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Polo Times October 2009

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Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons is a house that loves a celebration and resonates to the sounds of laughter and enjoyment. For Raymond Blanc, it is the fulfilment of a personal vision. With two Michelin stars and 32 luxurious bedrooms, Le Manoir is a mecca for gourmets the world over.

Blanc's edict is simple yet exacting – he believes in excellence, it's as simple as that, and this philosophy has been applied to each and everything Blanc has put his hand to. One of the few restaurants in the world to retain two Michelin stars for 25 years, Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons remains a Mecca for gourmets the world over.

Blanc once said that living in the UK for 25 years made him a better Frenchman. One can only dare to imagine how the next 25 years will develop for Blanc and his team.

www.manoir.com

Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons Church Road, Great Milton, Oxfordshire, OX44 7PD T: +44 (0)1844 277216

PTOctober 2009 p2 - 3 contents YC

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Contents

POLO TIMES

Publisher Margie Brett margie@polotimes.co.uk Editor Yolanda Carslaw yolanda@polotimes.co.uk Deputy Editor James Mullan jamesmullan@polotimes.co.uk Art Editor James Wildman james@polotimes.co.uk Advertising Tom House tom@polotimes.co.uk Subscriptions Becky Ford becky@polotimes.co.uk Accounts Debbie Mason accounts@polotimes.co.uk Contributors Bruce Cowley, Antje Derks, Arthur DouglasNugent, Mark Emerson, John Horswell, Lorna Jowett, Lucy Northmore, Jamie Peel, Tony Ramirez, Clare Sheikh, Herbert Spencer, Martha Terry, Carlie Trotter Front cover Tim Vaux at Watergate Bay Polo on the Beach, Cornwall, by Alice Gipps Designed and typeset by Wildman Design www.wildmandesign.co.uk Printed by Stones – Banbury, Oxfordshire Mailers Jordan & Co – Witney, Oxfordshire Subscription per annum UK £55 Europe & Ireland £65 Rest of the World £75 email: admin@polotimes.co.uk or subscribe online at www.polotimes.co.uk

Polo Times East End Farm, North Leigh Oxfordshire OX29 6PX Tel: 01993 886 885 Fax: 01993 882 660 email: admin@polotimes.co.uk www.polotimes.co.uk © Polo Times Limited 2009 and Database Right 2009 Polo Times Limited holds the copyright & database right to the information it publishes in Polo Times and on the Polo Times website. No content may be reproduced or distributed without the consent of the Editor. ‘Polo Times’ is the trade mark of Polo Times Limited.

ISSN 1461-4685

26 & 78 Sotogrande News 4 8

All the latest news HPA news

Comment 11 12 16 17 18

Herbert Spencer’s global view Interview: “Polo Queen” Karen Kranenburg Arthur Douglas-Nugent’s umpire’s corner John Horswell’s players’ forum Your views: letters to the editor

Reports 20 24 26 28 30 31 33 34 36

Test Match

Cowdray Test Match Deauville Gold Cup Sotogrande 20-goal season Barbados tours Canada Saint-Tropez Gold Cup Santa Barbara 20-goal season Pakistan season preview Sal Oppenheim Juniors Credit Crunch League / At home and abroad

Features 40 44

20

Winter care special: experts speak out Way out west: Cornish beach polo

12 Karen Kranenburg

The knowledge 48 50 53 54 62 64 66

Duty vet with Mark Emerson Pony power: Eduardo Novillo Astrada’s Pulpera Feeding with Lorna Jowett: winter tips Winter travel: Val de Vie and My Travels Property: renting apartments in Buenos Aires Gear: team shirts and book review What’s on in October and handicap changes

Out and about 68

Social snaps from the summer

73 78

Classifieds A week in the life of: Tony Ramirez

40 Secrets of good wintering www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 3

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News

from the Editor Congratulations this month to Nina Clarkin, who has become the third female player in history to go to four goals. Many readers will be familiar with the 28-year-old’s cool yet determined playing style and brilliant horsemanship, but this is far from the first time Nina (née Vestey) has made headlines. In 2003, with the Tomlinson brothers and her now-husband, New Zealander JP Clarkin, she became the first woman to win the Gold Cup at Cowdray Park. As Hildon Sport, they knocked out Dubai in the semi-finals and beat Labegorce on finals day.

Labegorce’s Carlos Gracida, 10-times Gold Cup winner, told Polo Times’s reporter, Gareth A Davies, back in 2003: “It was the roughest British Open final I have ever been involved in.”

That may well be, but the main thing I’ve always noticed about Nina’s game compared to other players of similar handicap is that she never looks in a hurry. As far as I can see this is because she uses her head and her excellent riding skills to make sure she is always in the right place. Nina will be involved in another first next month when she leads a team of British women against Argentina – the first time the two countries’ female players have met in an international and an indication of how women’s polo has evolved in Argentina.

As I write, many of you are making winter plans – whether for arena action or for a sunny break overseas. Turn to page 54 for our winter travel special, where you can read the latest travel news, a profile of an up-and-coming South African club and a round-up from three players on what they do in winter. We also profile Karen Kranenburg on page 12. When the Guyaneseborn globetrotter fell for a polo player – and the game – some years ago, it set her on an unstoppable path. Lately she has been instrumental in transforming polo in Barbados, and is set to do the same in Jamaica. She is happily addicted to the game and all that surrounds it. Familiar feeling, anyone?

Meanwhile we’ve welcomed a fellow polo addict to Polo Times HQ in the form of Tom House, who has joined us as advertising manager. Tom’s aim this winter – apart from a successful start at PT – is to go hunting for the first time. We’ll also shortly be welcoming a new subscriptions manager/editorial assistant, as Becky Ford, who has been with us for a year, is returning to university.

Yolanda Carslaw

4 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

Tanoira treatise makes waves AN ARGENTINE HIGH-GOALER with no axe to grind has produced a detailed and damning critique of polo today that is causing a stir on both sides of the Atlantic, writes Herbert Spencer. The crux of the criticism is that the action is not as fast, open and flowing as it once was and that professional players and spectators are unhappy with this evolution.

Javier Tanoira, 38, once rated at eight goals, is the son of the late former 10-goaler Gonzalo Tanoira.

When his father, then president of the Argentine Polo Association, died unexpectedly five years ago, Javier Gonzalo Tanoira’s son Javier, who has retired from tournament competition and moved to written Reflecting on Polo in Argentina the family’s estancia where he raises polo ponies, on playing. As your season has now ended, you in only playing there with family and friends – even England can start discussing some of the items.” though he still holds a seven-goal handicap.

Polo Times columnist Arthur Douglas-Nugent, The literary merit of Javier’s 94-page Reflecting deputy chief umpire of the Hurlingham Polo on Polo in Argentina should come as no surprise. In Association (HPA), comments on Javier’s opus in addition to his career as a professional player, he is a poet and author, has published three books and is Umpire’s corner in this issue (page 16), urging English polo to bite the bullet and working on a documentary ‘This is personal, consider some of the suggested film about the creation of a and I think that’s rules changes for next season. giant maze in memory of the why most Javier lists no fewer than 18 prize-winning Argentine writer new or modified rules he thinks Jorge Luis Borges. people like it’ could improve the game, giving Originally written in – Javier Tanoira the pros and cons of each. He Spanish, Javier’s treatise on acknowledges more than 60 players and officials he polo has been translated into English by Sandy consulted, including the top Argentine pros – the Harper, an English polo-playing expat in Buenos Piereses, Cambiaso et al – but protects their Aires. The Spanish version has a distribution of 300 anonymity by not relating individuals to any points. printed copies and has also been emailed to polo “This [Javier’s treatise] is a good piece of work,” clubs and players in Argentina. Harper has sent the said David Woodd, HPA chief executive. “We already English translation around the world. recognise the problems and it’s interesting to see “I am not on any AAP committee or in any other they’re thinking similarly in Argentina. It’s probably too association,” Javier told me. “This is absolutely late to change the rules for 2010, but we’re studying personal, and I think that’s why most people like it. whether to trial one or two of his suggestions.”

Although it has aroused quite a lot of interest, I feel that here in Argentina nobody wants to take the first ◗ Readers wishing to study Javier Tanoira’s step. Our high-goal season is just starting, and it will Reflecting on Polo in Argentina may request a PDF be hard at this time to start discussing all the topics; of the full work by emailing letters@polotimes.co.uk. when the players are in competition they focus only Then be sure to let us know what you think.

Girl power – Clarkin climbs again ENGLAND’S NINA CLARKIN will become officially the world’s current highest-rated female polo player on 1 January 2010 following the HPA handicapping committee’s decision at last month’s end-ofseason meeting to raise her from three to four goals.

“I’d been hoping to go up,” Nina told Polo Times. “I made it my aim at the start of the season and have put in a huge amount of work with that in mind. So, it’s a fantastic feeling to have got there.

My husband JP and I hired a personal trainer for the season and that has certainly helped and I’m feeling stronger, quicker and fitter than ever before. Also, I had a head start by playing at the highest level in New Zealand during the English winter. I’ve also had the benefit of a few of JP’s horses, which has helped improve my game.”

The highest rated female players in history are Claire Tomlinson (five in 1986) and US player Sunny Hale (five in 2001). ◗ Discover what Nina will be doing next, in her own words, in our My Travels interview special on page 61

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Leading low-goal club closes INGLESHAM POLO Club has closed after owners Nick and Ginny Williams put Lynt Farm, the club’s home, up for sale last month. The 325-acre property on the Wilts/Glos/Oxon borders, which is on the market for £2.5m, has six grounds, indoor and outdoor arenas, an exercise track, stabling and three cottages.

Zoë Innes (née Williams) and her husband Paul, a New Zealander, have been running Inglesham as tenants of Zoë’s parents for four years, before which time Zoë’s brother Roddy, the England international, was in charge.

Paul Innes told Polo Times: “It has come as a shock that it’s going to be sold. Inglesham has gone from being a farm with a couple of grounds to a proper polo club with five grounds and a chukka ground, and since 2005 we’ve tripled membership.”

The couple wrote to supporters and friends on 4 September explaining the club was ceasing operations on 30 September. They wrote: “In ideal circumstances the farm will be bought by a polo enthusiast wishing to invest in the excellent existing facilities.”

Nick Williams told Polo Times: “The lease was coming up for renewal in April, and we felt that as we’re coming up for retirement we didn’t want to start borrowing a lot of money [to invest further in the club]. Instead we wanted to free up capital and give the kids a bit of money. The club needs someone with investment money to take it to the next stage.”

Inglesham had become one of the UK’s larger clubs, with 60-70 playing members last summer and 100 horses in work. It had gained a reputation as a friendly, fun place to play low-goal on top-class grounds.

Five-goaler Ryan Pemble, who won three tournaments there this summer, said: “It’s a real shame. Paul has made phenomenal improvements to the grounds and the number one field was probably the best I’ve played on this season. Paul and Zoë have run the

low-key but people kept suggesting things,” recalls Nick.

“Before we knew it we had two or three grounds and had become a club. It grew from there to the present, where we have five grounds and planning permission for a clubhouse.”

When Nick took a job at Santa Maria Polo Club in 2002, Roddy Williams took over running the club, with Zoë as secretary. More recently, Roddy moved on to pursue his polo and Zoë and Paul took over.

“The number one field was probably the best I’ve played on this season. The management has been fantastic and there was a friendly, countryside atmosphere – it was as polo should be” – Ryan Pemble club with a personal approach and the management has been fantastic.

There was a friendly, countryside atmosphere – it was as polo should be, which is the sad thing about it.”

Nick and Ginny, who live near Sotogrande in Spain, moved to Lynt Farm from their smaller set-up at Birdlip, Gloucestershire, in 1995.

“Ginny found the property in the Oxford Times – it had been a dairy farm,” says Nick. “We wanted a bigger set-up to winter horses on a large scale and have a polo ground professionals could play on.”

They converted cow-sheds into an indoor arena and built an outdoor one, then grass fields followed. “It started

A dispersal sale of equipment is being held on 17 October at the property. Lots include polo kit, such as boards from five grounds, a scoreboard, goal posts and umpiring garb; and farm and yard equipment, such as tractors, farm equipment, feed bins and a wheelbarrow. For a catalogue, visit www.kidsontrigg.co.uk a week before the sale.

Zoë Innes has already found work through an Inglesham patron, who is a dentist, and Paul, who is a one-goaler outdoors, a four in the arena and a qualified club instructor, is on the lookout for a new job, preferably in polo. The couple live off-site and have a three-year-old son, Jack.

News in brief ◗ FORMER CHIEF umpire Martin Trotter, who played mainly at Kirtlington and Cirencester in the 1960s and 1970s, has died. Martin had suffered from a hereditary illness later in life but presided over umpiring for the HPA until 1999 and remained a keen polo supporter. Martin’s obituary will appear in the November/December issue of Polo Times. The family plan to hold a memorial service, details of which will appear in the Polo Times subscribers’ weekly email newsletter. ◗ THIS MONTH THE advisory committee set up to investigate the development of an anti-doping policy for US polo is due to present its proposals to the USPA annual general meeting. The 21-strong group was set up following the deaths of 21 Lechuza Caracas horses at a US Open match on 19 April. It comprises veterinary experts, players such as Sunny Hale and Adam Snow and USPA officials. The AGM takes place from 1318 October in Aiken, South Carolina.

An incorrectly mixed compound of vitamins and minerals, prescribed by a Lechuza team vet and mixed by Florida pharmacy Franck’s, was blamed for the deaths, and there followed calls for an anti-doping policy for US polo.

Meanwhile the pharmacy involved is being sued by the former employee who mixed the fatal medication. Lab technician Sheila Harris claims she was dismissed on 14 May because she cooperated with the investigation that followed the catastrophe. Harris’s lawsuit contains detail about the procedures she followed to mix the compound. She was dismissed on 14 May, having been interviewed twice by investigators. The pharmacy said her dismissal was a “restructuring move”.

www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 5

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Permits system finds its feet NEARLY A YEAR ON from the overhaul of the work permits system, employers are gearing up to bring non-EU grooms and players into the UK for 2010.

Some will be dealing with the “points-based system” for the first time, as last autumn many put in applications before the old system expired.

Polo Times estimates that at least 85 per cent of employers use the firm Polo Permits to administer the required applications for their “sponsor (employer’s) licence” and subsequent applications for “certificates of sponsorship”, which each overseas employee now needs.

David Morley, who runs Polo Permits, says: “Last year we had until 27 November to submit applications under the old system. Before that date we dealt with applications for 400 overseas players and grooms for 2009. Then there was a big rush in January/February from people who’d missed the deadline, and we did 350 under the new system.”

Sponsors (employers) can be individuals, teams, clubs or companies, but must be associated with a member of the HPA. Polo Permits’ clients include the Dubai high-goal team, Ascot Park Polo Club, the patron Clare Mathias and six-goal professional Malcolm Borwick. The majority of their applications have been for Argentine grooms, with a few Chileans, Brazilians, Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans.

The HPA, which has to endorse every sponsor licence application, has recorded 203 sponsors and 406 migrants under the new system. From 2004 to 2008, it clocked 1,662 grooms and players – indicating numbers coming in are unchanged.

IN THE EXPERIENCE of Polo Permits, timescale for applications varies each month depending on processing times at the UK Border Agency and the British Embassies/Consulates overseas.

THE UK BORDER Agency takes from two to eight weeks to process an application and issue the sponsor licence.

Once the licence is issued Polo Permits can issue Certificates of Sponsorship within one to three days.

Grooms watch a match this summer at Great Trippetts

Morley admits the new system is more cumbersome than the old one – until you’re used to it. As well as filling in extensive online paperwork and submitting the application, Polo Permits collates supporting documents, ensures employers meet legal obligations and corresponds as needed with the UK Border Agency. Arrangements have to be made overseas, too, as each migrant needs to obtain entry clearance from the British Embassy or Consulate in their home country.

DOCUMENTS THEN have to be sent to the migrant at home. Each migrant, if he or she is returning home for more than three months – as most usually are – will then need to attend an appointment at the British Embassy/Consulate in their country to have biometric data taken.

THE EMBASSY/consulate takes between five and 20 working days to process the entry clearance application.

“The points-based system wasn’t designed for polo,” he admits, “and it means more work and more detail, but if it’s helping to tighten up on incorrect immigration we have to support it. If you do a lot of applications you learn how it all works. If you’re doing five a day, as we are, it becomes easy.”

