ahead 6-5 at halftime.

In a high-scoring fourth period, Ulloa equalised for Zacara, but two goals by Sebastian Merlos gave Les Lions the lead again. Agustin Merlos also found the posts twice as Zacara’s Ignatius Du Plessis and Deltour scored and the chukka ended with Les Lions 10-8 up.

Zacara denied Les Lions any goals in the fifth period as Deltour scored to bring his team within a goal of their opponents, 9-10.

In the nail-biting sixth and final chukka, Zacara’s Du Plessis equalised and then put his team ahead. Les Lions’ Agustin Merlos tied the match up yet again before Deltour found the posts to give Zacara their 12-11 victory.

Zacara’s jubilant patron Lyndon Lea, who played the final with his broken rein-hand in a cast, credited his side’s win to ‘our being a young and hungry team.’ Lea is 42, but his pros were all under 25. Gonzalo Deltour, who scored six of Zacara’s 12 goals including the www.hurlinghampolo.com

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winner, was named Most Valuable Player. The Best Playing Pony blanket was thrown over Hillario Ulloa’s Nuve. The yellow Veuve Clicquot trophy saddle went to Les Lions’ Agustin Merlos as high-scorer of the tournament. After the Gold Cup final, the HPA raised the handicaps of all three of Zacara’s pros for 2012: Hilario Ulloa, 8 to 9; Ignus du Plessis, 7 to 8; and Gonzalo Deltour, 6 to 7.

Les Lions’ Sebastian Merlos was raised from 9 to 10 and their Chris Mackenzie from 4 to 5.

Finally, the 2011 British Open will be remembered for the most unusual goal of the tournament, which was scored by Zacara’s Hilario Ulloa in their semi-final against La Bamba de Areco. He was racing to goal when the head broke off his stick. With great aplomb, he reversed the broken stick and calmly hit the ball between the posts with the handle. I reckon that memorable performance should have been worth a special prize at the presentations.

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Coronation Cup The Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA) celebrated a double anniversary at its International Day in July. The world’s biggest one-day polo event was 40 years old and the HPA was also marking the centenary of its Coronation Cup, one of the polo world’s most historic and impressive trophies.

The HPA and Guards, the host club, pulled out all the stops to make the association’s 2011 Cartier International Day a very special affair. The Coronation Cup Centenary Match between England and Brazil, won by England, did not quite live up to the occasion, but this did not detract from the show as a whole.

Potential new sponsors of International Day (this was Cartier’s last year) could not help but be impressed.

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, patron of the HPA since 1953, came early to lunch with the association before the Coronation Cup Centenary match. Prince Philip turned 90 in June and when he arrived, the HPA reunited him with members of his Windsor Park team that won the 1969 Cowdray Park Gold Cup

(Windsor Park’s third win): Lord Patrick Beresford, the Marquis of Waterford and Paul Withers.

The prince then joined 240 of English polo’s great and good, and visitors from Brazil, in the HPA marquee beside the Queen’s Ground. At the entrance, the association had mounted a large display around the Coronation Cup itself, tracing the history of the trophy from 1911, including rare old photographs and a list of all the winners over the past 100 years.

Speaking during the luncheon, HPA chairman Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers thanked the Brazilian Polo Association for bringing over their national team to contest the Coronation Cup in its centenary year, and then paid tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh as longserving patron of the association. HPA chief executive David Woodd then presented Prince Philip with a framed scroll to recognise his support. HRH appeared most pleased.

Meanwhile, diagonally across the Queen’s Ground from the HPA, Cartier chairman Arnaud Bamberger was hosting some 400

Scantily clad Samba beauties spent quite a time in front of the Royal Box wiggling their hips to the drumbeats clients and celebrities in the sponsor’s elaborate marquee. It was Cartier’s last fling: after supporting the HPA’s International Day for 27 years, the firm was bowing out of what Bamberger once called ‘the jewel in the crown’ of sports sponsorship.

At the Smith’s Lawn Enclosure, luncheon opportunities were offered to others of some 20,000 tickets holders as well as shopping in an extensive trade village.

After lunch Prince Philip took his place of honour on the balcony of the Royal Box, along with Colquhoun-Denvers, Bamberger and other dignitaries, to watch the traditional opening www.hurlinghampolo.com

© CENTAuR PHOTOGRAPHIC, TONY RAMIREZ / WWW.IMAGESOFPOLO.COM

A centenary year and Cartier’s bow-out is celebrated with historical fanfare at International Day– even though the final match failed to impress, recalls Herbert Spencer

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1 James Beim races to the ball infront of Brazilian captain, José Eduardo Kalil, 2 (Left) Nacho Gonzales and Luiz Paulo Bastos 3 Prince Philip presents Best Young Player, Richard Le Poer 4 Opening ceremony

parade. There was the band of the Irish Guards in their red coats and bearskins; 40 young riders from Pony Club Polo; a horsedrawn replica of a World War I ambulance promoting the charity of the day, Horses Help Heroes; and, for a touch of Brazil, drummers and dancers from the London School of Samba. The scantily clad Samba beauties spent quite a time in front of the Royal Box wiggling their bare hips to the drumbeats.

Now came the main event, the Coronation Cup Centenary Match between England and Brazil. This was the third time the two had met on International Day, with England having won the trophy in 1996 and 2001.

Brazil brought over a 29-goal team: 8-goal professionals Rodrigo Andrade and Joao Paulo Ganon and two amateurs of unusually high handicaps, Luiz Paulo Bastos, 7, and the captain, José Eduardo Kalil, 6. The team was sponsored by Equus Wealth Management.

