TALK
RULE IN FAVOUR
The 2016 high-goal season in England might well be a turning point for polo worldwide. The consensus from players, patrons and the paying public has been that the Queen’s Cup, and especially the Gold Cup, displayed some of the best and most open polo anyone could remember seeing in the UK in recent memory. In the winter of 2015/16, the HPA made the decision to reduce the number of high-goal umpires for the season. Having had a group of between eight and 12 officials over the past decade or so, it declared that, in 2016,
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there would be just four: Jason Dixon, Julian Appleby, Tim Bown and me. Inspired or foolish? Only time would tell. The hope was that, with a smaller group, greater consistency could be achieved and teams could feel confident the best umpires were available to them. Appleby was back in the UK, having missed the 2015 season due to work commitments for the USPA and returned after wintering in Argentina and Palm Beach. And so, in early May, the season began. The signs were positive, even at this early stage,
that a good summer was in store. We were gelling as a unit and, despite the weather, the teams were playing open, competitive polo. The four of us quickly formed a tight group. We all had considerable prior umpiring experience and were good friends, but it soon became clear we shared something else: the same outlook on how we wanted to call games – that is, cut out the chat and allow them to be played with the minimum of whistles. Armed with the new rules for yellow cards and the ‘sin bin’, our ability to stop much of
IMAGESOFPOLO.COM
This summer’s changes to the way the English high-goal game is played proved popular with officials and players alike, reports HPA umpire Peter Wright
hurlinghampolo.com
03/10/2016 15:27
hurlin