In Morley’s experience, immigration officers at Gatwick and Heathrow are more up to speed with the new system and its implications for the likes of polo grooms than officials at ports from Europe.

Most migrants working in polo come in under what is known as Tier 5, and stay for longer than three months but less than a year. Those coming in under Tier 2, which applies more to coaches and players, can stay for up to three years but have to pass an English test and fulfil other conditions. All migrants must have a permanent job to go to.

Morley doesn’t think the new system will affect the number of migrants in polo. “Local girls used to work in polo but now that people travel so much being local means nothing – in New Zealand it’s easier to find an English groom than a local one.”

Jenny Blake Thomas, who arranges Ascot Park Polo Club’s work permits through Polo Permits, says: “The system appears to be working smoothly. Polo Permits helps with the formalities required to obtain a sponsor licence, whether for a club or patron. Once the licence is obtained, the issuing of individual certificates is faster than under the old system.

Information required from applicants seems to be more in depth than before, but once forms are filled in and the criteria are met, it’s straightforward.”

This can be 30 working days in Australia and New Zealand.

THE APPLICANT will be given an entry clearance visa either for 12 months or for the period of employment plus 14 days before the date employment starts and 28 days after (to a maximum of 12 months).

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST NOW? Sponsor licence application: Polo Permits fee – £145 + VAT

UK border agency fee – £400 for a small organisation or £1,000 for a large organisation Certificate of sponsorship per Tier 5 migrant (mainly relevant to grooms): Polo Permits fee – £125 + VAT (and for extension during same season £45 + VAT UK Border Agency fees – £10 for certificate of sponsorship + £125 for entry clearance

The 2009 Polo Times destination decider – where to this winter?

AS EVER, THERE’S plenty of useful information on our travel pages in “The knowledge” section (pages 54-61). But with money tight for some this autumn, Polo Times thought it would be helpful to provide our UK-based subscribers with as much information as possible on flight costs and exchange rate changes for those deciding their winter budgets now.

Though our study of flights was not exhaustive, as we went to press South Africa certainly looked the best bet of the southern-hemisphere destinations both before and after Christmas. The cheapest deal we could find was with Qatar Airlines to Cape Town for £535 in January, though BA to Buenos Aires in January for £630 also looked good. The Rand meanwhile had suffered least compared to its exchange rate in 2007. At 12.455 to the pound it’s worth 89 per cent of its value two years ago. The Aussie dollar was close behind, at 88 per cent. Take a look at our table on the right, with exchange rates listed in descending order, and the poor old Euro at the bottom for comparison purposes.

6 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

Exchange rates (into £s) 2007 SA Rand = 13.947 New Zealand $ = 2.667 Australian $ = 2.265 US $ = 2.032 Euro = 1.442

2008 SA Rand = 15.496 New Zealand $ = 2.97 Australian $ = 2.455 US $ = 1.721 Euro = 1.261

2009 SA Rand = 12.455 New Zealand $ = 2.37 Australian $ = 1.917 US $ = 1.648 Euro = 1.137

Flights (all from Heathrow or Gatwick) Before Christmas (around 14-28 November) To Buenos Aires To Sydney To Cape Town £785 (British Airways) £850 (Ethiad) £589 (Emirates via Dubai) £910 (BA/Qantas) £654 (Virgin) £725 (Virgin) After Christmas (11-25 Jan/16-30 Jan) To Buenos Aires To Sydney To Cape Town £630 (British Airways) £965 (Emirates) £535 (Qatar) £1050 (Virgin) £615 (Virgin)

% of 2007 value now 89 per cent 88 per cent 84 per cent 81 per cent 78 per cent

To Auckland £836 (Emirates via Dubai) £836 (Emirates via Melbourne) £887 (Air New Zealand via US) To Auckland £1020 (Korean A/W via Dubai)

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Autumnal action at the Wiltshire club during the Chatancoga Trophy in 2008

Druids gets a facelift DRUIDS LODGE POLO CLUB is marking 10 years of arena polo at its Wiltshire home with a major refurbishment of its playing arena, due to re-open this month. Owners Giles and Tae Ormerod launched Druids as a fully-fledged outdoor club in 2003 but it began as an arena venue shortly before the turn of the millennium. Players will benefit from a brand new Martin Collins Ecotrack polo surface that is designed to meet the demands of a punishing regime of regular competition and fast play.

There are also changes being made to the arena’s entrances according to a redesign that aims to improve the

smooth running of chukkas and matches – for grooms and players – by adding a collecting ring at one end and a new, separate vehicle entrance.

The development extends outside the arena to Druids’ beech-hedged exercise track and sand school, where new drainage has been laid and the surface from the polo arena is being recycled to provide a sheltered all-weather track and a partly boarded area for warming up or as a secondary teaching arena.

The work is due for completion midmonth, with arena refresher courses scheduled for 24-25 October. Contact the club on 01722 782597.

Surprise boom for new Cambs club A POLO CLUB that set out to attract “maybe 20” members this summer has ended up with nearly 50. Frolic Farm at Lode, five miles from Cambridge city centre, which gained provisional HPA affiliation this year, had gradually become more and more involved in polo when its owners Eddie and Lou Wright decided to form an official polo club.

The farm had been a livery yard for 15 years and a riding school since 2000, and in the past seven years had laid four polo grounds, which until this season were used mainly by Cambridge & Newmarket Polo Club.

Eddie and Lou drafted in Argentine four-goaler Fabio Lavinia to manage the club, and three-goaler Riki Furno is also based there. Visitors can stay in holiday cottages during tournaments.

The farm still has around 30 non-polo

liveries, but 90 polo ponies are now kept there. Members also use a stick and ball ground at a neighbouring property belonging to Alex Clover, who has 15 ponies.

“Everything has happened gradually, but it’s booming,” says Eddie, who used to play. “It’s a nice surprise to have so many members, and I think it’s partly because of the grounds. We’re on the edge of the Fens, so they are on 10ft-deep black peat, which never dries out but drains well. The ponies just run forever.”

One happy customer is Baileys Horse Feeds’ George Knowles. “I’ve been having more fun playing polo than I have for years,” he says.

“Everything happens on time and is well organised. You always have a pro playing, so the polo is fast – it costs more, but it’s well worth it.” www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 7

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News News in brief ◗ ENGLAND AND ARGENTINA will contest the first ever Ladies’ Test Match between the two polo-playing powerhouses on Friday, 6 November in Argentina. The visitors – injuries permitting – will be represented by Nina Clarkin, Emma Tomlinson, Rosie Ross and Lucy Taylor.

Emma is recovering from a broken collarbone and from knee ligament surgery, while Nina is back in working order after the elbow injury she sustained at Cirencester in August.

“My elbow was just really badly bruised so I was back in training within 10 days or so,” said Nina. “I’m really looking forward to the contest.” ◗ POLO TIMES IS SAD to report that West Somerset Polo Club is to close due to declining membership. The club, which is based near Dulverton, was first formed in 1904 and has as its motto “Country Polo for Country People”. Its facilities include two grounds, a stickand-ball field and a clubhouse, all on leased land, which once belonged to the Carnarvon Arms Hotel at Dulverton.

Polo manager James Norman said: “We’ve always been a fairly small club, and recently we’ve lost a few members who have been relocated with their jobs.

It’s a shame because the grounds are beautiful.” The nearest other polo club in the area is Taunton, an hour away. ◗ INTERNATIONAL CELEBRITY David “The Hoff” Hasselhoff has become something of an internet sensation amongst the polo community in recent weeks, with the release of footage of the star learning polo at Ham Polo Club.

He appeared as part of Living TV’s series, Meet the Hasselhoffs, in midSeptember, in which The Hoff visits Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills in the UK with his two daughters as part of a six-part series. The footage, which can be viewed in the news section at www.polotimes.co.uk, also features Ebe Sievwright, who gave the lesson, and Ham Polo Club’s Adolfo Casabal and Pete McCormack.

“We filmed the lesson in August,” explained Ebe from LA, where he is pursuing his acting career. “The Hoff was brilliant. He was really friendly and receptive to my advice. Even though he had never sat on a horse before, he showed absolutely no fear. He was also really natural with the ball.

“The grooms absolutely loved it – apparently Knight Rider is still massive in Argentina and, of course, nobody can forget Baywatch! He’s something of an ironic star now in some ways I suppose, but he seems to embrace this status and is clearly really enjoying it.

“Sadly, Scott Mills is terrified of horses, so refused to have a go. But The Hoff loved it and said he’d love to try again.”

8 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

Latest from the HPA HPA chief executive David Woodd rounds up the news from UK polo’s headquarters Handicap warning for overseas players

Stewards’ meeting next month, on Tuesday 3 November.

Any overseas player who wishes to obtain a work permit as a player must have a registered handicap of two goals. Anyone with a handicap of less than two may play in the UK but cannot be paid to play. For example, a groom can play his patron’s ponies or substitute for another player but he cannot be paid to play for another team.

Next season it is being recommended to Stewards that all players from overseas wishing to play in the UK will need to be registered as playing members of their national polo association. In addition, any new player with a handicap of less than two goals will be required to pass the rules test before he can be given a handicap.

This will be confirmed following the

Handicap changes The end-of-season handicap changes were published last month. They are available in full at www.hpa-polo.co.uk and on page 67 of this issue of Polo Times. All changes are subject to endorsement by the Stewards.

Victor Ludorum winners 18-goal winners: Black Bears 15-goal winners: Black Bears 12-goal winners: Apes Hill 8-goal winners: AFB

Groundsmen’s meeting Places are still available at the annual groundsmen’s meeting at Great Trippetts Farm, Milland, Hampshire,

GU30 7JX on Friday 9 October.

Everyone is welcome and each club and private ground is invited to send representatives. For details, see the news page of the HPA website or contact Lucy Lewis in the HPA office, on lucy@hpa-polo.co.uk.

International Arena Test Match The following have been selected to represent England against South Africa on 10 October at Oaklands Polo and Country Club, near Durban: Seb Dawnay (Capt) Ryan Pemble Ed Morris-Lowe Reserve: Tim Bown

7 6 2 15 6

◗ To contact the HPA, tel: 01367 242828

Minnows slay monsters in 0-goal challenge FLEDGLING POLO nation Sweden cheerfully celebrated a double win last month over a team from polo giants the US in the first US-Sweden Polo Invitational. Almare Stäket Polo Country Club, representing Sweden, faced Scuppernong Polo Club of Atlanta, Georgia, representing the USA, to a beautiful countryside backdrop not far from Stockholm. Unsurprisingly, until this match a US team had not played in Sweden in a recurrent tournament.

The 0-goal action was divided into four chukkas on each day with vigorous and competitive play throughout. Sweden won both matches handily, although Geoff Conroy of Team USA was named MVP. With the outstanding weather and hospitality served up by the Swedes, players and

Action from one of two of the US-Sweden Polo Invitational fixtures, near Stockholm

fans enjoyed all aspects of the trip and, though the US team left without the trophy, co-organiser David Kaplan says the visitors did win over the Stockholm nightlife.

The trip not only formed bridges between two enthusiastic low-goal clubs, but took the Americans on a diplomatic mission. The new US Ambassador to Sweden, Matthew

Barzun, himself a fan of polo, received the foursome at his residence and expressed his thanks to both clubs for the initiative, especially in the light of the match taking place on September 11th.

Both teams are looking forward to the reciprocal visit and rematch in Atlanta next year, and hope they will become a regular tradition.

Underwood launches winter polo under lights in England’s North West

Lucy Taylor attacks the ball

ARENA POLO arrived in Cheshire last month, at Southview, a popular 80x30m indoor arena that also hosts show jumping and dressage competitions. The inaugaral North West Arena Polo Championships, organised by Polo Times Writer of the Year winner and former Beaufort polo manager Miles Underwood, took place on a Friday evening in September and attracted 200 spectators.

Seven three-man teams fought it out in a knock-out tournament, with the Southview team of Lucy Taylor, Oli Jones and Claire Robinson coming out on top.

“This event is a prelude to our winter programme,” said Underwood, who has recently moved to Cheshire. “We will be offering weekly lessons and chukkas and monthly tournaments at Southview from mid-October to March, culminating in a three-day big money event, for which we already have significant interest. Feedback from players and spectators has been awesome. No one else in the area is doing this and we feel we can truly fill a void”.

For more details, visit www.ninepolo.com or call 07825 160246.

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News

Police investigate sexual assault after Gold Cup final

About 15,000 watched the Gold Cup, and PT estimates at least 1,000 went to the party

POLICE ARE APPEALING to the polo community for help in tracking down the perpetrator of a serious sexual assault on a partygoer after this summer’s Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup final. A 23-year-old girl has told Sussex Police she was attacked in a car park near the party tent at Cowdray Park Polo Club the night of 19 July.

The victim, who comes from near Chichester, was among 15,000 visitors to Lawns II on finals day, and went afterwards with friends to the official post-match party, a well-run affair with tight security that took place in a giant circular marquee.

During the evening she became separated from her friends and went to search for them in a nearby field, where cars were parked, at around midnight.

As she searched, a man approached her from behind and pushed her to the ground. A struggle ensued and he carried out a serious sexual assault.

The victim has described her attacker as white, aged 25 to 30, about 5ft 7in, of skinny build and with dark, wavy, collar-length hair. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. According to police she has also described her attacker as having a possibly Spanish or Argentine accent.

It is unclear in which car park the assault took place – cars on Gold Cup day are parked both towards Easebourne and Midhurst – but the victim told police she was in the nearest field to the largest marquee.

“This was a particularly nasty assault and, although a number of lines of enquiry have been followed up, we need the help of the public for more information,” said Detective Sergeant Mark Gowling of Chichester CID. Police have appealed for anyone with information to call the Sussex force on 0845 607 0999, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

Triple Crown kicks off AS POLO TIMES went to press, Chapa Uno had recorded their first win of the Tortugas Open – beating La Aguada in the first game of this year’s Argentine Triple Crown. At the same time, the qualifying rounds for the final two slots at the Hurlingham and Palermo Opens were getting underway. Once again, Britain’s Luke Tomlinson was seeking a berth in the world’s two most prestigious tournaments with Alegría, the side he qualified with in 2007.

Tomlinson plays off a handicap of eight in Argentina and his side looked amongst the strongest of the qualifying field, bringing together a 31-goal lineup featuring his team-mates from two years ago – Canada’s Fred Mannix and Argentina’s Francisco Bensadon – alongside seasoned nine-goaler Pite

Merlos. Also looking to book a place were seven other sides, including La Indiana, featuring Australia’s Ruki Baillieu, and La Baronesa, featuring Facundo and Gonzalito Pieres’s younger brother, Nicolás.

Of the six sides contesting the complete Triple Crown, Ellerstina and La Dolfina both bring unchanged line-ups from 2008 – both at 40 goals after Ellerstina’s Juan Martín Nero went to 10 following the team’s 2008 Argentine Open win over La Dolfina. Their rivalry during the three tournaments looks set to be more absorbing than ever.

Other well-known faces for UKbased polo fans will be Hilario Ulloa and the Uruguayan Pelon Stirling, the latter of whom makes his debut in the Triple Crown, playing for Indios Chapaleufu II. www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 9

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Global view Comment With Herbert Spencer, who has been following polo around the world for 40 years

No wonder top players don’t always appear in internationals and six. By contrast, the best England can offer are two seven-goalers and 10 six-goalers. The USA is stronger, with one nine and eights – as well as sevens and sixes. Several other countries fall somewhere in between in terms of the strength and depth of their handicaps.

If Argentina put their best players into internationals, they would sweep the boards every time with a 40-goal team. Fortunately they are prepared to

I

September to December. Here, again, the tricky problem of when to schedule such internationals.

Add to this the expense of flying the best players across the world when they don’t happen to be competing in the host country at the time of an international there. Not all national associations are willing to bear the cost.

So, all things considered, it’s no wonder that we don’t always see each

‘

You would never see FIFA scheduling an England match on a date that Wayne Rooney is unavailable for the national squad because of his club commitments

‘

country’s top players in action in polo internationals the world over.

Even Argentina’s 26-goal side made light work of England in the Coronation Cup international on Cartier Day

compete instead at around 24-28 goals, the level at which countries such as the US, England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and Brazil can field teams. But the Argentines won’t send any team to an international while their national tournaments are being played, from

REPLACING CARTIER DAY’S “SECOND-STRING” GAME Speaking of internationals, I’ve never understood why the HPA’s Cartier International Day has to include what amounts to an exhibition match between two “second-string” teams made up of members of the England squad not selected to play for the Coronation Cup. It is, in effect, England playing against England.