By HPA handicaps, Audi-sponsored England were a 27-goal team: Luke and Mark Tomlinson and James Beim, all 7, and Nacho Gonzalez, 6. In the end, however, the HPA agreed with the Brazilian association that all the players should be rated at their highest handicap anywhere in the world. This put Luke Tomlinson up to 8, his handicap in Argentina, and England became a 28-goal side.

The Coronation Cup Centenary Match, sadly, did not live up to what one expects from an international at the 28/29-goal level.

The four Brazilians had never played together before they came to England and they never gelled as a team. Team captain Kalil retired after the first half due to the recurrence of an old ankle injury, and was substituted with 6-goaler Luis Carlos de Mello.

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and experienced team, but this was not their most impressive performance. Four of their eight goals came from their one on handicap difference and three penalty conversions.

Brazil matched them in goals scored from the field, four each.

The Duke of Edinburgh, accompanied by Cartier’s Bamberger, presented the Coronation Cup and other prizes. England skipper Luke Tomlinson received the Cartier Pegasus Award as most valuable player of the match.

The Best Playing Pony prize went to Chilean José Donoso’s 10-year-old Argentine mare Pelusa, which was played by James Beim.

The Best Retrained Racehorse was awarded

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to Jonny Good’s Minni, a nine-year-old Irishbred mare played by him in the morning’s match for the Golden Jubilee Trophy.

Finally, HPA Chairman ColquhounDenvers joined Prince Philip in presenting the association’s magnificent trophy for Best Young Player of the Year, which went to the 23-year-old, 4-goaler Richard Le Poer.

All in all, the HPA’s 40th International Day was quite a show. Whatever new sponsor or sponsors decide to come on board for next year’s event, scheduled just a week before the opening of the 2012 London Olympics, they will have scooped up the ‘jewel in the crown’ of polo sponsorship.

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1 Juan Juaretche (in black) pursued by MVP Milo Fernandez Araujo 2 Facundo Sola hooks Matias MacDonough 3 Prince Harry admires the cup with Edouard Carmignac

Queen’s Cup Torrential rain did not dampen one of the hardest fought polo finals in recent years, where Talandracas clinched the match with a ‘golden goal’, Antje Derks reports Only the most ardent polo fans turned up and actually sat through the appalling weather to watch the nail-biting final of this year’s Harcourt Developments Queen’s Cup at Guards Polo Club in early June. Indeed, it felt more like the middle of winter as I took my seat in warm boots and waterproofs under a gigantic umbrella to watch the action. Sadly, just before half-time, my faithful brolly turned itself inside out and took off, leaving me to brave the rain unprotected.

No matter, though, as the polo was truly magnificent. The conditions were grim and the field was like the proverbial skating rink, but the teams still fought to the bitter end, sending the match into a sudden-death seventh chukka.

Sixteen teams started in this year’s Queen’s Cup tournament, two more than last year. Three weeks of intense competition followed the initial draw, culminating in the final, where Jerome Wirth’s Enigma met Edouard Carmignac’s Talandracas. Neither team had ever won the Queen’s Cup, although Talandracas won the subsidiary final in both 2006 and 2007.

Both teams had squeaked through their respective semi-finals by just a goal; each having come back from being four goals down at sometime during their matches, showing a fighting spirit that would make the 51st Queen’s Cup final memorable. Enigma beat 1870 10-9 and Talandracas beat Richard Mille 12-11.

And so, as the heavens opened, the ball was thrown in at the start of the first chukka and immediately stolen by Enigma, who scored within the first minute. Lucas Monteverde tried to reply for Talandracas, but his neck shot went wide – at great cost, since Juan Jauretche stole the ball from under his nose and scorched off to push Enigma further in front. However, Monteverde’s tireless efforts were rewarded when he won the ball and broke free, scoring a goal for Talandracas.

Frustratingly for Talandracas, the narrowed gap was soon widened again after a penalty three – 60-yard defended – was taken by Enigma’s Juan Martin Nero, who found the goal posts despite the driving www.hurlinghampolo.com

rain. Talandracas missed several golden opportunities to score, leaving them trailing 3-1 by the end of the first chukka.

The second chukka saw a 40-yard defended penalty awarded in favour of Enigma – which Juan Martin Nero ably converted, to increase his team’s lead still further. Another penalty followed, this time in favour of Talandracas, which Facundo Sola took.

Despite initially flagging it as a goal, the umpires deemed the goal to be wide and thus, another chance missed for the trailing side.

Indeed, it was a match that was littered with penalties and usually I would be fairly disparaging about the stop-start nature of such a match, but in all fairness both the players and umpires had to work under such grim conditions that fouls were more as

By the seventh chukka only the hardened few and the polo reporters remained in the stands a result of atrocious conditions than any deliberate rule-flouting by the teams.

The second chukka ended with yet another penalty conversion by Nero, seeing Enigma storm 5–1 into the lead. Talandracas were suddenly faced with a mountain to climb.

The third chukka saw some brilliant play from Sola, who switched effortlessly between attack and defence – indeed Sola’s interplay with Monteverde during the third chukka was sublime. Eventually, their efforts were rewarded when Milo Fernández Araujo converted a superb penalty. Monteverde built on that goal immediately, by scoring from the field to bring Talandracas back to within two goals of their rivals. At half-time the score was 5-3.

