Growing Pains

talking point

MICHAEL CHEVIS Pony Club Polo player Tabitha Taylor, aged eight, on Danny

Growing pai ns

Pony Club Polo is full of girls swinging mallets, but few go on to play at a high level. Should more be done to help women in polo? Asks Clare Milford Haven

There is a theory that polo originated as a sport played by women in Persia in the 6th century B.C. Early Mughal paintings in India also depict scantily clad courtesans playing alongside men on wonderful, ornately tacked-up ponies.

Today, in the macho world of Argentina, polo’s spiritual home, female players are regarded as mildly eccentric. Over here they are observed with a mixture of bemusement and admiration. Nina Vestey, England’s highest handicapped woman at 3 goals and last year’s winner of the HPA’s Best Young Player believes that any prejudice rapidly diminishes once the game is in play. ‘I think if real prowess is shown on the fi eld, then dues are given, but women must play even better than their male counterparts to gain respect,’ she says.

is year, out of the 2,348 HPA registered polo players in this country, 652 are women, representing a 28 per cent slice of the polo playing cake – a fi gure that has remained pretty consistent over the past fi ve years or so. In the last year, over 46 per cent of newcomers to the sport were female. Added to this, the number of women’s tournaments has grown. ere is also an established circuit worldwide of invitational women’s tournaments with one being held practically every month.

In June, the Beaufort Polo Club held a women’s international game which, at 10goal level, was the highest rated female game ever played. Competing against the home team of Nina and Tamara Vestey, and Claire and Emma Tomlinson were Sunny Hale (4,

the highest rated female in the world and the fi rst woman to win the US Open), Lesley Ann Masterton Fong (2), Marianella Castagnola (2) and Kirsty Walters (2). England won by 61⁄2 -1. ‘ e standard of play was fantastic – fast moving and surprisingly good to watch!’ says Nina Vestey.

So, with all this apparent increase in the unbridled enthusiasm of women leaping merrily into the saddle, why is it that after pony club level, where there’s a huge interest from girls, the male/female ratio diff ers so widely? Some sceptics might say that it is because women discover boys at that age and their beloved ponies are forced to take a back seat. Or is it because there is little enthusiasm shown from the governing body of polo?

Charles Fraser, HPA Steward and Chairman of the Development Committee disputes this: ‘Interestingly, more girls than boys apply successfully for overseas bursaries that take promising youngsters abroad, to Argentina in particular, to develop their polo skills. ese fast track scholars are chosen from a long list submitted after the Pony Club championships at Cowdray in August. e selection is limited to 6 to 8 players, and the criteria is that the candidates should have the potential to get to 5 goals by the time they are 23. Although there is no sex discrimination in the choosing, it is rare for girls to achieve a handicap above 1-2 goals.’ e fact remains that, physically, women are challenged in a sport that is extremely demanding, dangerous and rough. What they lack in strength, they have to compensate for in riding skills, mental dexterity and courage. As polo-playing actress Stephanie Powers points out: ‘Although the average height and weight of male polo players is pretty similar to a woman, we may not have the strength and agility. But we have the coordination and many women ride far better than men’.

But it is not only the physical aspect of the sport that confronts the fairer sex. It is also the fi nancial situation. If women are unlikely to get above 1-2 goals, then the chances of them becoming paid professionals are very slim. Once past the pony club stage of owning one pony and having a long-suff ering parent to drive/groom/pay/pick up the pieces, how on earth is a keen young female polo player meant to keep going unless she has unlimited fi nancial resources? e assumption is that patrons who are female must have an over-generous ‘sugar daddy’ in the background supporting their passion. But, more often than not, it is the women who manage to get sponsorship and an increasing number are taking the sport up as their salaries match those of their male counterparts. It is rare, but not unusual, to fi nd a female patron, in her mid 30s, discussing hedge funds or asset

SKA LOMI N AVI D D ESSA TA Y LOR VA N

management on her mobile fi ve minutes before a game. e shift in attitude towards the working woman, added to the fact that many remain single for longer, means they have more disposable income – and polo is a great release from a high-fl ying job.

Rachel Bartels, a partner in the consulting fi rm Accenture, won the 15 goal Harrison Cup this summer. She remains optimistic for the future of women in polo: ‘I don’t think there are any limitations that a woman cannot overcome. I used to be of the school of thought that no woman could ever be a 10 goaler but I now believe that the sky’s the limit’.

In golf, the lady’s tee is roughly 10 per cent shorter than the men’s and up until last year, the handicapping system in golf gave women an advantage. In polo there is no such thing as women taking a 60 yard penalty from the 40 yard line, and they are handicapped on a par with men. Is there a school of thought that women should have some advantages to make it easier to compete with and against men?

‘I think women would feel insulted’, says Charles Fraser. ‘ ey play the game because they love it and accept the rules and structure as it is. I don’t think they would want any advantages’. One woman who didn’t need any extra help was Claire Tomlinson, undoubtedly the most famous woman in polo and once the highestrated female player in the world at 5 goals. She started playing in Oxford in the late 60s, and was instrumental in changing the game for women ten years later in the late 70s. ‘ ey wouldn’t let me compete in the High Goal’ she says. ‘John Cowdray had a rule that he didn’t want women to play because he thought it was embarrassing for foreign players and that it was dangerous.’

Claire, who was 3 goals at the time, called his bluff with the threat: ‘Either put me down to 0 or let me play.’ Eventually, she rounded up enough

L to r: Gillian Johnston, fi rst woman patron to win the US Open, Clare Milford Haven and Nina Vestey

support with a petition, including signatures from Hector Barrantes and Eduardo Moore, proving that the foreign players didn’t mind after all.

Daphne Lakin, the late Lord Cowdray’s sister who is now in her late 80s agrees that her brother was very anti women playing polo before the war, but became more accepting afterwards. ‘All polo stopped during the war and John was so keen to get polo going again that women were welcomed with open arms – but only in the low goal,’ says Daphne Lakin. ‘I was terribly lucky, had fabulous ponies provided by my brother and played for Cowdray off 1 goal. ere was a nasty moment when there was talk of my going up to 2 but fortunately I didn’t or no one would have ever asked me to play again!’

For me, polo is a way of life. I have no problem playing what is perceived to be a man’s sport and I see no reason why a woman should not play as well as a man off the same handicap. Even the world’s highest handicapped player, Adolfo Cambiaso, concedes that maybe women players aren’t so bad after all. ‘I can think of other things that women do better,’ he says, ‘but then I did win the US Open with one so…’ ■