For a number of years, the “second match” on the day was a proper international competition between an England II team and a visiting side from another country. It was played at a somewhat lower but still high-goal level.

This opened up possibilities for inviting countries that, for one reason or another, were unable to field teams at the higher Coronation Cup level.

Returning to the old format would once again give an extra international dimension to the HPA’s flagship fixture, the world’s biggest one-day polo event.

It’s worth considering. F

www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 11

Photograph courtesy of Cartier

n most sports, the top international competitions pit the best athletes of each country, as individuals or teams, against one another. We count up the medals each country wins in the Olympics and the country that wins the most gets the plaudits, as do the national teams in such other global competitions as the World Equestrian Games. In soccer and rugby there are national winners in the World Cups, as there are in golf’s Ryder Cup and tennis’s championship at Wimbledon. In all these, national pride is at stake and sporting patriotism reigns, so invariably each country enters the best of its best competitors in the events.

Why then do we see some polo internationals being contested without the very best players of the competing countries involved?

At the heart of the matter is the fact that polo throughout the world is a largely pro-am game. The best players are professionals who earn their living from fees paid by amateur patrons. Whilst the pros are proud to be selected to play for their countries, without fees, when internationals conflict with pro-am tournaments in various countries, the pros must of necessity opt for the latter.

It’s their bread and butter.

So the scheduling of internationals is critical, just as it is in sports like football. You would never see FIFA scheduling an England match in the World Cup on a date that Wayne Rooney is unavailable for the national squad because he’s playing in a Manchester United match. The dozen or so poloplaying nations that can field high-goal teams need to get together somehow to coordinate their fixtures lists, ensuring that internationals do not clash with pro-am tournaments.

Another problem, of course, is the disparity of handicaps of the leading players in each country. Argentina has 11 players rated at 10 goals, nine at nine, 19 at eight, and more than 100 at seven

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Comment Interview

Karen Kranenburg Polo-fixer extraordinaire Guyanese-born Karen Kranenburg has made up for her late introduction to polo by staging ambitious fixtures everywhere from Calgary to the Caribbean.

James Mullan discovers how the self-styled “Polo Queen” found her niche – after several pre-polo careers he product of a long-overdue generation, in which ambitious, energetic and entirely self-reliant women were encouraged rather than exorcised, Karen Kranenburg is perhaps polo’s straightest-talking, hardestliving female personality the world over.

And when I say the world over, I really mean it. Few things on this planet are as well travelled as Karen’s passport. The number of stamps it contains is so large, only the vast sea of shoes in her walk-in wardrobe comes somewhere close to rivalling it.

Born in the small South American country of Guyana, to the unusual combination of a Guyanese mother and a father of Dutch descent, Karen has a sense of the exotic and of adventure firmly instilled in her blood. She was schooled in French and English by two orders of nuns at a Catholic convent in Canada’s remote eastern province of Newfoundland, picking up a passion for languages that has persisted her whole life and through several dramatic career changes.

Photograph by Tom Reynolds

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12 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

Undaunted by being away from home during her school years, before university she spent a year at a Swiss finishing school in Neuchâtel, close to the French border. Her studies then took her to university in England, where she did a four-year Bachelor’s degree in Architecture at Portsmouth.

However, it was a career Karen chose not to pursue. “When I was growing up,” she says, “I went through various phases and pretty much the only jobs I didn’t consider at one time or another were medicine or becoming a fighter pilot. Architecture was what I was interested in for a while but I didn’t complete my RIBA professional qualifications in the end.”

Instead she went back to university, this time to study Finance and Economics, doing an MA at the London campus of a private American college, Webster University. She followed this by studying for an MBA with Webster at its main campus in St Louis, Missouri.

This led, perhaps inevitably, to a job in the City with the now defunct S G Warburg & Co

investment bank in London’s square mile, working in the Overseas Advisory Division, advising with debt restructuring and the privatisation of institutions and major companies in developing countries.

“I found this really interesting,” she says. “But, after less than a year, I was given an incredible opportunity to go to Brazil to work for Médecins Sans Frontières as the project administrator on a primary health care project with the Yanomani Indians, an offer just too good to turn down. I was there two years, based in the Amazonian city of Boa Vista, working in a combination of English and Portuguese.

“These days, I like to think I speak four languages proficiently – French, Spanish, English and Portuguese, though I rarely use my

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the UK to do a law conversion. It was during my second year, when I was supposed to be working hard and concentrating on my Legal Practice course, that my head was turned by a polo player.

“I’m not going to tell you who he was, but we were together long enough that I spent a lot of time going to polo and got interested. I started lessons at Hurtwood Park and then, when I had to be in Buenos Aires for a friend’s wedding, I decided to make a trip of it and stayed on for three weeks of polo lessons with Pepe Riglos, who was

Asprey – still in use today – and tournament and team sponsorship from Pommery, Breguet and Navarro Correas.”

The promise of 40-goal polo brought crowds of nearly 2,000, including 400 “VIPs”. Ten years later and, though Karen is no longer involved, the Polo Masters is still going strong, albeit at 18 rather than 40 goals. This year it offered a record-breaking prize of $100,000 to the winning side, Polonetworks.

Karen’s stock has also risen in the meantime.

She has proven her value exponentially with every tournament she has organised since, including polo in the UK, India, Argentina, Barbados, Jamaica, Canada and the US. In

Karen has been the driving force behind Bajan polo in the last six years and has now signed a contract to do a similar job on the Jamaican polo scene

Clockwise from above left: on the beach in Barbados this summer; Karen lifts the Hurtwood Park “Battle of the Sexes” trophy on British turf in 2006 with Victoria Grace; playing elephant polo in Thailand in March 2009

Portuguese so I doubt it’s up to much now. When I’ve had a few drinks I also like to think I have a pretty good crack at Chinese and Arabic too – though I’m not sure those listening would agree!”

Her first brush with polo came in England, after she left Médecins Sans Frontières to return to study for yet another degree.

“Working in Brazil was terrific experience and it felt like honourable work,” she says. “But I never had a real interest in medicine itself, and I can’t stand the sight of blood, so I moved back to

seven goals at the time. From then on, I was hooked.”

Karen has never looked back.

She decided at once to organise a match in the UK, drawing on the strength of the polo she had witnessed in Argentina.

“Rather than starting with something easy, I wanted a challenge,” she says. “Most people in the UK had never seen a 40-goal game, so I decided to make that my aim.”

Hurtwood Park Polo Club at this stage was still in its infancy, and Karen persuaded owner Kenney Jones to let her take the initiative and put together a tournament that was sure to raise a few eyebrows and get the club in the limelight. The Polo Masters was born.

“A lot of time went into getting that organised,” Karen explains. “Getting the players [including the Heguys and the Merlos brothers] was the easier bit – most of them were either working for Brunei or for Ricardo Mansur, so I only had to convince their team managers to let them go for the day. Cambiaso was playing for Ellerston, so that just took a phone-call to Jim Gilmore.

“More difficult, however, was the sponsorship.

In those days I was a complete novice, so I was out trying to meet as many contacts as possible, trying to convince them to come on board.

“But it worked, and we ended up with a beautiful sterling silver bowl trophy provided by

particular, she has been the driving force behind the development of the Bajan polo season in the last six years, and has now signed a three-year contract to do a similar job on the re-emerging polo scene in Jamaica.

“My job involves finalising the venues and dates of a tournament, series, season or tour, and then securing the necessary sponsorship, the appropriate players and the PR, press and logistics. In the last 10 years, I have built up a reliable reputation and a valuable network of contacts that has encouraged me to take on more and more ambitious projects. So I’m now looking at new destinations all over the place.

“Polo this year has taken me to Thailand, Singapore, France, Australia and New Zealand, as well as all my usual commitments everywhere else. It’s a really exciting time.”

“I don’t know how she does it,” declared three-goal businessman John G Byles, owner of Chukka Blue Polo Club in Jamaica when I met him earlier this year. “It impresses me how Karen always seems to be juggling so many balls.

Somehow, they always land in the right place.”

Karen’s instinctive spirit of adventure stands her in good stead as she meets new people, discovers new places and takes on new challenges.

But what does she make of the way the game has changed in the last decade?

“Well, the most obvious change is in the number of people playing the game, particularly women. There has also been a terrific introduction X

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Comment Interview Clockwise from left: Karen and MVP Gonzalo Fucci at the after-party for the Barbados Open 2008; playing in the “Battle of the Sexes” in Calgary, 2006; relaxing outside a roadside fruit store on the north coast of Jamaica earlier this April, while on tour with a visiting Australian side

“Polo is an addiction only death or financial ruin can cure. I’ve no interest in rehab” – Karen Kranenburg

Photographs by James Mullan, Andrew Hulsmeier and Linda Lewis-Bishton

X to the game in new places such as

Russia, China and Mongolia.

“People are also experimenting with inventive revisions of the game to make it more user-friendly for spectators, such as the formats we’ve seen at this summer’s Polo in the Park in London and the Portsea Polo events in Australia – each attracting crowds of more than 5,000.

“Increased spectator numbers have been a welcome feature of the way the game has progressed in the last 10 years or so and there is now also the draw of more and more funfilled beach polo, snow polo and elephant polo events. This brings with it more involvement from corporate sponsors. They like the market they are reaching with polo – they are preaching to the converted.

“However, on the flip side, polo organisers need to be careful. Widening polo’s appeal is one thing, but we must never lose the game’s unique cache.

That is what sponsors are generally buying into and it is its strongest selling point.

“As far as the polo players themselves are concerned, in my opinion, for the most part they are still incredibly passionate about the sport. There are occasionally those that get involved with the game for all the wrong reasons but these people are in the minority. Generally, for most players polo is like an addiction, which only death or financial ruin can cure.

“I am one of those people with the addiction, and I have absolutely no interest in rehab. My love for the game and its possibilities is still what inspires me. While each market that I work in has

14 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

Curriculum Vitae its own challenges and distinctive characteristics that need to be taken into consideration, the passion that drives me is a constant.

“As for the future of the game, the recent pony deaths at the US Open have brought home the need for improved regulation, and rightly so.

Beyond that, my hopes for the game are that more and more women will find success in it, and that we can continue to export worldwide to larger and broader audiences – attracting the sponsorship dollars needed for the fair development of the game for all. As far as this is concerned, there seems to be general agreement that polo on television will take us to the next level.

“This looks likely to be a long-term endeavour, as polo in its present format isn’t very TV friendly.

There is no doubt that one of polo’s biggest conundrums going forward is the question of how to make the game viable for prime-time television on mainstream networks, without losing the essence of the game and its special cache. This is our challenge.” F

Name: Karen Kranenburg Born: Georgetown, Guyana Education: • Holy Heart of Mary Girls School, Newfoundland – Canada • Ecole College de Neuchâtel – Switzerland • BA Hons, Architecture: Portsmouth University – UK • MA Finance & Economics: Webster University, Missouri – USA • Masters of Business Administration: Webster University, Missouri – USA • Law conversion and Legal Practice Course: University of Westminster – UK Employment: • S G Warburg & Co – London • Médecins Sans Frontières – Brazil and London Playing achievements: Karen plays off minusone, though she has been out of competitive polo for two years since she broke her arm in four places falling over at the start of running the Barbados Marathon in 2007. She will need another season out this year too, as she has the two plates and 17 screws removed.

Hobbies: Karen is never far from a challenge overseas – both in and out of polo. She has travelled to 46 countries so far, loves diving, and likes going up, too: she has embarked on a quest to climb the world’s seven main summits in seven years. She managed 21,000 feet of Everest in April 2007 and climbed Kilimanjaro last November.

Next on the list is the highest mountain in the western hemisphere, Aconcagua in Argentina.

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Comment Umpire’s corner With Arthur Douglas-Nugent, deputy chief umpire for the HPA

Tanoira’s dossier proves radical change is required o sooner was the ink dry on the draft of last month’s Umpire’s corner than a copy of Javier Tanoira’s 94-page dossier Reflecting on Polo in Argentina landed with a thump on my desk. This confirmed my suspicions that all is not well in the powerhouse of polo, and that many of the same ills from which we in the UK have been suffering during the last few years have struck there too.

Javier’s treatise, expertly translated

by Sandy Harper, draws on the opinions of an array of all the great and the good in Argentine polo and uses numerous examples from other sports.

It demonstrates that just because a rule has existed for 100-odd years, that is no barrier to change – if, by doing so, the game becomes more enjoyable to players and spectators alike.

Perhaps the most damning indictment of the modern game is that the top players confessed to not really enjoying playing any more and described how they would very rarely take time out to watch.

How sad is that?

contracted a virus, the symptoms being a lot of close contact, changes of direction and dribbling, a nightmare for umpires.”

You might add that this is equally true for the poor spectators. So we should not shy away from radical rule changes, particularly if they encourage the player of whatever handicap to pass the ball and risk losing possession.

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The most damning indictment is that the top players confessed to not really enjoying playing any more, and described how they’d rarely take time out to watch

‘

SO, WHERE TO NOW? Thus armed, Javier launches into a savage attack on the modern game – highlighting, in particular, the overwhelming importance of possession that he sees as ruining any chance of open, flowing, attractive polo.

In this context, the quote taken from Horace Laffaye’s new book The Evolution of Polo (reviewed in this issue – see page 65) is appropriate: “It was Hitchcock who changed the old game of polo from passing to power…”, to which you could now add “and it was Eduardo Moore who changed it to possession”. And in this lies the root of the current ills.

The late Colonel Alec Harper was even more direct when he said: “Polo has

THE DEFENDER’S NOT FOR TURNING The most important change suggested

by Javier can be paraphrased as

that he would be penalised were he to ride through the old line and who thus checks up or pulls away.

Other changes Javier suggests include new rules, as follows: • No player marking the player with the ball may be ridden off or obstructed, avoiding an unseemly accumulation of players around he who has the ball.

• Penalties 5a and 5b and the hit-in are to be taken with one hit. The striker would then be unable to hit the ball again until another player has hit it.

follows: “If a player in defence has an opponent less than a horse’s length away when he is about to arrive at the ball, he cannot turn it but must hit a backhand.”

This may sound revolutionary but in this situation the player turning the ball, and thus changing its line, relies on the indulgence of his opponent – the opponent who, in modern polo, knows

FOUL FOR THOUGHT Last month’s conundrum

Can a player, not the striker, position the ball?

The answer is yes, as the rule states that one player only may position the ball without being specific about whom. However, he should only take five seconds to do so and then the penalty should be taken immediately once the umpire has called ‘play’.

This is probably the most frequently broken rule in the whole book; if it were penalised more often, that would speed things up a lot.

This month’s puzzle

The ball is in the air when the second bell goes but it crosses the line for a goal before the umpire has blown his whistle.

Should the goal be allowed?

Players other than the striker would have to be 30 yards from the ball.

• The number of lengthy throw-ins would be reduced, by giving a hit in to the team that has just conceded when a goal has been scored and a hit in to the team that didn’t put the ball out of play when the ball goes over the boards.

• When one umpire calls a foul, the other may not dispute the call or invite a decision from the referee.

• A specific amount of time for penalty taking etc would be introduced, after which the penalty would be annulled.

TIME TO ACT None of these proposals are so radical that they cannot be included in the rules for 2010, so let us go ahead and give some of them at least a trial. We’ve got to do something – and fast. F ◗ Let us know what you think of Javier’s recommendations and Arthur’s assessment at letters@polotimes.co.uk

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Players’ forum Comment With John Horswell, the outspoken sultan of swing

A super September has put the spring back in my step

A

UP, UP AND AWAY Maybe I am surrounding myself with the wrong people, such is their pessimistic attitude. However, one thing I would say is that the HPA’s handicapping committee haven’t done a lot to help matters. Given that at this early stage even high-goal team numbers are looking poor for next year and there are still a great many professional players without any or many contracts, one has to question the wisdom of putting so many people’s handicaps up.

Some may have actively courted a rise, of course, but there also seems to have been quite a bit of defensive handicapping by some clubs. And in any case, the fact remains that during the many years I was a handicapper, personal preferences were not a deciding factor.

Nor should they be. In terms of defensive handicapping what I mean is that, more so than in previous years, winning teams

have been heavily penalised with handicap rises that are sure to break them up. This has even been true for some losing teams, with many having gone up rather than down across the board, including in the high-goal.