Something happened to Talandracas during half-time. The rain continued and

became heavier than ever and yet they came out fighting. Monteverde converted a penalty within 30 seconds of the fourth chukka getting underway and followed that with yet another fabulous field goal. Suddenly Enigma had a fight on their hands. The scores were tied up at five all.

The fifth chukka saw both teams with the opportunity to break the stalemate, but neither team managed to convert their respect penalties, with Sola and Nero both putting their attempts well wide of the posts. However, a spot penalty saw Talandracas convert and take the lead for the first time. Their jubilation was short-lived though; Matías MacDonough equalised for Enigma from a penalty shortly after, and then he scored again for Enigma before setting up a great goal for Juan Jauretche. It seemed that Enigma had finally broken Talandracas by going two goals ahead by the end of the fifth chukka (8-6).

Mind you, it is always a mistake to underestimate Talandracas. Once again, they came back fighting. Fernández Araujo and Monteverde worked together to score two consecutive goals to tie up again at eight all, pushing the match into a seventh chukka.

Sadly, by this stage only the hardened few and the polo reporters remained in the stands.

The rain had not eased up at all and we were soaked and freezing and yet, it would have been a tragedy not to have stayed. Enigma gained a penalty – which they failed to convert – after some frankly dangerous play by Sola.

Then Nero hit the deck. The whole stand let out a collective groan since any delay meant getting even wetter, but all credit to him, he was up and back on board before the ambulance had time to reach him. Thus, Talandracas were awarded a 30-yard penalty, which to everyone’s relief, Sola converted.

Talandracas deserved their 9-8 victory having come back twice during the match.

One final note: the press conference scheduled for after the presentations by HRH Prince Harry was cancelled. According to a bedraggled Diana Butler, the players needed to get warm and dry…

hurlingham [ action ] 1 Koenig Pilsener’s Christopher Winter stretches for the ball 2 Lukas Sdrenka in action

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Julius Baer Beach Polo World Cup Played in a series of two-chukka matches on the beautiful island of Sylt in Germany, the tournament attracted over 10,000 spectators. Rod Kohler reports Staged on the stunning island of Sylt off the northwest coast of Germany, the Julius Baer Beach Polo World Cup is one of Germany’s most popular polo events, watched by over 10,000 spectators during a weekend in June.

Started by the Schneider family in 2008 and managed by 31-year-old Kiki Schneider, the tournament has strong links with the community of Sylt and is a leading supporter of the Coastal Protection Foundation Sylt, a charity established to protect the eroding coastline around the island.

‘The event has become hugely popular,’ said referee Klaus Winter. ‘I think primarily because people are so curious about the arena, which is located in such a unique setting next to the sea, with only a small fence between the beach and the action. People stroll up to watch the polo in their bathing costumes.’

On the opening day, the six teams in the competition were split into two pools and,

under the American tournament system, played each other in a series of two chukka matches. The Julius Baer team of 15-year-old Lukas Sdrenka (0) and Sven Schneider (3), both from Germany, came through to win pool B, while their opponents in the final were the Audi team of Argentina’s Gastón Maiquez (6) and Germany’s Siegfried Grohs (0).

Day two saw the final played in nearperfect weather conditions, and with a big crowd attending, anticipation of a great game was feverish. The teams did not disappoint.

After two close chukkas, the Julius Baer team opened up a 5-3½ lead in the third. Sven Schneider and Sdrenka both played at the top of their game and took part in the scoring to put their team into the leading position.

However, the lead changed hands with Audi in the fourth chukka when Maiquez kept his side in the match, scoring three goals from the field and penalty conversions to lead 6-5½. The

final chukka saw Maiquez in devastating form, scoring two more goals to take an 8-5½ lead and despite a late surge from the strikers in team Julius Baer, Audi held on, winning 8-7½.

‘Both teams played highly commendable polo,’ said Klaus Winter. ‘And although Audi took the lead in the end, Sven and Lukas showed some very skilled play. Sven is evidently the more experienced of the two – one of my more memorable moments of the final was his nearside goal from 40 yards – but Lukas is hugely talented for his age. He’s

‘It’s a hugely popular event… People stroll up to watch the polo in their bathing costumes’ www.hurlinghampolo.com

the product of the Thomas Winter Polo School, my son’s polo school in Hamburg, where he’s been coached on and off for three years. With the progress he’s made, I can see him becoming a 4 or 5-goaler one day.’

Earlier that afternoon, team Maus Immobilien defeated team Koenig Pilsener 4-2 in the third/ fourth place play-off, and team Lanson beat the all-female team of GOSCH 5-4½ to come fifth.

As part of its inaugural title sponsorship in 2011, Julius Baer introduced a new ‘Leading Scorer’ initiative and donated €200 for every goal scored by the highest individual scorer during the tournament.

Maiquez performance saw him named the Leading Scorer, and with Julius Baer’s contribution and Maiquez’s impressive total of 14 goals over the tournament, €2,800 was raised towards the event’s official charity, Coastal Protection Foundation Sylt. When combined with additional donations made during the weekend, over €15,000 was handed to the charity during the prize-giving ceremony.

In recognition of his outstanding play over the weekend, Sdrenka was invited to join the Julius Baer International Polo Academy at Polo Park Zurich, in July, which is reviewed in this edition of Hurlingham on pages 26-27.

