THE W. CAMERON FORBES CUP

A look at the prize awarded at the annual tournament.

The venerable W. Cameron Forbes Cup, one of Myopia’s classic mid-summer USPA tournaments, is named after American diplomat, businessman and polo enthusiast, W. Cameron Forbes.

A grandson of Ralph Waldo Emerson and former governor-general of the Philippines, Forbes was a leading figure at Myopia during polo’s golden years following World War I. According to a 1981 New York Times article on Myopia, Forbes “had an estate in Dedham, Mass., with, of course, the requisite barns and fields for his beloved polo ponies. He even had two stalls built so they opened into the formal dining room, so guests and ponies could eye one another admiringly.”

The inaugural W. Cameron Forbes Cup was held at Myopia in 1938, won by a team led by longtime Myopia captain Neil Ayer Sr. (Myopia’s Neil Ayer Cup is set for June 11 this year). The W. Cameron Forbes Cup returned to prominence during the 1960s and ’70s, coinciding with the resurgence of polo at the club following World War II, says journalist and longtime Myopia member Crocker Snow Jr.

At that time, the annual Forbes Cup doubled as the New England championship match between Myopia — typically represented by a combination of Snow, Neil Ayer, Don Little, Adam Winthrop and Michael Andrews — and the Fairfield Polo Club.

Today, local teams compete for the Forbes Cup, which was captured last year by a Husaria squad featuring Grace Grotnik, Lars Neumann, Benji Daniels, Manuel Mazzocchi and Augustus “Augie” Grotnik. Coincidentally, W. Cameron Forbes, while he was governorgeneral of the Philippines, also founded the Manila Polo Club in 1909, and to this day the William Cameron Forbes Cup represents the highest level of polo in East Asia, says Snow. This year’s tournament for the W. Cameron Forbes Cup at Myopia will be held Aug. 6 and 13.

Photograph by JACQUELINE MILLER