It’s a sure-fire sign of pressure being exerted on the committee in my view.

This should act as a warning, that perhaps the committee has become a bit stale or that too much influence rests in too few places. It remains to be seen how many of the rises actually stick after next season and, speaking for myself, I sincerely hope that I am proved wrong and that my own feelings are tinged by how hard it has been at the lower levels this year.

However, the amount of polo activity in September was encouraging.

SWELLING SEPTEMBER Organisers generated a lot of business last month through clever incentives and

engaging in a full-blown price war.

Hopefully this will not happen in our sport – where service, geography and personal relationships count for much.

A WORKING WINTER Having spent several winters in the early 1990s working all hours of the day (and the night too sometimes), I approach this one with some trepidation but also a measure of optimism. There are still many opportunities to introduce new people to the sport, a game I know they will always learn to enjoy in the same way that others currently do. I proved this to myself and others back in those days and am sure that those who keep flying the flag for the sport during this lean economic period will again also see their labours rewarded.

The continued growth of the sport rests with all those that look after the new people at point of entry. Hopefully their efforts will prove me right in the months ahead and we can look forward to a

‘Many professionals made themselves available later than usual, and at significantly lower fees it also seems that the increased numbers of professionals still with ponies in work encouraged people to stay, play and pay when they might usually have disappeared on holiday. Many pros made themselves available for business in September this season, later than usual and at significantly lower fees.

In general, I can see this trend continuing. Already the winter sales are on and the scramble for winter business is leading to rate reductions. Whether or not this continues next summer remains to be seen but, once discounting begins in any realm of business, you will often see everyone getting in on the act and

‘

fter all the doom and gloom, some reasonable weather and polo activity in September has led me to question whether my prediction of cloudy times ahead still holds true. Sure, at the top level there has been a questionable series of inflationary handicap meetings for many of our more well known players and pros, but the game at the grass-roots level appears to be welcoming plenty of new people keen on trying their hands at polo and on seeing what all the fuss is about.

My somewhat renewed sense of optimism is not based on anything in the news concerning the wider world of finance – given that I tend to read the newspaper from the back, and usually get bored after the racing news. I don’t have a clue with what the economic commentators have to say; indeed, as far as I can tell, most of the news in that department is still pretty bleak.

return to normality sooner rather than later. The distractions of the summer will soon be behind us and we can all then concentrate on showing new people what a wonderful sport ours is and why we still love being involved in it.

Not the winter for too many trips away then but, well, what the heck – been there, got the T-shirt already. However, having said that, the thought of Open semi-finals weekend at Palermo is always extremely alluring. Maybe I will see you down there? F ◗ Leave comments on all John’s articles at www.polopages.com. He will address them in the next issue.

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Comment Your views

Letter of the month Mission accomplished for enterprising youngster

Letters letters@polotimes.co.uk

Cleethorpes – the new Cowdray?

It was with great interest that I read Arthur Douglas-Nugent's excellent obituary on Colin Seavill in which he stated: "The family lived on the coast at Cleethorpes about as far from a polo ground as it is possible to be in the UK." Well, as a sign of the ever expanding polo world I thought it would be worth the Seavill family knowing that the Vale of York Polo Club will be playing beach polo this winter on the promenade at Cleethorpes [see also page 38].

After the club relocated this summer to Bawtry near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, Cleethorpes is a half-hour drive along the M180. If anybody from the Seavill family would like to come along and watch they would be extremely welcome.

Paul Piddington Yorkshire

Thank you so much for publicising my boot-cleaning sideline at Cirencester Park this summer in the Polo Times weekly email newsletter. It really helped boost support for my little business and my Dad thinks it also gave me the added “push” for the end of the season, when my target of raising enough to buy a Roxtons Union Jack saddle was in sight.

Well, the exciting news is that, after buffing dozens and dozens of pairs of polo footwear over the course of the season, I have finally made enough money to buy my saddle. I have even made an additional £31 on what was required, so have already begun saving for a La Martina kit and stick bag. This hopefully won’t take long. Who knows, maybe next I can aim to buy a polo pony!

Jamie Salter, who has polished and I asked all my customers during the summer to sign a board and buffed all summer long – with an aim there are some professional names on there I think Polo Times readers will recognise, including Dave Allen, Rob Archibald, James Beim, Malcolm Borwick, Nick Britten-Long, Kit Brooks, John Paul and Nina Clarkin, Ollie, Matt and Rob Cudmore, Tom De Bruin, George Gemmel, Glen Gilmore, Nacho Gonzalez, Charlie Gordon-Watson, Charlie and George Hanbury, James Harper, Sam Hopkinson, Jaime Huidobro, Paul Innes, Tim Keyte, Will Lucas, Spencer McCarthy, Dave Miller, Tom Morley, Jamie Morrison, Edmund Parsons, Nick Pepper, Charlie Simpson, Guy Verdon and Evelyn Williams.

Thanks again for the support at Polo Times, and to Cirencester Park for allowing me to operate my little business.

Jamie Salter, 11 years old Gloucestershire

The writer of the letter of the month wins a bottle of La Chamiza Argentine red wine Should we adopt the Palermo PA system?

As an aficionado of the art of commentary for more than 40 years I

You say it best when you say nothing at all

18 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

have already deprecated the “TV Host” style; alas in places it got worse in 2009 – the Presenter has now become the Speedy Shouter and I’m becoming convinced that some of my brothersin-voice are paid by the number of words they utter in a chukka.

Because of the high number of words, intelligibility has now become an issue; in very late summer I was at a match where some spectators in the grandstand actually complained! Is the aim to make polo appear more politically correct by emulating football commentators?

What a far cry from the enviable style of Michael Amoore, who sounds as quiet as if he were telling a bedtime story – yet commands both the attention and the emotions of the spectators. As well as being intelligible, a commentary must be equally helpful to spectators wherever they are situated on the ground; this also helps to dispel any “them” and “us” feeling.

Hence “towards the scoreboard end” is infinitely preferable to “on my right”.

Maybe it’s time the HPA added an advisory chapter to the Blue Book: commentators may not be players or officials but they do become ambassadors for polo every time they switch on the microphone.

Roy Law Middlesex

“That’s just what we do!”

I am a one-woman polo-playing outfit. So, when I was incapacitated by a severe concussion in a dramatic somersault fall in chukkas at Tidworth on a Sunday last month, the club was left with a lot of pieces lying about to deal with.

The club’s chief umpire Sean Dayus shot straight across the ground to assess my injuries, and immediately arranged for transport to get me off the field safely and comfortably.

As soon as I had been moved to the sidelines, polo manager John Wright was on the phone to my brother to let him know what was going on.

Then, scarcely had the paramedics arrived, yard manager Jackie “Jax” Taylor had my ponies taken care of and was driving my box to a safe compound. There was no fuss, no messing, and everything was calmly communicated to me, so that I would not have to worry. Amazing!

Next morning (Monday), just after 9am, I phoned the club expecting to have to leave a message about arrangements for collecting my ponies, box, tack and polo gear.

Instead of a machine, there was the delightful Muriel asking how I was, insisting that we could collect the ponies again when it would be

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convenient for us! I was told not to worry and that she would arrange to have the whole lot assembled in one place, ready for collection.

Then, the next thing I knew, on Monday afternoon, John himself was out, getting the box started to ensure that everything was just ready for the ponies to be caught and loaded to go.

My brother arrived to find ponies happy and well, with every bit of tack and gear tidily stowed.

The team who run Tidworth deserve to be very proud. Their exemplary job in dealing with my accident was fantastic – fast, calm, efficient, immensely solicitous and extremely kind. It is typical of the spirit of the club, as is the way our thanks are always cheerily brushed off as perfectly normal: “That’s just what we do!”

It’s not normal, it’s extraordinary.

Even awe-inspiring. Thank you.

Frances Maundrell Wiltshire (now fully recovered) Let’s raise fines and invest the cash I felt compelled to write in following your interview with Jason Dixon (below). I write as an umpire and amateur player. I am a member of Rutland Polo club and play at many of the clubs in the Midlands.

I have a great deal of respect for Jason Dixon speaking up with his views and ideas about how to improve umpiring. Reducing the penalty given to Mr Azzurra for what would appear to be financial reasons is abhorrent.

More thought perhaps should have been given at the time to the penalty. I would suggest in future giving higher fines and shorter bans to penalties and directing that money towards improving umpiring.

I have been very impressed with how much benefit professional umpiring contributes to the game.

Amateurs benefit hugely from their

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experience when they are given the chance to shadow a professional, and they take that experience to the field in their own clubs.

A well umpired game is much more enjoyable to play as arguments and unsporting behaviour are much less likely to occur – and when they do they are stopped very quickly. Educating the young on the rules, umpiring and how to conduct yourself on the field will reap rewards for us all as they come through the system.

I concur with Jason that there needs to be more structure and financial support for professional umpires. As suggested above, this could be partly funded by handing out fines for foul or unsporting behaviour on the field!

James van Oppen Leicestershire Why I take my hat off I’ve been most impressed with the service the hat maker Charles Owen gives. I took a tumble in early August playing four-goal, bashed my head and fractured three ribs.

My so caring daughter Minty phoned up Charles Owen and told them what had happened. They asked her to send my hat to them for inspection at no charge. Unfortunately the hat is damaged and would not protect my head if I had another fall. They promised to send me a replacement hat quickly to be invoiced via Tally Ho Farm, from whom I purchased the hat.

What great service in this day and age. Incidentally Tally Ho has a chap called Ian who is a first-rate hat fitter.

George Knowles Essex ◗ Does it occur to other readers to replace their hats after a fall, or to check if they have lost their protection? What do you think about rules – or lack of – on polo hats? Why is polo one of the only horse sports not to have a minimum standard for hats? Tell us what you think by writing to letters@polotimes.co.uk

Jason Dixon discussed professional umpiring with Herbert Spencer in the August issue of Polo Times

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Report St Regis Test Match and Lanesborough Ladies British Open

England’s nemesis at Cowdray were (l-r) New Zealanders Sam Hopkinson and Tommy Wilson, South African Tom de Bruin and Australian Jock Mackay

From heroes to zeros – hosts fall short again A year after England swept away their opposition with three wins in a row in 2008, the home side suffered a third consecutive Test Match defeat last month, this time at Cowdray. Herbert Spencer commiserates udi England lost the St Regis International Cup Test Match against the Rest of the Commonwealth last month by the half a goal they conceded on handicap. The visitors secured their 81/2-8 victory in the last minute of the final chukka at Cowdray Park Polo Club.

England’s defeat meant that, for the first time, the national teams have lost all three of their athome international tests in one season. In June they fell to Australasia by half a goal on handicap in the 28-goal Beaufort Test and in July were heavily defeated by Argentina in the 26-goal Coronation Cup at the Cartier International.

The season’s final Test, sponsored by St Regis Hotels & Resorts, was scheduled at a lower handicap level, 21 goals, so did not include the top professionals of the four countries involved – England and, for the Commonwealth, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Conspicuous by their absence were New Zealand’s eight-goaler John Paul Clarkin and seven-goaler Simon Keyte,

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England’s seven-goalers Luke Tomlinson and James Beim, and Aussies Glen Gilmore and Jack Baillieu, also seven.

David Woodd, chief executive of the Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA), explained the lower handicap Test: “We decided before our Cartier International to give the Hurlingham and

England and their visitors had to change their announced line-ups because players were tied up with pro-am tournaments.

With Tom Morley otherwise occupied, England brought in Mark Tomlinson. The Commonwealth had to replace Rob Archibald with Jock Mackay, bringing the team’s handicap down to 20 goals

‘We dominated as a team, and we really should have won.

Now it’s all about doing better next year ’ – Chris Hyde The Prince of Wales’s teams something extra to play for, with the winners receiving the honour of representing England in the St Regis Test.”

The two Golden Jubilee Trophy teams, both 21 goals, were made up of members of the England squad who were not selected for the Coronation Cup. Hurlingham won and thus claimed the right to contest the final domestic Test Match of the season at Cowdray Park.

Woodd added: “It was also a question of which Commonwealth players would be available for the St Regis.” In the end, as it happened, both

and giving them a half-goal on the scoreboard before the match began.

England captain Chris Hyde opened the scoring with a field goal two minutes into the first chukka, then increased the home team’s lead with a from-the-spot penalty conversion. The visitors responded with a spot conversion by South African Tom de Bruin and took the lead with a 30-yarder by Sam Hopkinson of New Zealand. A 60-yarder by Tomlinson was blocked, but Hyde scored from the goalmouth mêlée, putting X England ahead again. In the second period, the

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Max Routledge (in red and white) and Sam Hopkinson go shoulder-to-shoulder

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Report St Regis Test Match and Lanesborough Ladies British Open

Clockwise from above: Satnam Dhillon, chased by Tom de Bruin; best retrained racehorse Paris, played by Sam Hopkinson; Tom de Bruin and Max Routledge do battle

X Commonwealth retook the lead before Hyde put

England ahead again with penalty conversions.

The visitors pulled one back with de Bruin’s field goal, but England kept their half-goal advantage.

Each team scored only once in the third.

England’s Satnam Dhillon found the posts from the field, answered by de Bruin, who scored a lofted 60-yard penalty conversion.

England increased their lead in the fourth period when Hyde tapped in a spot penalty from just a few yards out and Dhillon scored another field goal. The visitors pulled one back with a field goal by Kiwi Tommy Wilson.

The fifth and final chukka started with the home team leading 8-61/2. Then, to the crowd’s surprise, the visitors held England scoreless as, halfway through the period, Hopkinson scored a field goal. In the final minute of the match,

Wilson found the posts to give the Commonwealth their half-goal victory.

“At no time in the game did we think we had lost it,” said Commonwealth captain Tommy Wilson after the match. “We missed a couple of easy goals early on and gave away some easy ones, some on penalties, probably because we were too impatient in defence. We knew we had to get the package together, which luckily we did in the final chukka.”

“I think we dominated as a team,” said England captain Chris Hyde, “but we gave them opportunities through fouling and penalty conversions – although, as a professional player, I didn’t always understand why the umpires failed to blow the whistle on them in the last chukka.

“We really should have won,” Hyde concluded.

“Now it’s all about doing better next year.” F

St Regis Test Match; 6 September; Cowdray Park Polo Club, West Sussex Result: The Commonwealth beat England, 81/2-8 Principal sponsor: St Regis Hotels & Resorts Handicap level: 21-goal Chukka scores (Commonwealth): 21/2-3; 41/2-5; 51/2-6; 61/2-8; 81/2-8 Most valuable player: Jock Mackay Best retrained racehorse: Paris, owned and played by Sam Hopkinson Teams Rest of the Commonwealth (20): Jock Mackay 4; Tom de Bruin 4; Tommy Wilson 6; Sam Hopkinson 6 England (21): Max Routledge 3; Satnam Dhillon 6; Mark Tomlinson 6; Chris Hyde 6

Photographs by Tony Ramirez

Wounded women lead to lean ladies’ entries

Ladies’ British Open winners, Audi (l-r): Vanessa Taylor, Rosie Ross, Clare Milford Haven and Louisa Wentworth-Stanley

22 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

JUST TWO TEAMS teams entered the Lanesborough Ladies British Open, with a single game played before the St Regis Test at Cowdray Park Polo Club. Audi, featuring a mother-daughter combination of Clare Milford Haven and Louisa Wentworth-Stanley, beat Pololine 31/2-3.

In the weeks before the event, potential teams were plagued by injuries that sidelined some of England’s leading female players and brought down the number of teams entered in the tournament – which has hit five in the past. Nina Clarkin was

out with a badly bruised elbow, Emma Tomlinson with a broken collarbone, and Aurora Eastwood with a broken wrist.

Heloise Lorentzen, who replaced her sister Aurora Eastwood on the Pololine team, was named most valuable player of the Lanesborough Hotel-backed event.

Teams Audi (0): Louisa Wentworth-Stanley -2; Clare Milford Haven 0; Rosie Ross 2; Vanessa Taylor 0 Pololine (1): Heloise Lorentzen 0; Lila Pearson 0; Sarah Wiseman 1; Alice Gipps 0

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Report Deauville Gold Cup

Fantastique!

Facundo finishes first in France Lucy Northmore reports on an enthralling fortnight in which the British raiders fared well, but the formidable Facundo Pieres continued the family run of wins he 10-goal abilities of Argentina’s Facundo Pieres proved to be the difference in the final of the Deauville Gold Cup this year. Just. He led Royal Barrière to a thrilling 10-9 victory over Talandracas, marking the conclusion of a fantastic two weeks of competition.