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hurlingham [ action ] This page (Right) Valerio Zubiaurre in front of Lucas James 1 (Left) Oliver Cudmore with Ignacio Toccalino 2 Francisco Elizalde 3 MVP Iñaki Laprida 4 Celebrations for Las Monjitas

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Sotogrande

Newcomers Richard Mille won the Silver Cup in an exciting finish as Las Monjitas triumphed in other high-goal tournaments, reports Herbert Spencer from Spain The Gold, Silver and Bronze Cups, all played for at the 20-goal level, were up for grabs this August during the 40th high-goal season at Sotogrande on Spain’s Costa del Sol. Two teams took the honours at the tournament played at the Santa Maria Polo Club: Colombian Camilo Bautista’s Las Monjitas and Prince Bahar Jefri of Brunei’s Richard Mille.

Las Monjitas (Spanish for ‘little nuns’) returned to the Andalusian resort after a year out of contention; Bautista’s side had taken the Silver Cup in 2009. This year they won two out of the three high-goal tournaments, capturing the Bronze and Gold Cups.

Nine-goaler Eduardo Novillo Astrada, a regular on the Las Monjitas squad in Florida 26-goal, headed the team, playing with Iñaki Laprida, 6; Francisco Elizalde, 5; and Bautista, 0.

First up was the Sapphire Networks Bronze Cup. Las Monjitas scored a 12-8 win over Dos Lunas, and then met James Packer’s Ellerston in the final of the Enrique Zobel Memorial tournament for the Nespresso Gold Cup. Australian Packer’s side was led by 10-goaler Facundo Pieres, playing with brother Nicolás, 8; Harry White, 1; and patron Packer, 1.

Ellerston took a 2-1 lead in the first period, but Las Monjitas tied it up 3-3 in the second, then went on to win the next four chukkas to take the Gold Cup 11-9.

Meanwhile Prince Bahar, nephew of the ruling Sultan of Brunei, captured the 20-goal Hublot Silver Cup with his newly named Richard Mille polo team. Three years ago his Ahmibah team achieved a hat trick when they won all three of the 20-goal contests and in 2010 Ahmibah took the Bronze Cup. Richard Mille polo team started their highgoal campaign earlier in the summer in England.

They reached the Queen’s Cup semi-finals before falling to Talandracas, eventual winners of the 22-goal tournament. Richard Mille then put in a creditable performance in the British Open, defeating titleholders Dubai in league play but in the end failing to qualify.

The Richard Mille team at Sotogrande was comprised of Prince Bahar, 2; England’s Ollie Cudmore, 3; Valerio Zubiaurre, 5; and their star player, 10-goaler Pablo MacDonough.

Richard Mille beat Ellerston 11-8 and downed Gold Cup winners Las Monjitas 10-8 to reach the Silver Cup finals against Ayala, the team fielded by Iñigo Zobel, son of Enrique Zobel, founder of polo at Sotogrande. Richard Mille kept the lead for the first four chukkas until Ayala tied it up 8-8 in the fifth. MacDonough scored the decisive point in the final match with www.hurlinghampolo.com

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a 40-yard penalty conversion right before the end of the last chukka to beat Ayala 9-8.

‘This is a great achievement for the Richard Mille polo team,’ said Prince Bahar after the final. ‘Qualifying for the Queen’s Cup semi-finals in England and winning the Silver Cup in Spain shows that our team is already competitive in its very first season.’

In the later Gold Cup subsidiary, Richard Mille defeated the HB team, fielded by Ludovic

and Sébastien Pailloncy. MacDonough missed the final, having been suspended after receiving three yellow cards in the previous match.

‘We are very pleased with the team’s achievements in their first season,’ said Peter Harrison, CEO of Richard Mille EMEA. ‘We are competitive and already getting ready for the next season. Like this year, we’ll compete in the UK’s high-goal tournament and are exploring opportunities in Europe and the Middle East.’

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Jaeger-LeCoultre Belgian Polo Masters Full sunshine provided a perfect backdrop to a historically themed event in Antwerp, writes Melanie Vere Nicoll to Belgian polo as it was to the anniversary of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso watch.

The match, which was umpired by Jason Dixon in a traditional tweed coat and tie and a fedora hat, found the players on the field in original Harvie & Hudson shirts in regimental colours, traditional breeches and bamboo cane mallets. The horses all sported white bandages that looked surprisingly elegant on the field.

Notably absent were Velcro, Franklin-type gloves, goggles, face masks and fibre mallets.

For the horses the players were asked to avoid tape, saddle blankets and any obviously modern equipment. The players were asked to use special equipment from the Thirties including traditional boots, brown or cloth gloves, the old-style ribbed kneepads, traditional cloth helmets in white or black and willow whips.

Special rules were put in place by the Belgian organisers which included no tapping of the ball and no turning. Players were also allowed to hold their mallets in their left hands although no one appeared to take advantage on the day. Before the start of the match The

Players used special equipment from the Thirties, like traditional boots, brown or cloth gloves and old-style ribbed kneepads MARTIMAx.COM, DAVID AGIE DE SELSAETEN

The strength of the partnership between Jaeger-LeCoultre and polo was on full display at the 2011 Belgian Polo Masters Tournament, which was played at the Antwerp Polo Club over the last weekend of September. Under sunny blue skies, more than 500 spectators turned out to support the re-creation of a 1931 polo match to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Reverso watch, which was created in 1931 for British Army officers playing polo in India.