The Deauville Gold Cup is a delightfully intimate affair, and the Normandy club once again welcomed six teams and some of the finest polo players to fight it out for France’s biggest prize. There were fewer English players peppered across the sides this year, but Nick Britten-Long’s Cirencester Park Polo Club, fielding Jamie Le Hardy and Henry Brett, were competitive in all their matches until they fell at the semi-final stage to the eventual winners.

They went on to win the subsidiary final, seeing off the other losing semi-finalists HB Polo in a fantastically open match. Cirencester opened up a decent lead before the Frenchmen battled back, to the delight of the crowd, and tied the scores going

Photographs by www.rbpresse.com

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into the final chukka. However, the British-led team prevailed. Two late goals from Santiago Gaztambide and Nick Britten-Long plus a spectacular penalty save from Gaztambide ensured Cirencester won 10-8 to take third place.

“It’s been a great tournament,” said BrittenLong. “I’m incredibly proud of the team and we were able to put pressure on some very good sides throughout. However, we had some bad luck at times, and were unfortunate not to make the final.

All in all though, we were delighted with the wonderful hospitality and generosity that was shown to us and all the visiting teams.”

The final was preceded by a parade of young local players, who then rode out for two excellent chukkas on their fluffy ponies. Polo de Deauville’s president, Philippe de Nicolay, then gave a speech, warmly thanking his army of staff and describing his vision for the future of the club.

The tournament’s decider brought together two French patrons and some spectacular hired help

Where racing meets polo WITH THE POLO grounds set neatly inside the track of the town’s racecourse, Deauville makes for a special setting for high-goal.

Spectators can witness two equestrian worlds at work and play – racehorses circle in the paddocks beside the ground before races, while polo nestles amid all the action.

This year’s winning patron André Fabre personifies how the two equestrian disciplines overlap. He is a successful thoroughbred horseracing trainer in France and a former champion jump jockey.

The atmosphere throughout the tournament was friendly and relaxing, with plenty of fun to be had with the players and patrons, all of whom were refreshingly approachable and extremely hospitable.

It’s a date that will certainly be going in the diary in thick red pen for next year, as soon as my 2010 journal is pulled from the Christmas stocking. It’s a tournament not to be missed.

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From far left: detail of the fabulous Coupe d’Or, France’s biggest prize; Talandracas’s Lucas Monteverde (with the pink stripe) challenges MVP Facundo Pieres, whose father and older brother have both won the title; Juan Chavanne of Talandracas charges forward with purpose

already familiar to the spectators from the Argentine Open “rematch” some four weeks earlier, Facundo Pieres and Lucas Monteverde. Pieres plies his trade for Ellerstina in the Argentine Triple Crown, while Monteverde is a three-time winner with La Dolfina. Their ongoing rivalry provided an intriguing sub-plot, with Pieres hired by André Fabre for Royal Barrière and Monteverde employed

by Edouard Carmignac for Talandracas.

It proved to be a nail-biting climax to the tournament, as Talandracas came back from an unflattering half-time scoreline to make a real game of it. Facundo Pieres and his teenage wingman, South African Chris MacKenzie, made a formidable duo, poaching the ball from Talandracas on numerous occasions and helping their side to a 6-3 half-time lead. MacKenzie caught plenty of eyes this summer in England, where he played for Les Lions II. However, Talandracas produced a barnstorming fifth chukka, outscoring Royal Barrière by three goals to one to put themselves right back into contention. Yet, with Royal Barriere’s Facundo

Pieres still having another excellent day, it was not enough. Pieres kept the pressure on the resurgent Talandracas side in a scrappy final period, proving that attack is the best form of defence, and led them to victory, 10-9.

Royal Barrière finished unbeaten in the tournament, and Pieres’s team-mate Francisco Bensadon was full of praise for the contribution of the 10-goaler. “Luckily, having Facundo on your side is a massive advantage,” said Bensadon.

“He and Chris Mackenzie formed a great relationship on the field and produced some excellent combinations.

“We still had to concentrate hard towards the end, as the opposition were very strong and, in particular, Lucas Monteverde and Guillermo Terrera had a great last two chukkas. Their horses were extremely good.”

“My father won this cup, as did my brother Gonzalo three years ago,” said Pieres himself. “So it was an important victory for me and I’m already looking forward to coming back and defending the title.” F

Deauville Gold Cup-Coupe d'Or Lucien Barriere; 16-30 August 2009; Deauville Polo Club, France Result: Royal Barrière beat Talandracas 10-9 Sponsors: Lucien Barrière; Chaisor; Ferrari, Bottary; Le Touessrock; Ville de Deauville; Fougout Barriere; Les Vopeurs Handicap Level: 18-20 goal Number of team entries: six Chukka scores (Royal Barriere): 3-1; 6-1; 6-3; 8-5; 9-8; 10-9 Most valuable player: Facundo Pieres Best playing pony: Mayflower, owned and played by Facundo Pieres Finalists Royal Barrière (20): Christopher Mackenzie 2; Francisco Bensadon 8; Facundo Pieres 10; André Fabre 0 Talandracas (20): Edouard Carmignac 0; Guillermo Terrera 7; Lucas Monteverde 8; Juan Chavanne 5 Subsidiary finalists Cirencester (20): Nick Britten-Long 2; Jamie Le Hardy 5; Santiago Gaztambide 7; Henry Brett 6 HB Polo (20): Ludovic Pailloncy 2; Cristian Laprida Jr 7; Lucas Criado 8; Sebastien Pailloncy 3

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PTOctober 2009 p26-27 Sotogrande YC JM PJ

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Report Sotogrande high-goal round-up

As Britain’s most ubiquitous tabloid pin-up made her debut on the sidelines, Tony Ramirez reports from the Spanish sunshine on the 10goaler and the high-goal debutant that sneaked their way to victory otogrande comes to life throughout August, as the world’s polo media and a selection of its best players descend on Santa María Polo Club for the highlight of the summer season at the luxury resort in Southern Spain. The tournament, which began with humble roots on a sand ground on the beach back in the early 1970s, is now a five-week-long extravaganza in its 38th year.

It now consists of nine titles – a Bronze, Silver and Gold Cup, each played at low, medium and high-goal level. And today Santa Maria Polo Club has nine polo fields at its Los Pinos, River and Puente de Hierro sites, with the main showcase games played largely on the Los Pinos grounds.

Photographs by Tony Ramirez

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The tournament lost seven teams from the previous year, presumably due to the economic climate and the increased profile of other European tournaments, but this still meant

Pieres discovered his magic and fired home a total of eight goals Sotogrande welcomed some 21 sides. The culmination of all their efforts were the finals of the low, medium and high-goal Gold Cups over the last weekend of the month, 29-30 August.

The 20-goal Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup is the jewel in Santa Maria Polo Club’s crown, and this

year produced a thrilling contest for the final on 29 August, as Taittinger/Don Lunas defeated one of the favourites for the title, Las Monjitas, 11-10.

It was a coup for Taittinger/Don Lunas, who owed much of the thanks for their victory to their goal-scoring number three, Gonzalito Pieres, a player who has been in inspirational form all summer, having won the Gold Cup in the UK and the Argentine Open 40-40 Rematch in Deauville.

The final itself began slowly, with Las Monjitas taking the early initiative and showing why they had snatched the Silver Cup two weeks earlier.

Colombian patron Camilo Bautista once again played the impressive Argentine duo of Eduardo Novillo Astrada and Queen’s Cup hero Juan Gris Zavaleta, who worked together to

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Is the Price right?

T h e a p p e a r a n c e o f r e c e n t l y d i v o r ced tabloid queen Katie Price on 23 August cr eated s o m e t h i n g o f a m e d i a s t o r m at Santa María Polo Club, accompanied as she was by h e r n e w l o v e i n t e r est, cage-f i ghter A lex Reid.

Price also used the visit to launch her new collection of riding wear, K P Equestrian.

A k ee n r i d e r s i n c e t h e a g e of seven, she developed the range as a means of brightening up equestrian gear, operating under the slogan “Put some glamour and sparkle into your riding”.

The label is aimed at women and childr en. Katie sponsor ed a l o w - g o a l t e a m i n S o t o g r a n d e t o p r omote it, with a side featuring a ver y inter national lineup: Englishman James Peat, Irishman Richar d Fagan, Ar gentine Santiago Tor reguitar and Spanish show jumper, Alvar o Muñoz Escassi.

Sotogrande International Polo Tournament; 28 July-30 August; Santa María Polo Club, Spain Main result: Taittinger/Don Lunas beat Las Monjitas, 11-10 Principal sponsors: Jaeger-LeCoultre; La Martina; Valecuatro; Hackett Handicap levels: 20-goal; 12-goal; 6-goal Chukka scores (Taittinger/Dos Lunas): 0-2; 15; 4-7; 6-8; 9-10; 10-10; 11-10 Most valuable player: Santiago Stirling Best playing pony: Yolanda, owned and played

by Eduardo Novillo Astrada Final teams: Taittinger/Dos Lunas (20): Santiago Stirling 1; Pacual Sainz de Vicuña 4; Gonzalito Pieres 10; Rodrigo Rueda 5 Las Monjitas (20): Camilo Bautista 0; Juan Gris Zavaleta 7; Eduardo Novillo Astrada 9; Francisco Elizalde 4 Top: Gonzalito Pieres (middle left) and Pacaul Sainz de Vicuña in action, flanked by Eduardo Novillo Astrada (far left) and Francisco Elizalde. Above: Rodrigo Rueda, Gonzalito Pieres, Pacaul Sainz de Vicuña and Santi Stirling

great effect in the first three chukkas – at one stage giving Las Monjitas a 7-1 lead.

However, the spectators’ interest was guaranteed when Taittinger/Don Lunas broke with the script that everyone was expecting and began to mount a comeback. Gonzalito Pieres discovered the magic that saw him win the Gold Cup most valuable player award and fired home a total of eight goals as he steadily made the scores closer and put in the winner. Trailing 7-4, 8-6 and 10-9 at the end of the third, fourth and fifth chukkas respectively, Taittinger/Don Lunas finally pulled level in the sixth at 10-10.

With the onset of extra-time, even the firsttime polo-goers just there on holiday were captivated. Pieres converted a 40-yard penalty, completing a remarkable comeback and giving an

unexpected win to Taittinger/Don Lunas.

Pieres was the obvious hero of the day, but the contribution and teamwork of his teammates should not be underestimated. In particular, 16-year-old Santiago “Santi” Stirling made a memorable high-goal debut, showing the sort of pedigree that we might expect from the son of David Stirling and the brother of David “Pelon” Jr. He will certainly be a player to keep an eye on.

The subsidiary final took place before the main event, and featured the only English side in the tournament, George Milford Haven’s Broncos.

They were beaten to the Memorial Pedro Domecq de la Riva Cup, 11-7, by Leones Fun & Basics, featuring Gerardo Mazzini and Alejandro Muzzio.

Broncos featured last year’s hero at Sotogrande,

Further results: Gold Cup – Med-goal: Ayala Esperanza bt Scapa John Smith 10-9; Low-goal: L-14 bt Kia El Corzo 7-6. Silver Cup – High-goal: Las Monjitas bt Ayala 11-10; Med-goal: Ayala Esperanza bt Woodchester 15-13; Low-goal: Kia El Corzo bt KP Equestrian 12-7. Bronze Cup – Highgoal: Ayala bt Las Monjitas, 8-6; Med-goal: Scapa John Smith bt Woodchester 13-8; Low-goal: L-14 bt Bisontes-MH Bland 8-7

Pablo MacDonough – winner of the Bronze, Silver and Gold high-goal cups with Prince Bahar Jefri’s Ahmiba side in 2008.

The finals of the medium-goal La Martina Gold Cup and the low-goal Valecuatro Gold Cup followed a day after the high-goal showdowns, on 30 August, and were won by Ayala Esperanza and L-14 respectively.

The Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, a regular in Sotogrande, once again presented all the Gold Cup prizes on both days. F www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 27

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Report Bajans tour Canada

Caribbeans face stiff opposition in Ontario James Mullan reports from a tornado-struck Toronto on the fortunes of Karen Kranenburg’s now familiar troop of plucky and personable Bajans

or the fourth year running, the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) chose polo as the vehicle for its promotional drive in Canada. And, once again, Karen Kranenburg was at the helm, as the BTA entourage swept into Alberta and Ontario for two of the biggest days of polo in the respective tournament calendars of both Calgary and Toronto polo clubs.

In Calgary, the Bajans regained the Barbados Challenge Trophy crown they had surrendered in 2008, but they failed to make a clean sweep of it in Toronto, where the Canadians got their own back, securing a narrow victory 5-4.

And then the rains came. Ontario’s quaintlytitled Cottage Country region – the site of the Toronto Polo Club, some 25 miles north of downtown Toronto itself – was still fighting off the inclement aftershocks of a powerful tornado thunderstorm working its way southeast towards Massachusetts in the United States.

Nevertheless, despite the stormy summer showers forecast for late in the day, Toronto Polo Club welcomed more than 1000 guests on Saturday 22 August, less than 48 hours after the dramatic onslaught of Mother Nature.

The Barbados team, sponsored by Philip Tempro’s JADA Construction Group, recorded two changes to the line-up from the team that played in Calgary a week earlier, recruiting top Bajan patron Bruce Bailey and Ontario-based reality television personality Bobby Genovese to take part in the team’s second game of the tour. One-goaler “Bobby G” – as Genovese is known to viewers of his hit American reality TV show – is North America’s answer to Sir Alan Sugar. He joined the visitors in a late switch with Argentine ex-patriot Fernando Massalin, who played for the Canadian side, appearing under the name of its sponsor for the day, Interactive Sports.

Interactive Sports featured a player already very familiar to the Bajans and their travelling

Photographs by James Mullan

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Winners Interactive Sports (wearing yellow) lift the Sapphire Beach Barbados Trophy as the JADA-sponsored Bajan side reflect on a painfully narrow defeat – they only lost the lead for the first time mid-way through the final chukka

supporters in Ramiro Dagna, an up-and-coming Argentine of considerable repute who helped lead Bruce Bailey’s Simpson Motors side – also featuring Philip Tempro – to victory in the Barbados Open in 2008. His handicap has since risen from three to four, though he looked remarkably cheap again, even off his improved rating.

However, his domination this time round was not to Bailey or Tempro’s advantage, as he

One-goaler “Bobby G” – as Genovese is known to viewers of his hit American reality TV show – is North America’s answer to Sir Alan Sugar propelled the higher-rated hosts to victory.

Barbados received a goal on handicap, much to the confusion of the rather under-prepared commentator George Dell, who conceded on more than one occasion that his eyesight was so poor that he couldn’t see most of what was going on.

Dagna took the game by the scruff of the neck right from the first throw-in, however, and it was

plain to see to everyone else that Barbados would have their work cut out to make it two wins out of two on their travels.

Nevertheless, the tourists somehow survived unscathed by the end of the first chukka, clinging onto their one-goal lead, more through poor Canadian finishing than anything else. The hosts then made some poor decisions at the back as well, and conceded an obvious Penalty Two, which Philip Tempro gratefully accepted to give the Bajans an unlikely lead.

This finally inspired the visitors to better things, and Barbados at last took hold of some meaningful possession. Three-goaler Danny Atwell made a promising break from back, taking a direct route to goal to avoid the attentions of Dagna, only to fire wide at the critical moment. Dagna was everywhere and, sure enough, scored Interactive Sport’s first goal midway through the second chukka. His ability to cover the ground and spoil so many Bajan attacks was making him about three goals more useful than anyone else on the field.

Canada’s Brian O’Leary then exploited a rule in Canada and the United States that allows the taking of a penalty in the last 30 seconds of a chukka, firing a quickly-taken on-the-spot hit up to Justin Fogarty in front of goal, who made no mistake and equalised with a wonderful strike,

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More on Toronto DESPITE THE FREEZING conditions in winter right across Canada, Toronto Polo Club plays polo 12 months of the year.

The club has 75 playing members, including a thriving junior programme.

Facing the biggest and best university, college and club sides across North America, Toronto’s boys’ side won the USPA Interscholastic Championships three years in a row (in 2006, 2007 and 2008) and made the finals in 2009.