The two sides that were formed for the tournament were named after the teams which were active in the Thirties at the Royal Antwerp Polo Club, which dates back to 1905. The Optimists – whose patron in the Thirties, Roger Janssen, played across Belgium and all of Europe – met Frederic’s Boys, whose patron in the Thirties was a member of the Good-Grisar family that produced the dominant Belgian players in the Twenties and Thirties. Many pre-war international players played with these teams during the time and the re-created match was as much a tribute

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Opposite The Optimists ride out 1 The 1938 Royal Antwerp Polo Club home team 2 3 Action and prize giving during the original 1931 Antwerp match: Frederic’s Boys vs The Optimists

Optimists team, who were all sporting Reverso watches, lined up in front of the spectators and turned the face of each watch inwards so that the crystal would be protected in preparation for play. The match was open and close for the first two chukkas, resulting in two all at half-time. In the third chukka a penalty three was awarded to Frederic’s Boys which was taken by Christiaan van den Brink – a 2-goal Dutch player who played very well despite a recent neck injury. In the final chukka, Frederic’s Boys had several chances on goal which went wide including a very good run of the field by 19-year-old Laurens Van Deynze who converted a well-hit, 60-yard penalty in the closing minutes to give Frederic’s Boys a 4-2 victory. Argentine Daniel Elosegui, playing number 4 for The Optimists, was probably the best player on the field and scored both of the goals for his team – one on a penalty and one field goal.

Belgian polo was extremely vibrant before World War II with three polo clubs, superb infrastructure and international trophies. The main Belgian club was the Royal Antwerp Polo Club which was the home of Alfred Grisar (owner and captain of the celebrated Pilgrims Team), the Good brothers, Gaston Peers de Nieuwburgh, Etienne Agie de Selsaeten and other continental pre-war polo players. The club hosted the 1920 Olympic Games and its teams played all over Europe.

Today Belgium has one polo club based near Antwerp. The Antwerp Polo Club was created in 1987 by Dorothea and Christian Huynen, Theo Feldbrugge and Bas van den Brink on the site of the old Royal Antwerp Polo Club, which closed in 1940. The club boasts 20 patrons who mostly enjoy 6- to 12-goal polo year round, creating a thriving polo culture which is making yearly gains in popularity for both players and spectators.

This is the fifth season that JaegerLeCoultre has supported the Belgian Polo Masters Tournament. Anne Carlier, the sales and PR manager for Belgium, says of the brand’s vision: ‘When we start organising events we are in for the long run. The values represented by the Jaeger-LeCoultre brand and polo are very similar – when we think of the two we think of a long history, respect, resilience, elegance, quality and longevity.

Jaeger-LeCoultre and polo are a natural partnership.’ The company supports other polo events in Geneva, the UK and Argentina, where it will be sponsoring the La Aguada high-goal team in the Triple Crown. www.hurlinghampolo.com

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Genghis Khan Polo Challenge Herbert Spencer follows two promising young brothers from Mongolia after an inaugural tournament at Ham Polo Club

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Fundación Pro Alvear charity event. At neighbouring Ranelagh Farm Polo Club, the Giercke boys played a friendly match against Wellington College.

‘We also organised a match for them in Ranelagh’s arena,’ said Georgiana Crofton, who was one of the boys’ instructors. ‘They had never played arena polo before and loved it.’

For the Shanghai Tang challenge in London, the Mongolian lads teamed up with Nick Wills and Charlie Wood to form the Genghis Khan team, playing against Ham Polo Club’s Edward Jonkler, Hugo Davis, Freddie Ventura and Will Healy.

The Mongolian-based team were invincible in the latter stages of the match. With just two minutes left on the clock, Nick Wills found the posts to take the team ahead 4-3. Ham replied, but a penalty against them in the final seconds delivered an eventual 5-4 victory to Genghis Khan.

‘Playing at Ham was hard because I had no experience on those ponies, but by the last chukka I think I got the feeling,’ D’Artagnan said enthusiastically.

‘Both the boys played well,’ commented Ham chairman Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers after the Shanghai Tang match. ‘I think they can be quite accomplished players in a few years time.’

‘I really think that I learned a lot about my posture on the pony in the UK, which helps me hit the ball a tad bit harder,’ D’Artagnan said. He returned to England in the autumn to start studies at Harrow, which has a polo team.

So watch for a Mongolian star taking the field in English schools polo.

2 1 The Giercke family with the trophy 2 Ich Tenger in action

HAM POLO CLUB

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Only a nomadic encampment of Mongolian yurts was missing at Ham Polo Club this summer when Shanghai Tang, the Chinese fashion house, sponsored the inaugural Shanghai Tang Genghis Khan Polo Challenge.

Otherwise there were numerous echoes of the vast Mongolian steppes at London’s only polo club, effectively twined with Mongolia’s Genghis Khan Polo & Riding Club.

It was a Ham member, the late Jim Edwards, who co-founded the Genghis Khan club in the Nineties along with German filmmaker Christopher Giercke. From the start, thanks to Edwards, the club in Mongolia’s Orkhon Valley has had a reciprocal relationship with the English club on the River Thames near Richmond Park.

Giercke, owner of the Genghis Khan club, is married to a Mongolian princess, Enkhe, and they were at the Shanghai Tang event at Ham. Enkhe was dressed in full royal regalia as Mongolia’s ambassador, HE Bulgaa Altangerel, presented the prizes.

But the real stars of the show were Giercke’s two teenage sons, Ich Tenger, 16, and D’Artagnan, 13. They formed the nucleus of a team representing Genghis Khan, playing against a Ham side in the Shanghai Tang challenge at the London club.