Facilities at Toronto Polo Club include:

◗ Seven outdoor grounds ◗ An indoor arena ◗ An all-weather outdoor arena, which is used for snow polo in winter

◗ A year-round polo school, operated by one-goal Irishman Brian O’Leary Polo is played:

◗ There is at least one tournament (from

Clockwide from top: Canadian Evan White and Bajan three-goaler Danny Atwell fight for the line of the ball in the closing stages of the Sapphire Beach Barbados Trophy; Bobby Genovese, star of reality TV show “Bobby G: Adventure Capitalist” rides out for Barbados; Bruce Bailey and Philip Tempro (sitting) relax ahead of the contest

2-goal to 12-goal) every weekend throughout the summer ◗ There is at least one tournament every month in the winter ◗ The club welcomes travelling teams all year, mainly from the US, Barbados and Ireland Email: info@torontopoloclub.com

attacking the ball at pace and with a little bit of slice from some 40 yards out. It was Fogarty’s last action of the game – he had agreed to share the number one position with Fernando Massalin – and it proved to be one of the most memorable moments of the contest.

“I’ve been practising that exact shot all week,” Fogarty confided afterwards. “So it was the perfect way to end the day’s play for me. I could barely have hit it more sweetly and I’ll remember that one for a while.”

Danny Atwell showed why Karen Kranenburg was so keen to bring him on board for this year’s tour with an excellent start to the second half, tackling Evan White head on to pinch the ball in his own half before charging all the way to the Canadians’ goal and winning a rarely-seen Penalty One to put the Bajans back in front.

However, despite another good goal in the fourth chukka, a backhand, it was not to be for the tourists in the end, as the polo from both sides

became increasingly scrappy in the soggy and lumpy conditions. The Bajans aren’t used to playing on grounds cut up by rain, and conceded three poor goals in the final two chukkas, as locals Evan White and Brian O’Leary (who grew up in Ireland) made them pay for some elementary mistakes and costly ill discipline.

Tempro, who impresses me more each time I see him play, was awarded the most valuable player prize – though one couldn’t help suspecting that this might have had something to do with his firm’s sponsorship of the day, given how much better than everyone else Dagna’s performance had been.

Nevertheless, it was another successful tour as far as Barbados was concerned and it was clear that, as everyone piled into the BTA’s VIP marquee to escape the opening Ontario heavens, the game and prize raffle had drummed up huge support. The guests drank the VIP bar dry before a hog-roast and after-party at Mike Egan’s polo ranch continued into the night (see page 68). F

Contact: Karen White – 001 905 505 0088 Address: Toronto Polo Club; 180 Renfrew Dr Markham; ON L3R 9Z2

The Sapphire Beach Barbados Trophy; 22 August 2009; Toronto Polo Club, Ontario, Canada Result: Interactive Sports beat Barbados, 5-4 Principal sponsor: Barbados Tourism Authority Handicap level: 8-goal Number of team entries: two Chukka scores (Interactive Sports): 0-1; 2-2; 3-3; 5-4 Most valuable player: Philip Tempro Teams: Interactive Sports (9): Justin Fogarty/Fernando Massalin 1; Evan White 3; Ramiro Dagna 4; Brian O’Leary 1 Barbados (7): Bruce Bailey 1; Bobby Genovese 1; Philip Tempro 2; Danny Atwell 3

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Report Saint-Tropez Gold Cup

Owner, creator, doctor, victor The founder of France’s sunniest polo club fended off a British-led challenge to win its keenly contested 15-goal, says Herbert Spencer orinne Schuler’s Saint-Tropez team won their third Gold Cup on the French Riviera last month, defeating Enigma-Sezz 9-51/2 at the Saint-Tropez Polo Club.

Schuler, the 52-year-old German who is owner of the club, also won the 15-goal Gold Cup in 2006 and 2008.

Enigma-Sezz, a side based around two English professionals, came third in the tournament after Piero Diller’s Zurich Polo beat another Swiss side, Philipp Maeder’s Easy Polo, in a previous match on the final day of the club’s 2009 season.

Saint-Tropez’s win came as no great surprise, according to English seven-goaler James Beim, who played for Enigma-Sezz. “Three of the four teams in the tournament had two amateur patrons and two pros in their line-ups,” he said.

“Saint-Tropez was the only team with one patron and three pros, which made a difference.”

“I try to keep the same pros for my team every year and this is very helpful,” explained Schuler, a 0-goal player who was a doctor in clinical pharmacology before retiring from practice several years ago to concentrate on family business and the growth of the polo club.

“The team gets along well and there is a lot of feeling between us both on and off the field.”

Argentine pros Juan Martin Garcia Laborde and Francisco Irastorza were on the squad last year and were back this season, joined by a new member, Francisco Elizalde.

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Clockwise from top left: Corinne Schuler; Easy Polo’s Sebastian Schneberger; Enigma-Sezz’s James Beim performs acrobatics during a ride-off. Saint-Tropez’s Francisco Elizalde is behind

Photographs courtesy of www.polo-st-tropez.com and by Herbert Spencer

“At first I set up the polo club purely for fun, but it slowly turned into a business” – Corinne Schuler Enigma-Sezz’s patrons were UK-based Frenchman Jérome Wirth (hcp 1) and Shahé Kalaidjian (0) of the Paris designer hotel Sezz, playing with English pros Beim and Malcolm Borwick (6). They started the final match with half a goal on the scoreboard by virtue of their lower handicap.

Saint-Tropez took an early lead in the first chukka with two goals from Elizalde, answered by a single goal from Beim. The home team notched up three in the second period with goals from Elizade, Irastorza and patron Schuler, with Borwick and patron Kalaidjian scoring for the visitors. Saint-Tropez held Enigma-Sezz scoreless

30 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

in the third chukka and increased their lead as Irastorza and Laborde found the posts. Beim and patron Wirth scored in the fourth period, matched

by Elizalde and patron Schuler to give SaintTropez their 9-51/2 victory.

“This is a great place to play on the Continent after the English high-goal season winds down,” said Beim. “The weather is much more dependable than Deauville and it’s closer than Sotogrande if a team is bringing their own ponies – we brought 25 mounts down this year. The club is only about 10-15 minutes drive from the port of Saint-Tropez and the beaches, so there’s lots to do away from the polo.”

Schuler founded SaintTropez Polo Club in 1998 near the village of Gassin.

“At first it was purely for fun,” she says, “but it slowly turned into a business. My aim is to be considered the best polo club in France and one of the best in Europe.”

She hopes to close on the purchase of additional acreage this autumn to build two new grounds in addition to the two already in place and is considering raising the handicap level of her main tournaments to 20 goals in line with Deauville and Sotogrande. F Top four teams Saint-Tropez (15): Corinne Schuler 0; Juan Martin Garcia Laborde 5; Francisco Irastorza 6; Francisco Elizalde 4 Zurich Polo (15): Piero Dillier 0; Sebastian Schneberger 1; Lucas Labat 6; Garcia Grossi 8 Enigma-Sezz (14): Shahé Kalaidjian 0; Jérome Wirth 1; James Beim 7; Malcolm Borwick 6 Easy Polo Team (13): Philipp Maeder 0; Sibylle Maeder 0; Federico Bachmann 5; Pablo Jauretche 8

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Santa Barbara 20-goal Report

Photographs by David Lominska

Grant’s Farm with the giant Pacific Coast Open Cup (l-r: Andy Busch, Jeff Hall, Sugar Erskine and Pedro Falabella). Right: ERG's Jeff Blake and Grant’s Farm's Andy Busch in the final

California dreaming Eight teams, fielding the likes of Carlos Gracida and Miguel Novillo Astrada, headed west for hot competition, says Zacara’s Jamie Peel hen Lyndon Lea invited me to play the 20-goal season in Santa Barbara I couldn’t get to the airport quickly enough. The opportunity to leave rainy old England for America’s West Coast was just too good!

The Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club was established in 1911. The club, which is a stone’s throw from the beach and within view of the waves, is the third oldest polo facility in America.

There is stabling for more than 350 horses, four polo fields, arena polo, eight championship tennis courts, swimming pool, gymnasium and apartments for players and grooms.

The 20-goal season from late July to early September consists of three tournaments, the Veuve Clicquot Robert Skene Trophy, the USPA America’s Cup and the west coast’s premier tournament, the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open.

The schedule is limited to eight teams, making the polo extremely competitive.

Lyndon’s team Zacara included Nicolás Pieres, Miguel Novillo Astrada and myself – mounted on ponies from his US string. Lyndon, the only regular UK patron to play at Santa Barbara, won the Pacific Coast Open in 2007 and has been coming here since 2005.

Marc Ganzi’s Audi team is one of the top sides playing on the US circuit; they won the triple crown here last year and the 2009 US

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Open at Palm Beach. Andy Busch’s Grant’s Farm is another regular in Santa Barbara and included seven-goal American Jeff Hall. John Muse’s Luccese team played for the first time with Mike Azzarro, and Scott Wood’s ERG team returned for the third consecutive year with Argentine nine-goaler Paco de Narvaez. Ben Soleimani’s Mansour team featured American former 10-goaler Adam Snow.

This year there were two new entries, Bob Jornayvaz’s Valiente team with Ignacio Novillo

Lucchese and Kris Kampsen was deservedly named MVP after scoring nine goals in the final.

The Pacific Coast Open between ERG and Grant’s Farm went right to the wire. ERG had lost some horses in previous games and in the second half this began to show as Grant’s Farm came back. Indeed after the game Paco de Narvaez admitted the horses ERG had lost made a big difference to their strings.

Sugar Erskine dominated the final chukka on his mare Shell Shock – who was named

The club, which is is within view of the waves and was established in 1911, has stabling for 350 horses, four polo fields, arena polo and apartments Astrada and Gonzalo Avendaño’s team Patagones, with the legendary Carlos Gracida, a player we all know well in England.

Each tournament produced a different winner.

The final of the Robert Skene Trophy between Patagones and Grants Farm set the standard for the rest of the season. Patagones ran out the winners 10-9 it what was an absolute battle.

Best playing pony was Gracida’s mare Ducati, of whom he said: “She’s only five and she has a big future in front of her.”

Audi made it back-to-back wins in the USPA America’s Cup with a convincing 16-12 win over

best playing pony – to seal an 11-9 victory for Grant’s Farm. However, ERG’s Jeff Blake was named MVP and received the award for Player of the Season.

As for Zacara, our fortunes were less successful this year than some: we were beaten in the quarter-finals of the Pacific Coast Open by eventual finalists ERG, and I picked up an ankle injury in the first match – which, happily, is recovering as I write. F ◗ Look out in our Nov/Dec issue for the first instalment of Jamie’s new regular column

www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 31

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Pakistan Report

Photographs by Baba Dody

Englishmen to play at Lahore last season included James Harper, who leads the charge above for Hilton Pharma, a team set to return this winter. John Fisher, also in yellow, is behind.

Our new columnist Clare Sheikh, in white on the right, described her love affair with Pakistan in the July issue of Polo Times and will bring us all the action from the country this season

What’s in store at Lahore?

In the first of a new winter series, Clare Sheikh, who plays regularly in Pakistan, describes the movers and shakers of the forthcoming season he main season in Pakistan kicks off this month, with weekly tournaments until late April across the country’s 20 or so clubs. Lahore, as the biggest and most prestigious of them, has the highest-goal action, with the 14-goal national championships, and last season Argentina played Pakistan in a 25-goal exhibition match there.

Many of the major clubs are army-run, including Lahore and Rawalpindi, while a second Lahore club, Rangers, is run by the police. The cities of Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Abbotabad are also home to major clubs. Action is localised and the clubs do not tend to play each other.

Meanwhile the six-a-side polo in the highlands (which includes the Shandur Festival) has an entirely different season, from May to August. In general the sport is decidedly on the up, and throughout this winter Polo Times will follow the action with a special series of monthly reports.

Lahore’s calendar, sponsored by banks and multinationals, culminates in the Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup National Polo Championships on 22 February, and the club is also gearing up for a vigorously contested low-goal season.

The drive to attract new players is increasing, with a new coaching facility and a Junior League.

These will complement the teaching facilities available through the Riding Club, where players, in the spirit of tradition, can also learn to ride by

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spotlight and hone their equestrian skills through tent-pegging lessons.

The main patrons from last season’s mediumgoal are set to return. Last year’s National winner was local patron Naveed Sheikh, whose Wateen team featured Argentines Fabio Lavinia (4) and Gaston Moore (7). Together they outmanoeuvred a strong side from Shahid Hayat's Hilton Pharma, meeting determined resistance from Englishmen James Harper (7) and John Fisher (4).

In the final Hilton Pharma established an early lead, but Wateen fought back, with the winning

The ground, named after Sultan Qutabuddin Aibak, who died playing polo in 1210 when his horse fell from under him, was created under the supervision of a leading Argentine consultancy.

Already the new Tifton surface has visibly improved the speed and competitiveness of play – so much so that the club has been encouraged to invest in a further ground of the same quality, which will be ready for this season.

Bringing drama and flair, brothers Shah Shamyl Alam and Shah Qubilai Alam will be on fighting form once again.

The Tifton surface of the new Aibak ground, named after a sultan who died playing polo in 1210, has visibly improved both competitiveness and speed goal, a graceful lofted cut shot, put in by Mian Hussain Iftikhar.

Last season’s finalists will be joined by seven other regular patrons including brothers Amir and Haris Sufi, former National winners, with a fine contingent of Argentine ponies.

Dr Iftikhar Ali Khan – known as "Simba” on account of his resemblance to a lion and trademark wild hair – will be in action again, hoping to follow up victories last season in the New Year Polo Cup and the 8-Goal Polo Cup, which was the first event to be played at Lahore’s splendid new Aibak Ground.

Perennial underdogs, the brothers should never be underestimated, as Qubilai's victory in last season’s Members’ Polo Cup demonstrated. Facing Team Goodwill, led by Asif Tiwana (2) and Malik Azam Hayat Noon (2), Qubilai's Envogue side scored five goals before their opposition got underway, and won 9-3.

Equal acts of bravado can be expected from Shah Shamyl Alam, who featured in one of the closest matches of last season, winning the spring cup from the Sufi brothers by half a goal in a fourth-chukka penalty converted by John Fisher. F www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 33

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Report Sal Oppenheim British Junior Cup Left: 0-goaler Tom Small, playing for Park Farm in the 15 and under final, turns on the ball Opposite, clockwise from top left: Park Farm’s Saskia Meadows on the ball with Tom Small behind her; Alex Mains of Gear House, MVP in the 19 and under section; Bryony Taylor with best playing pony Soy Gabi; William Batchelor, MVP in the 15 and under section

England's potrillos play the grown-up game A dynamic initiative is extending the youth season and giving teenagers the chance to play like adults – as they do in Argentina, says Yolanda Carslaw oung players and their families gathered at Hurtwood Park in late August for the four-day Sal Oppenheim British Junior Cup. The tournament, a fortnight after the Pony Club Championships at Cowdray, gives youngsters a chance to play four-chukka polo with their peers – on polo ponies, with no pros knocking them the ball, and in a competitive environment where they have to “stand up and be counted”.

This year, the 15 and under division drew six teams – varying in handicap from minus-three to minus-eight – while the 19 and unders had four entries – from minus-seven to minus-two.

Keen player and parent Julian Batchelor, who first instigated the tournament three years ago, says: “My main interest is in promoting children's polo. That's where the Argentines have the edge over us.

“Pony Club is brilliant, and a marvellous way to introduce children to the game, but talented young players in England don't play enough and they don't start young enough.” Julian's son William, now 15, last year became the first English boy to reach the final of Argentina's premier youth tournament, the Potrillos.

Stewart McGregor, whose teenage daughters Alex, Ellie and Izzie took part, says:

Photographs by Stewart McGregor

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34 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

“It's an extension of what they do in Pony Club. There are no pros or parents, and they choose their own teams.”

Unlike in previous years, this time no complete teams from Pony Club competed because of holiday commitments, and it was a case of bringing together friends, contacts and

“Pony Club is brilliant, but talented youngsters in England don’t play enough or start young enough” – Julian Batchelor siblings – nearly all from dedicated polo families. The event has an intimate, friendly and “aficionado” feel, with no grandstands but a lunch for sponsors and supporters by the Surrey club's number one ground.

Swiss sponsors Sal Oppenheim, a part of one of the oldest banking firms in Europe, came in as backers chiefly because of the youth element.

(The firm's Cologne headquarters also sponsors polo on Sylt, an island in northern Germany.)

In the final of the 19 and unders the all-boy Par Mall, in light blue, faced Gear House, who

started as marginal favourites having trounced their opposition in the preliminaries.

However, Par Mall dominated the first half, extending their 21/2-goal start on handicap to lead 61/2-4 by treading-in time. But their opponents of three boys and a girl dominated the second half, with Jay Jones – at one goal the highest handicapped on the field – showing great confidence and directing his team-mates with maturity. Jones scored the goal of the match in the fourth chukka to put them 9-71/2 ahead, and the score on the final bell was 1281/2 to Gear House.

Gear House, none of whom had played together before the tournament, gelled brilliantly once they adapted their tactics to the opposition.

“We just didn't click in the final until the third chukka,” said Jones. “But everyone played well and even at the end we were pushing and pushing. It was difficult not having played together, but I knew my team-mates were good players, and I tried to control the game a bit.”

Gear House's Alex Mains, who was named MVP, said: “All our opponents had a good game in the final, while we started slowly and warmed up. Jay Jones is very experienced, and he told us what to do.”

The team's back, Guy Fox Andrews, who played Langford for Cowdray Pony Club, added:

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“We thought Charlie Scott would be the man to watch of our opponents so we put Alex Mains onto him. Then we realised they were all good, so we went man to man instead.”

Players said they relished the opportunities the tournament provided. Mains, a regular at Druids Lodge, said: “It has been brilliant playing with different people.” Fox Andrews, who plays at four-, six- and eight-goal at Cowdray, enjoyed the chance to play at back. “Usually I play at one, and it was great to have more responsibility, and to be able to control the game more. Also, it was good not to be told to leave it!”

Jones added: “The Pony Club season is short, and a lot of kids only play Pony Club, so it's brilliant this takes place. It gives everyone a chance to play four chukkas with kids of their own age.”

In the 15 and under final, a Sal Oppenheim side of four minus-ones, with two Hurtwood girls and two Cowdray boys, came from behind to beat Park Farm (rec 1/2).

Goal of the match was William Batchelor's hit from the field from around 60 yards that found the posts in the second chukka – not long after a 60-yarder, also by Batchelor, had been confidently met by Tom Small.

By half-time, four unanswered goals by Sal Oppenheim gave them a commanding 6-21/2

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lead. Valiant attacks by Park Farm, including a successful 30-yarder by Tom Small and a field goal by Hamish Fair, weren't enough for the lower-handicapped side, and Sal Oppenheim won 7-41/2.

William Batchelor, who was named MVP, said: “We had a very nice draw. Then in the final we knew that if we took out Tom Small and Hamish Fair, our opponents' two main attackers would find it harder to get to the ball, and their play would be closed down. Once that happened, Ellie [McGregor], Bryony [Taylor] and Tommy [Beresford] were able to hit some fantastic backhands, which set up a lot of goals.”

Sal Oppenheim's Tommy Beresford, 13, added: “The final felt much harder than our first games. We had to shift our game to suit our opponents, and we tried to stick on them as much as we could.”

Soy Gabi, an Argentine Thoroughbred ridden

by Bryony Taylor, 16, won the Polo Times rug for the best playing pony. The mare, who had raced in Argentina, came from Pepe Riglos as a fouryear-old and was brought on by Bryony's mother, Sam. “She's fast and easy, and she does what you ask,” said Bryony, who also played Soy Gabi in Pony Club polo.

Though the event was again hailed a success by participants and organisers, changes are likely

to be afoot as the fixture evolves. The first event, in 2007, took place at Longdole, but to make it more centralised for players and sponsors, it moved to Hurtwood in 2008.

Now Batchelor says: “Next year we hope to hold it before the Pony Club Championships when children aren't on holiday, and before everything has kicked off so that everyone's hungry to play.” F

Sal Oppenheim British Junior Cup, Hurtwood Park Polo Club, 18-23 August Result: 19 and under - Gear House beat Par Mall; 15 and under – Sal Oppenheim beat Park Farm Principal sponsor: Sal Oppenheim 19 and under finalists: Gear House (-3): Alex Newton -2; Alex Mains -1; Jay Jones 1; Guy Fox Andrews -1 Par Mall (rec 21/2) (-7): Jamie O'Neil -2; James Hislop -2; Charlie Scott -1; Xander Oliver -2 15 and under finalists: Sal Oppenheim (-4): Tommy Beresford -1; Bryony Taylor -1; William Batchelor -1; Ellie McGregor -1 Park Farm (rec 1/2) (-5): Mathias Gallucio -2; Saskia Meadows -2; Tom Small 0; Hamish Fair -1

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Reports At home and abroad Knepp Castle

Home side take off with £1,600 in recession-busting showdown Carlie Trotter watches team Jendens battle to victory in the riveting 0-goal final of the Credit Crunch League… then head off in a chopper he shadow of fiscal depression was nowhere to be seen Jendens number three Jack Richardson rode out on his speedy mount Pita for the third. on the glorious August Bank Holiday when Flying Foxes Foxes executed some clever passes, and commentator Ed faced home team Jendens for the (rather grand) final of Gall praised Charlie Minns Shearer’s defensive play. When the the Credit Crunch League. The latter proved their worth, taking ambulance rushed on for Ralph Richardson he shook off a home the £1,600 cheque. pony head-butt, but his team suffered a number of missed The 0-goal league fell foul of annual fixtures when entries goals and Freddie Instone’s unrelenting backhanders. shrunk to 14, as did the £5,000 prize fund. No one’s spirits The final chukka opened with a Jendens recovery, only to let were dampened, however, and the runners-up received Freddie cruise through to score on Ella, who was named best oversized dollar-bill sunglasses instead. Polo manager Emily playing pony. His team later jested: “It’s always best to be on a Webb got used to a scheduling nightmare “with so many grey for the awards.” Now within half a patrons on teams, and everyone working so hard”, while assistant Ralph Richardson shook goal, and 40 seconds on the clock, Jack dribbled to keep possession polo manager Lanto Sheridan off a pony head-butt as before casting Flying Foxes out of the umpired every match.

The final, on the Lake ground, the ambulance rushed on picture. Even after a valiant retaliation the result fell Jendens’s way, 41/2-4. drew a great spectator turnout.

KCPC secretary Jo Richardson remarked: “We’re very lucky; Jack Richardson declared that for 0-goal, the game had with Cowdray and Pony Club on our doorstep I think every been fast. Betting types may have lost out considering Flying minus-two in Sussex has played at least one match.”

Foxes’ 231/2-goal lead of group one, and players admitted that Parke Bradley of Team Silver Foxes enthused that the Jendens came through the more difficult division. tournament “gave some of us a go at driving the play”, though The wonderfully ironic highlight of the day came when, fresh consensus was that the timetable needed fine-tuning. “If you from being crowned champions of the Credit Crunch League, can play when it suits you, you never get round to it,” Bradley the Richardson boys hopped in a helicopter to whizz to Coworth pointed out. Like others, Silver Foxes made regular substitutions Park. “It was difficult scheduling matches around high-goal and, when out of the money, did not finish their seven matches. commitments,” said Jack, “but I guess we managed because It was the youngest teams, their ages ranging from 14 to 23, we had enough horses.” that reached the finish line.

Teams With Piers Lakin (–1) replacing an injured club chairman, Jendens started 11/2 up. Unlike the six-goal match afterwards Jendens (-2): Ralph Richardson -1; India Clevely -2; Jack Richardson 2; Piers Lakin -1 the action flowed nicely. Both teams marked strongly, and India Flying Foxes (0): Guy Fox-Andrews -1; Freddie Instone 1; Charlie Clevely gave Guy Fox-Andrews hell. In the second chukka the Fox-Andrews 0; Charlie Minns Shearer 0 Foxes had braking issues, but the score hovered at 21/2-2 as

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Switzerland

Ranelagh Farm, Windsor

Huge numbers turn out for Hublot high-goal

Dressage and polo collide

TEAM GSTAAD PALACE has retained its title in the Swiss highgoal Hublot Gold Cup in Gstaad, Switzerland, for the second year in a row. The four-day 18-goal tournament in a beautiful alpine setting welcomed four sides to compete for the prize in late August, as well as more spectators than ever.

Gstaad Palace, captained by Fabien Pictet, met Gualtiero Giori’s Hublot in the final, aided on their path to victory by a 11/2-goal advantage received on handicap on the board. Hublot nearly overturned the deficit to win, only to lose by the narrowest of margins to a late Gstaad Palace demonstration of sheer grit and determination, 61/2-6.

Star Design beat Porsche 81/2-8 in the subsidiary final to claim third place. Over the course of the four days, upwards of 7,000 spectators watched the tournament in glorious sunshine.

36 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

THE PARTY TO MARK the end of the FEI European Dressage Championships, which took place at Windsor Castle in August, was hosted by the polo set-up of Ranelagh Farm, in conjunction with its 12-goal late-season tournament. All competitors at the dressage championships were invited to attend the post-event party on 27 August.

Roy Moed, Ranelagh Farm’s owner, and his wife Yvette share a top dressage horse with international dressage rider Kyra Kyrklund. The horse, Max, has competed at several Olympics and at this year’s FEI championships, where he came seventh in the Kür (dressage to music).

The combination of interests brought more than 400 people to their home, including England’s Mark Tomlinson and his girlfriend Laura Bechtolsheimer, an acclaimed young dressage rider who came fourth at the FEI Championships for England. In the 12-goal final they watched, Nick Clarke’s Salked beat Halcyon in the final to claim the £3,000 prize money on offer. ECRT beat BHC Polo in the subsidiary final.

FEI president HRH Princess Haya presented the prizes along with HPA chairman Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers. The combination of more than 1,200 vodka cocktails and music from DJ Rusty ensured the two crowds mixed and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening – with the dressage crowd wistfully wondering if polo-ites have more fun than they do…

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Action in the final of the Credit Crunch League between Jendens and Flying Foxes. Clockwise from above: Freddie Instone (black shirt, red peak) focuses on his shot; the winners, Jendens (l-r: Piers Lakin, Jack Richardson, Tanya Richardson, India Clevely and Ralph Richardson); Jack Richardson fights to control the ball; the stunning view across the Lake ground

Photographs by Carlie Trotter

Polo Wicklow, Ireland

Burningfold

Goals galore from Wicklow ladies

Enjoyable debut for Emma’s Emlor

THE 10TH IRISH INTERNATIONAL Ladies’ Polo Tournament took place from 21-23 August at Polo Wicklow, welcoming teams from Australia and America to join female players from England, South Africa and France to compete against the domestic Irish team.

After a deluge of rain during the league matches, the final between Lamorlaye and Australia took place in the arena in front of more than 300 spectators in the gallery. The Irish team of Siobhan Herbst, Sandra Giles, Amber Clutton Brock and Claire Brougham met Australia’s Katie Grimmond, Sadie Michell, Philippa Fitzhenry and Amanda Tolhurst.

In what proved to be a thrilling, open match with masses of goals, Ireland took control of the final chukka and fired home an amazing 11 goals, clinching an emphatic victory, 22-13. In the subsidiary finals, the

Action in the league stages as Australia’s Philippa FitzHenry sends the ball towards goal while the USA’s Eileen Flint gives chase and tries to hook her opponent

USA drew 14-14 with the Irish Mad Flowers, and Horseware Ireland won 17-7 over Northern Ireland.

BURNINGFOLD POLO CLUB in Surrey was host to the inaugural -2 to 2-goal UberPolo Cup back in late July. Eight teams from West Sussex and Surrey competed in the low-goal challenge.

Emma McCarthy’s Emlor and TLC Property made it through to the final the day before the Cartier International, with Emlor clinching victory 7-51/2. UberPolo were the victors in the subsidiary of their eponymous tournament, beating AC Polo 4-3.

Teams then enjoyed an asado and live music in the Burningfold clubhouse to celebrate a fun-packed tournament.

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Reports At home and abroad X

Saint-Tropez

Singapore

Father and son triumph

Brits abroad scoop silverware

NINE 12-GOAL TEAMS, with patrons from England, Switzerland, Pakistan and Germany, descended on the French Riviera this August to play in two 12-goal tournaments held at Saint-Tropez Polo Club.

F Polo and Christine Baer’s Azur were the best of the five sides entered in the Côte d’Azur tournament, reaching the final on 16 August. Azur arrived as underdogs, but brothers Jose and Sebastian Petracci found their form in the final against F Polo, a side featuring a South African well-known on the English circuit, Leroux Hendricks. Goals from Sebastian in particular brought Azur victory, 7-4. He scored five.

Jerome Wirth joined the party in the second half of August, bringing a side for the 12-goal Open du Soleil with Shahe Kalaidjian. The side, Enigma-Sezz, also fielded Malcolm Borwick and South African Gareth Evans, with Evans due to make room for James Beim in the 15-goal Gold Cup in September (see page 30).

Father and son Robert and Birger Storm also brought a side, Sainte Memse, to take part.

Team Azur celebrate their 7-4 victory in early August

Enigma-Sezz lost their first game to Azur, but Borwick turned on the style in their next contest, against Sainte Memse. Then Borwick & co drew the same side again in the semi-finals and were beaten 7-4 as Sainte Memse booked a place in the final against Azur.

Azur were confident after their recent victory but Sainte Memse, as defending champions having won the trophy in 2008, produced when it counted again.

Overturning a 5-3 half-time deficit, Sainte Memse played their socks off to win 9-7.

IN EARLY SEPTEMBER Team HPC England beat Team Singapore in the third 0-2 goal Shanghai Tang Women’s International Gold Cup at Singapore Polo Club. Despite threatening thunderstorms ahead of the match, more than 400 guests made a day of it and came to watch the visiting Englishwomen take victory.

The heavy grounds probably suited the visitors, and they got to grips with the conditions to pull ahead in the third chukka, producing superb team polo and scoring three unanswered goals to go 52 up. The hosts dug deep in the final chukka but could only manage a single goal, losing 5-3.

Teams HPC England (2): Kirsty Readhead 1; Kelly Keyte 1; Caroline Wright -1; Rebecca Finn -1 Singapore (1): Sherri-Lyn 2; Lynly Fong 0; Caroline Link 0; Charlotte Marson/Anna Lowndes -1

Dundee and Perth

Scottish spirits soar Children line up between the posts during the successful Summer Scorcher programme

Vale of York

£20 sessions a hit with Yorkshire youth VALE OF YORK POLO CLUB has taught more than 300 children as part of its “Summer Scorcher” programme this year. The children’s lessons, at just £20 per session, proved extremely popular with parents, who spread the word and brought more and more youngsters to enroll throughout the summer.

The children’s exuberance soon rubbed off on their parents, and many were also encouraged to take lessons themselves so that, despite bleak predictions, the uptake at the club in 2009 was up on 2008.

Attention at the club, which recently moved from East to South Yorkshire, has since turned to the winter beach programme, played on the sand at Cleethorpes (see also Letters, page 18). Polo manager Paul Piddington operates matches with rules somewhere between the arena and outdoor versions of the game, at least two Sundays a month. Width-wise, the only limit is the beach wall and the sea, which can be a mile wide when the tide is out – making it easily the biggest “arena” in the country!

St Albans

Fillies triumph in first-timer DURING THE WEEKEND of 5-6 September St Albans Polo Club welcomed four teams for its inaugural Ladies’ Tournament, and a further four for the 0-goal EOS Plate.

Feisty Fillies triumphed in the Ladies Trophy and Martin Randall’s Team MorrCo completed an excellent summer, with victory in the EOS Plate to go with the silverware they scooped in the MorrCo Cup back in mid-July. Watch out for Polo Times’s assessment of the club next spring. Our reporter Carlie Trotter took part in the fixture, and a review ahead of next summer’s season will follow in early 2010.

38 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

MORE THAN 150 GUESTS partied the night away to Geordie Douglas Hamilton's Grouse Reel Band at the Perth Highland Ball on 15 August. The matches scheduled to take place at Dundee and Perth Polo Club’s Scone Palace grounds that weekend were cancelled due to terrible weather that turned the grounds into a duck pond. But the downpours did not quell Scottish spirits and the weekend was one to remember for all Dundee and Perth members and their supporters. “As always,” said Mervyn Fox-Pitt, “the ball is the best party of the year.”

Sussex

Spanish sun up for grabs SUSSEX POLO CLub had a fun-packed August bank holiday weekend as local sides contested the final of the Terence Lent Trophy.

Sussex-based three-goal side El Padrino beat the five-goal Los Banditos Winners of the Terence Lent Trophy, El team to the title, 81/2-6.