Ich Tenger learned to ride on small Mongolian ponies out on the steppes at the age of three and learned polo at eight.

D’Artagnan began riding at three and learned to play at nine. They have been playing with adults at Genghis Khan.

Ham member Nick Wills, who played at the Genghis Khan club last year, had invited the Giercke boys to spend time in England this summer. Previously the boys had trained and played in Singapore, India, Argentina, Uruguay, France and Germany, but this was their first experience of English polo. The young Mongolians got the opportunity to witness polo at several English clubs, to take lessons and to play in chukkas and matches.

At the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club (RCBPC), Ich Tenger and D’Artagnan teamed up with 8-goaler Nachi Heguy and RCBPC’s Jamie Morrison to play as a Shanghai Tang/Genghis Khan side in the

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Prize-giving celebrations

Saint-Tropez

CHRISTIAN VALLéE

The South of France was a magnificent setting for the Gold and Silver Cups, reports Melanie Vere Nicoll For the polo player who wishes to wind down the summer season in style there can be no better destination than the Saint-Tropez Polo Club in Gassin. Framed by award-winning vineyards and set against the dramatic backdrop of the French Riviera, the club was established by German owner Corinne Schuler 13 years ago and has since evolved into the destination of choice for players wishing to play in the South of France.

Nestled between the port of Saint-Tropez and the enchanting beaches of Pampelonne, the club was first established in 1998 and admitted to the French Polo Federation in 2003. As interest grew, both fields and horseboxes were added with capacity now standing at 300 stalls at the height of the season. The club has played host to some of the world’s greatest players including the Gracidas, Pablo MacDonough and Ernesto Trotz, on fields laid with Tifton Bermuda grass offering some of the best footing available for players and their mounts. The polo, which begins in April, offers 20 tournaments at the 6- to 15-goal level. This year there were more than 240 matches played on the four playing grounds, by teams that came from 13 different www.hurlinghampolo.com

countries. They played under Argentine rules, which allow players to stop and turn to the left, slowing the game significantly compared to HPA rules, which do not allow turning.

The season, which saw participation from nearly 100 teams thanks to the introduction of six, new low-goal tournaments, culminated in the two-week, medium-goal Gold Cup and its subsidiary Silver Cup. Five teams participated in this year’s Gold Cup. The patrons – who hailed from Germany, England, Thailand and America – played each other in the league stage in four chukka matches over a 10-day period. The pros were all Argentine, ranging from Agustin Garcia-Grossi (8) to Frederico Español (3). There was also a notable patron on the field in Eva Brühl – Germany’s leading female 2-goal player – who took all the penalty two’s with excellent results for her team.

In the league stage, three teams were tied with each holding a two and one record – the result of extremely close, hard-fought matches which saw Thai Polo going through to the final along with title-holders Sezz. The Silver Cup saw the remaining three teams playing in a round robin, with Saint-Tropez coming out on top of Los Nocheros-Glorious and Ultra Pro

for the title. Co-patrons Harald Link and Roderick Vere Nicoll met Sezz patron Shahe Kalaidjian, who came out with a strong, wellbalanced team in a final that saw Thai Polo leading 4-2 going into the last chukka. The momentum however switched to Sezz leading 5-4 in the fourth chukka, with 30 seconds remaining. A 30-yard penalty awarded to Thai Polo and converted by Lucas Labat resulted in an extra chukka.

It is worth noting that in the league stage the two teams also went into extra time. However, for the second consecutive year Sezz ran out the Gold Cup winners with a goal from Ignacio Garrahan, while in the presentations, Tomás Lalor’s mount was awarded Best Playing Pony.

Five teams participated in this year’s Gold Cup, with patrons who hailed from Germany, England, Thailand and America

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Pacific Coast Open It was an exciting finish to the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open Championship, writes Alex Webbe

The master, Adolfo Cambiaso, trailed by Melissa Ganzi

captain Melissa Ganzi. Miguel Astrada drove through another goal for a 3-0 Piaget lead before Lucchese finally answered. A penalty goal from Jeff Blake ended the chukka with Piaget boasting a 3-1 lead.

Astrada scored on another 60-yard penalty shot in the second as Piaget went up 4-1, but that would be the extent of their offence for the rest of the period. Two goals from 10-goaler Adolfo Cambiaso (one from the field and one on a penalty shot) were followed by a pair of goals from Blake, and Lucchese left the field on top of a 5-4 score.

‘I don’t think we were focused in the second chukka,’ said Crowder. ‘We got off to a great start,’ he added, ‘but when we took the field in the second we just weren’t on the same page with one another.’

Cambiaso put Lucchese ahead 6-4 with his third goal of the game when Piaget got its offence back on track. Crowder scored first followed by a goal from Astrada that tied it at 6-6. Crowder’s second goal of the chukka gave Piaget the lead back at 7-6, but the advantage was short-lived. Following a Piaget foul, Blake converted a 40-yard penalty shot to knot it up at 7-7 at the end of the first half.

Ganzi gave Piaget the lead back in the opening minutes of the fourth chukka with a field goal, but Cambiaso and Blake each scored single goals and the period ended with Lucchese holding a one-goal, 9-8 edge.

Crowder tied it up again in the fifth, 9-9,

as defences on both sides tightened. A costly Piaget foul put Cambiaso at the penalty line where he made good on a 60-yard shot and Lucchese rode off the field with a narrow 10-9 lead.

Piaget continued to press the attack in the final chukka but couldn’t put the ball through the goal posts. Astrada missed a couple of goal shots as did Crowder. With seconds on the game clock, Julio Gracida picked up the loose ball and carried it the length of the field for the final score in the 11-9 Lucchese win.

Cambiaso and Blake led all scoring with five goals apiece for Lucchese. Teammate Gracida added the final goal of the game.

Astrada accounted for four of the Piaget goals. Crowder scored three times and Ganzi added a pair from the field.

Adolfo Cambiaso was named MVP for his efforts while Miguel Astrada’s chestnut gelding, Chaleco, received Best Playing Pony honours. Jason Crowder received the Robert Skene Award for MVP of the season.

Lucchese’s unlikely final opponent was the Piaget polo team who were forced to make a rare mid-season trade www.hurlinghampolo.com

dAVId LOMINSkA / WWW.POLOGRAPHICS.COM

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For the second straight year, John Muse’s Lucchese polo team received the West Coast’s most prized polo trophy, the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open Championship.

The Cinderella Piaget polo team that fought its way into the finals of the 2011 Bombardier Pacific Coast Open at the Santa Barbara Polo Club had little to apologise for in its 11-9 loss to Adolfo Cambiaso and his Lucchese teammates, but after two previous lacklustre finals, Adolfo Cambiaso and company prevailed.

Muse and Cambiaso rode the Lucchese team through last year’s Santa Barbara season in perfect style, sweeping the top three tournaments in near perfect form, but the landscape had changed when it came to the 2011 campaign.

A realigned Lucchese line-up (Cambiaso, Muse, Julio Gracida and Jeff Blake) that no longer included last year’s Pacific Coast Open MVP, Jason Crowder, struggled in the early part of the season, getting hammered by a talented ERG team of Scott Wood, Miguelito Torres, Sebastian Merlos and Paco de Narvaez 16-7 in the finals of the USPA Piaget Silver Cup before getting run over 14-9 in the finals of the USPA Lucchese America Cup by a Grants Farm foursome of Nick Morrison, Nic Roldan, Jeff Hall and Andy Busch.

Lucchese’s unlikely final opponent was the realigned Piaget polo team who, due to inner discord on the team, were forced to make a rare mid-season major player trade with Mansour, bringing Argentine 9-goaler Miguel Novillo Astrada to Piaget while sending 8-goal Lolo Castagnola to Mansour. The trade pumped a new life into the Piaget team as it rolled an opening 11-10 win over Lucchese and a surprising 15-10 win over Audi.

Rumours of an injured Cambiaso dogged the Lucchese efforts in the Open as they ran up a 2-2 record before scoring a hard-fought 16-15 win over ERG in the semi-finals.

Miguel Astrada opened the scoring for Piaget with a 60-yard penalty conversion followed by a goal from the field from team

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TONY RAMIREZ / WWW.IMAGESOFPOLO.COM

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1 Major Matt Eyre-Brook 9th/12th Lancers in action 2 A throw-in from the side saddle 3 The original inspiration of the Heritage Polo Cup: the Sandhurst Polo Club, 1885

Heritage Cup Continuing more than a century of tradition, this year’s Heritage Cup saw teams from six nations donning period-style clothing to compete in this unique event, writes Elisabeth Gansterer Inspired by a photograph of British Empire Army Officer Cadets at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1885, and a 1912 image of Louise Hitchcock, known as ‘the mother of US polo’, Heritage Polo is the revival of polo at the turn of the 19th century. For one weekend, polo history is brought back to life with teams performing in ‘Old English’ dress code. Gentlemen compete for the Heritage Polo Cup and play in white jodhpurs with shirt and tie, while the women vie for the Ladies’ Heritage Polo Cup, also playing in revival polo attire, as worn in the 1900s.

Six nations, players from 11 different countries and four days of play formed this year’s Heritage Polo Cup, hosted by Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) Polo Club. The first two qualifying days were played out at Coworth Park Polo Club, while the latter two took place on the Round Ground at RMAS. Pololine.com South America remained unbeaten throughout the tournament. The EFG International British Army Officers came close to defeating them, but there was not enough time to turn the game to a victory, and they lost 6-7. The suspense made the game the most exciting to follow, with incredible skills displayed by both teams.

The Subsidiary final, played during heavy rainfall, saw a strong Indian team with wellconnected Indian polo professionals and 4-goal brothers, Manupal and Dhruvpal Godara. Along with their team consisting of patrons Shyam Mehta (1) and Raj Jain (-1), they took home the third place title, beating last year’s winners EFG International British Army Officers 9-6½. EFG Banker Robert Mehm (1), Major Matt Eyre-Brook (1) www.hurlinghampolo.com

9th/12th Lancers, Gaston Devrient (5) and Officer Cadet Cameron Bacon (0), the RMAS Polo Officer Cadet and rising highest handicapped player of the season, qualified to the semi-final with a half-point goal difference against the USA Patriots Polo Team. USA FIP Ambassadors Major Joseph Meyer (1) & Bruce Colley (1) were supported by patron Louis Bacon (father of Officer Cadet Bacon) and polo pro Gonzalo Garcia del Rio. STL Nigeria participated with three patrons, Kola Karim (0), Mustapha Fasinro (1) and Damian Duncan (0), and guided by Argentine polo pro

‘My dream has come true with the Indian polo team travelling out from Bombay to finally write polo history’ Lucas di Paola (6). The team was knocked out on Saturday.

Raphael Singh (1) & Steve Rigby (-2) remained unbeaten – also due to the excellent play of their pros Matias Amaya (4) and Tomas Iriarte (4). They achieved 8½-5 victory against Hunters Guildford Land Rover Luxembourg Team with Yves Wagner (0), Bert Poekes (0], Martin Riglos (4) and an outstanding playmaker Oliver Taylor. Raphael Singh was awarded the well-deserved Most Valuable Player trophy in due consideration of his effort

in comparison to his +1 handicap.

The Ladies’ exhibition match, in which RMAS Polo & Event Manger Barbara P Zingg took to the side saddle to umpire, saw international female players from Great Britain, Russia, Brazil, South Africa & Pakistan all mastering a fast-moving and skilled game. The 4 Nations Invitational with Natalia Danilochkina (-2), Heloise Lorentzen (0) as the team playmaker, Kathrina Thomas (0) and Officer Cadet Jessica Price/Mahnaz Malik (-2) achieved 5 goals. The Ladies of the British Empire with Charlotte Christodoulou (0), Alice Gipps (0), Fiona Reilly (-1) and Arabella Gilbert/Officer Cadet Katie Lavin (-2) mastered the game leaving victory to the 4 Nations 6-0 in garments especially tailored by Liberty Freedom, as in previous years.

‘My dream has come true with the Indian polo team travelling out from Bombay, to finally write polo history,’ stated founder of Heritage Polo Barbara P Zingg. ‘126 years ago in 1885 Officer Cadets were practising the sport of kings to then be posted out to India. It has taken six long years of waiting to write polo history with a team from Mumbai.’

It was in the Academy’s archive that the then polo manager discovered a picture of the Sandhurst Polo Club of 1885, and went on to inspire a revival match. This Cup is established now, and has found its place in the UK polo calendar. What started its revival in 2006 as one game played between the British Army Officers against Pakistan has now become a Six Nations Cup of 8 goals.

For 2012 a Ladies’ Heritage Polo Cup is planned to be held before the Gentlemen’s Cup with four to six nations.

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the original members of the Calcutta Polo Club, 1864-65

jewel in the crown As the world’s oldest existing club, the Calcutta Polo Club, gears up to celebrate 150 years, Herbert Spencer reports on the magnificent past of the Indian city and its place in polo history Calcutta Polo Club, the oldest existing club in the world, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. Situated in India’s fourth most populous city, the club once played a prominent part in the development of the sport on the Indian subcontinent.

Calcutta itself, now known as Kolkata, has a chequered history dating back to the 17th century. Its strategic position at the head of the Bay of Bengal between India and the countries of Southeast Asia made it crucial for the trading activities of Britain’s East India Company, and the British Empire’s expansion in Asia.

The East India Company’s exports from its warehouses on the Hooghly River, at what is now Calcutta, included cotton for England’s mills, tea from Assam and opium – an illegal trade to China that led to the Opium Wars and China’s cession of Hong Kong to the British.

In 1756 the company fell out with the ruler of the area, the Nawab of Bengal, over the building of Fort William and a troop build-up at Calcutta. The Nawab captured the town and imprisoned the British and their supporters in the infamous ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’. Clive of India marched up from Madras, retook Calcutta and forced the Nawab to cede it to the British.

By the middle of the 19th century, Calcutta had become the cultural and

commercial centre of the British Raj. Known as the ‘City of Palaces’ because of its ornate government buildings and residences, Calcutta would serve as the imperial capital of India until 1911 when the country’s administrative centre moved to New Delhi.

Meanwhile, in the mid-19th century, tea planters of Assam and officers of the British Raj discovered the ancient game of polo being played by the Manipuri near the Burmese border, north of Calcutta. The Manipuri claim that the game, known as sagol kangjei, had been played there for 2,000 years or more, by both their royal family and commoners, before the British came on the scene.

The British, led by Lieutenant Joseph Ford Sherer, sometimes referred to as ‘the father of modern polo’, took to the game with great enthusiasm. Sherer, Captain Robert Stewart and seven tea planters founded the world’s first polo club at Silchar, in Manipur, in 1859.

Sherer was also playing at Barrackpore, a military base near Calcutta. In the winter of 1861-62, he and some local merchants were instrumental in founding the Calcutta Polo Club. The club drafted the first rules of the modern game and in 1882 it was pivotal in forming the Indian Polo Association (IPA).

Calcutta hosted the first IPA national championship in 1907. Before World War I, between the wars and after World War II,

teams came to Calcutta from all over India to compete in the national championship. The most successful team was that of ‘Jai’, the Maharajah of Jaipur, which won the championship a record number of times.

The IPA championship was played at Calcutta until 1996, after which other Indian clubs hosted it. Without the championships to draw teams, the fortunes of Calcutta Polo Club began to decline and at one stage it seemed that it might close. In 2005, however, Calcutta financier Keshaav Bangur became president of the club and began its revival.

Today the grounds of the Calcutta Polo Club, in the middle of the city’s famous racecourse with the massive, white marble Victoria Memorial and the giant Hooghly River bridge in the background, is one of the sport’s most impressive venues. It is here that the club, with the help of the IPA, plans to celebrate its 150th anniversary this winter, hoping to attract three international teams to make it a global celebration as this historic occasion so rightly deserves.

In the mid-19th century, Assam tea planters and officers of the British raj discovered polo www.hurlinghampolo.com

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