Padrino (l-r: Facundo Cabana, Jason A Southern Counties Bartfeld, Kwan Lo and Jimmy Mulligan) league match followed, in which Sussex’s side beat Brightling 7-4. The victory kept Sussex in the hunt for the league-winners’ prize that was up for grabs – a polo holiday to Polo Del Sol in southern Spain – and was made more remarkable by the story of the injuries the side faced. Sussex coowner Duane Lent was sidelined with a broken hand, and his substitute Peter Merriam played despite suffering from a suspected broken cheekbone. His bravery was vindicated by their win. The league was due to culminate on 26 September, with Sussex having booked their place in the final at the time of going to press. F

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Don’t get behind this winter

HPA Coaching for beginners to advanced - Tournaments - Chukkas - Stabling - Corporates 10 minutes from Guards - 30 minutes from London For bookings and enquiries call Charlotte Sweeney on 0779 981 2739 or Royston Prisk on 0779 971 1336 Office 01932 872 521 Fax 01932 872 006 Email ashfarmpolo@hotmail.com Ash Farm, Bousley Rise, Ottershaw, Surrey KT16 0LB

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Feature Winter horse-care special

As ponies head en masse to grass for their holidays, Martha Terry asks seasoned winterers Oliver Ellis, Robert Thame, Derreck Bratley and David Morley the secrets of keeping their charges happy, healthy – and not too wild he air is crisp and frost covers the land under a glittering blanket.

Fifteen woolly ponies huddle in the chilly winter sun. No one would imagine that this scruffy herd could shape up into an all-conquering high-goal string.

But this is the life of a polo pony: six months’ hammer and tongs, cosseted and preened to fighting fitness; six months out in a field with a bale of hay and a bunch of mates.

But is it that simple? If you want your horses back in the spring ready to start training, it pays to make sure they have enjoyed their winter break – even if that means spending a bit more money.

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40 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

HPA chairman of equine welfare David Morley says: “People need to realise that, economically, it is better to winter a horse well, spending enough on feeding, than to be chasing your tail once the season starts because you can’t get the weight back on.” So what does it take to make a healthy, happy polo pony come springtime?

Food, glorious food All experienced winter-keepers cite food as key.

With the low-goal season finishing in late September, most of the goodness has deserted the grass by the time many ponies go out. While it is rare to feed concentrates, good-quality hay or haylage is a must.

Guards polo manager Oliver Ellis, who winters around 60 horses on his West Sussex farm, insists on a constant supply of hay.

“You know instinctively if there’s a problem. A horse will be looking at you the wrong way, or standing by itself” – Oliver Ellis “I feed in big round bales, in sheep feeders, because that way I know they are never without food,” he says. “I think it’s mean to leave them in

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the night potentially without food, when it’s wettest and coldest. This way they can graze all the time, ad lib.”

Robert Thame’s farm is also packed with polo ponies during the winter, and he highlights quality of haylage as fundamental.

“Horses will eat anything, but you must give them good haylage,” says Robert, who makes his own rye-grass hay. “If you put rubbish into the bag, rubbish will come out.”

Robert points out that although there may be enough hay in the field, not all the horses may be allowed access to it. His military organisation of the daily haying routine proves the value of experience.

“Horses like to be in a herd, but the big ones always like to eat the most while the little ones can’t get near the hay,” he explains. “If I have eight horses in a field, I will put out 12 piles of hay in a straight line then no one can dominate and no one goes hungry.”

This precision also protects the horses’ legs from mud fever and his fields from being churned up. “By feeding every day you can put hay in a dry place so that the ground doesn’t get poached,” he says. “If the wind is coming from the north, I’ll feed by the north hedge, from the south by the south hedge.”

General maintenance One of the main by-products of constant supplying of the fields with hay is that winter-

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keepers will be running their eyes over the horses for any signs of a problem. Oliver Ellis checks his twice a day on foot.

“You know instinctively if there’s a problem,” he says. “A horse will be looking at you the wrong way, or standing by itself. You’ve really got to know about horses – they aren’t cows or pigs!”

For that reason, some winter-keepers choose not to rug up their horses. With the quantities of wintering ponies, it is nigh impossible to check each horse’s rug thoroughly every day.

Robert Thame uses rugs only on those who really need it – the weak, old or southern hemisphere horses. “You have more accidents Cosy and well-fed: hay can be spread around so that all horses – whatever their rank – have easy access to it

“I never mix mares and geldings – there’s always one gelding who forgets he’s been gelded, and one flirt of a mare” – Robert Thame

with rugs than without and with what one gets paid, it’s hard to look after rugged horses,” he says. “Every day you need to catch the horse, take the rugs off and check there are no sores – it’s not necessary. I’d rather bring one that is struggling into the barn than leave it out with a rug on.”

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Feature Winter horse-care special X

Derreck Bratley, who manages 325 horses on Alan Kent’s farm in West Sussex, waits for horses to build up their natural defence of a winter coat before rugging up by December. They remove and check the rugs once every three weeks. “It’s a rotation,” he says. “By the time all the rugs have come off, we’re back to the start again.”

Most experts keep owners’ horses together – mares and geldings, for simplicity’s sake.

Derreck Bratley explains that with 300-odd horses, up to 17 per field, staff might not recognise the different ponies if they were mixed up – “it’s too much of a gamble”.

While Oliver Ellis only separates the mares if there is an obvious battle, Robert Thame never mixes. “Not even in neighbouring fields,” he says.

“There’s always one gelding who forgets he’s been gelded, and one big flirt of a mare.”

One area where all experts agree is regular worming and foot-trimming.

“We keep on top of their feet, while giving the farrier something to work with come March as over-trimming makes them susceptible to sore feet and corns,” says Robert Thame. “Catching them in December is hard! The Thoroughbreds are fine, but the Argentine ponies are pretty wild – I put a large cage with food in the gateway and that’s a guaranteed success.”

Photographs by Yolanda Carslaw and Alice Gipps

When spring is in the air Horses that have spent six months simply being a horse need time to metamorphose into lean mean fighting machines. David Morley suggests finding an establishment which can do both the wintering and fittening.

“Otherwise the first people can let the horse do badly over the winter and pass on the problem to the next person,” he says.

Robert Thame likes to ease the transition from field to fitness by moving the horses into a barn a week prior to leaving his farm.

“They can start to be handled, tied up, given hard feed and get used to people – otherwise it’s

42 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

“We remove and check the rugs of 325 horses once every three weeks.

It’s a rotation – by the time they’ve all come off, we’re back to the start again” – Derreck Bratley like going from the wilderness to jail,” says Robert, who staggers the process so that he can spend two days giving each batch of horses individual attention.

And as for the people who have spent six months shaking hay into frosty fields, smashing ice on water troughs and chasing naughty ponies for their eight-week trim?

“It’s lovely to see the horses arrive in September,” says Oliver Ellis, “but it’s a relentless treadmill, so it’s lovely to see them go as well!” F ◗ Do you have a handy tip for wintering ponies?

Tell us by writing to letters@polotimes.co.uk

Top: some horses are rugged from December. Above: ad-lib hay is a must. Below: feeding by quad-bike

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PTOctober 2009 p44-47 Watergate Bay YC PJ JM

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Feature Veuve Clicquot Polo on the Beach

Polo is gathering pace in England's westernmost county, with an evening match at Watergate Bay drawing record crowds, and a friendly set-up in nearby Wadebridge planning expansion, says Yolanda Carslaw ne of North Cornwall's most attractive and expansive surf beaches was transformed into a polo ground last month for a three-a-side exhibition match that drew 3,000 spectators. Now in its third year, the fixture achieved its highest attendance yet thanks to several mentions on Steve Wright afternoon show on BBC Radio 2'sand days of gorgeous weather before the match.

Veuve Clicquot Polo on the Beach is held at the two-mile-long Watergate Bay, four miles north of Newquay, and is a contrast to Sandbanks's British Beach Championships, which took place in Dorset for the second time this year (see August issue of Polo Times).

While both events aim to introduce polo to new audiences, Sandbanks draws a largely “suited and booted” crowd, as keen for the after-party as the polo. The Watergate Bay spectators were overwhelmingly “country bornand-bred”, with a high family count.

Whereas Sandbanks runs over a Friday and Saturday, with matches all afternoon in a highprofile location, Watergate Bay holds a single evening match at a wilder and lower-key venue,

O

44 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

where a hamlet nestles in the cliffs overlooking a spectacular two-mile sandy expanse.

Along with the Watergate Bay Hotel, the main drive behind the event has been keen 0-goaler Andy Burgess, who has recently set up what Polo Times believes to be Cornwall's first polo establishment at nearby Wadebridge, where he has a stick-and-ball field big enough for three-aside chukkas and 20 regular players.

For Watergate Bay, Burgess assembled the Blake Thomas brothers, who play at Burningfold in Surrey; young professional Ed Olof; Somersetbased Tim Vaux of Vaux Park Polo Club; and the enterprising and energetic Swiss player Barbara Zingg, who is polo manager at Sandhurst. Fivegoaler Jamie Le Hardy came in as umpire.

The ground, directly below the hotel, was prepared and marked out mere hours before the 6.30pm match, with organisers and helpers filling in holes dug by beach-goers, removing large stones and long pieces of seaweed and putting in goalposts, plus basic railings along both sides. A tractor finished the job, watering and smoothing.

As the tide went out and the sun dipped, the people came. In its first year the event drew 500 – bad weather being blamed for a low turnout,

though it cleared for the match; in 2008 that rose to 2,500. Entry is free, and spectators lined both sides of the ground as well as crowding on to the comfy bushy grass on the cliffs and scrambling onto nearby rocks.

There is ticketed hospitality, at £75 a head, but it's so discreet it's barely noticeable. It included a reception at the Watergate Bay Hotel, perched directly above the ground, and access to prime viewing from various terraces.

And the action? Well, though it could claim neither a tight scoreline nor a super-speedy pace, the four six-minute chukkas had spectators riveted. Commentators Richard Eldridge and Peter West kept everyone well informed – in the absence of a scoreboard and clock – as South West Polo (Andy Burgess and the Blake Thomas brothers) took early control over Midas Construction (rec 11/2). Though Midas battled well, the ball just did not run for them, while brilliant interplay between the brothers ensured South West Polo's dominance.

The surface inevitably cut up, but only the top section, closest to the cliff, became overly deep, and apart from a few moments when the arena ball was buried, play flowed nicely. At half-time, X

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Clockwise from left: the winners Southwest Polo, with (l-r) Richard and Andrew Blake Thomas and Andy Burgess; ponies between chukkas; pre-match watering as the tide goes out and spectators drift in; Andrew Blake Thomas (left) and Barbara Zingg; Andrew Blake Thomas warms up

“It’s heavy going, and you’re trying to find ground that hasn’t been galloped on – which is hard when you’re being chased!” – Ed Olof

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Feature Veuve Clicquot Polo on the Beach

Beach talk THE PONIES, which were brought to Cornwall by Jemima Brockett, Tim Vaux and Ed Olof, spent four days at a farm nearby, and were taken to the beach several times before the match. Warm-up space was plentiful – the beach is broad as well as long. Best playing pony was Lente Quaila, a Chilean bay owned by Tim Vaux, bought from Charles Beresford.

JEMIMA BROCKETT, who brought 11 ponies from Somerset, said: “I took horses that were handy with good strong back ends – as well as the right temperament, as there’s a lot going on.”

Jemima went to Inch Polo Festival in Ireland several years ago, and also took eight ponies to Sandbanks this year, so she and her string are at home in the beach environment.

THE HAIRIEST MOMENT of the evening – aside from a last-chukka tumble for Barbara Zingg, from which she dusted herself off quickly – was after the first chukka when the tractor lumbered on for a quick smoothing of the top end, and looked dangerously close to getting stuck. Thankfully it pulled away safely, and didn’t venture to that part of the field again. Player and organiser Andy Burgess admitted to mounting horror as the machine slowed and sank a few inches – and relief when it kept moving!

Photographs by Tony Ramirez and Alice Gipps

X with the score at 5-21/2, treading-in was an

interesting challenge that proved surprisingly effective, thanks to the large number of spectators. South West Polo dominated the third chukka, and showed little mercy in the fourth, with two goals from Richard Blake Thomas putting them 9-21/2 ahead. A superb field goal by Ed Olof and a penalty from Tim Vaux saved Midas's pride, but Andrew Blake Thomas tapped another between the posts in the dying seconds to bring the final score to 10-41/2.

Andrew, who was named MVP, said: “It's intense; it's a good battle, and you can get really stuck in. It helped our team that Richard and I play and work together a lot.” Richard added: “You have to keep the ball moving and manoeuvre it round the field constructively.”

Ed Olof said: “It's heavy going, and you're trying to find ground that hasn't been galloped on – which is difficult when you're being chased, especially by the Blake Thomases!”

Jamie Le Hardy echoed Olof, saying: “The Blake Thomases' experience as arena players certainly helped. You have to keep the ball moving on the sand, and as an umpire you have to play advantage to keep the game open and flowing.”

Darkness arrived quickly after the match, the tide turned and the crowd headed to their cars.

Players rounded off their stay with an informal party at the popular Beach Hut bar/restaurant, celebrating another good year and already talking about 2010. Moving the top goalposts slightly

46 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

seawards, introducing a ladies' match and increasing watering of the sand were all mooted.

Watch this space to find out what happens next year, and look out for more on Cornish polo next spring in Polo Times. F ◗ Doubles at the Watergate Bay Hotel (www.water gatebay.co.uk) cost from £103 b&b. Beach Retreats (www.beachretreats.co.uk) rents self-catering flats next-door from £345 for three days or from £490 per week. Surf lessons are available at the Extreme Academy (www.watergatebay.co.uk) and Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen Cornwall (www.fifteen cornwall.co.uk) is open year-round all day. ◗ Do you know of polo having been played in Cornwall in the past? Polo Times has heard rumours that a walled garden of a stately home in the county was once the setting for matches. If readers know about this or other polo in Cornwall, tell us by writing to letters@polotimes.co.uk.

Polo on the Beach, Watergate Bay Result: South West Polo beat Midas Construction 10-41/2 Number of teams: two Principal sponsor: Veuve Clicquot Chukka scores (South West Polo): 3-11/2; 5-21/2; 7-21/2; 10-41/2 Teams South West Polo: Andy Burgess 0; Andrew Blake Thomas 4; Richard Blake Thomas 3 Midas Construction (rec 11/2): Barbara Zingg 0; Tim Vaux 2; Ed Olof 3

THE EVENT IS A NICE end-of-season outing for players. They stayed at the Watergate Bay Hotel and had a chance to eat at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall right next door. Some hoped also to ride waves as well as ponies – Le Hardy and Andrew Blake Thomas were seen clad in wetsuits, ready for action – but alas the water was unusually flat during their stay.

EVENT ORGANISER Andy Burgess hopes to expand his fledgling polo set-up at Wadebridge by finding a property where he can install a full-sized ground. Andy, who learnt 20 years ago at Ham, moved to Cornwall a decade ago to be with his mother, who had fallen ill, and stayed on.

His 20 or so regulars are mostly beginners – plus a few minus-ones who learnt at university – and he thinks there’s demand from both locals and visitors. “Patrons have second homes in Cornwall,” he muses. “I’m thinking second home, second string; and I’m looking for a farm with the right land for a club.”

SPECTATORS INCLUDED families, couples, locals, holidaymakers – and three members of the under-20s British fencing team. Zoe Robinson, Sophie Williams and Katrina Smith, all 18, loved the excitement, the spectacle and the accessibility. “We met the ponies and spoke to the grooms – everyone was really friendly,” said Sophie. “I've been to the Jack Wills day before but I preferred this. I loved the picturesque beach setting.” However, the girls thought there could have been more publicity: they live in nearby Truro but only heard about it through one of their mothers, who lives in Bristol and works in PR.

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Autumn in the Arena?

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PTOctober 2009 p48-49 Duty Vet JM YC ME PJ

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The knowledge Duty vet Mark Emerson MRCVS of Thames Valley Equine Clinic is a three-goal, fifth-generation polo player and equine vet

What should I know about my polo pony’s heart?

Most players only worry about their horses’ hearts when it comes to buying a new pony or when they are unfortunate enough to witness the rare event of a so-called “heart attack”. But it’s useful to understand your pony’s heart, how it works, and what is normal and abnormal

eart disease, although rare, is often considered the third most common cause of poor performance in athletic horses, after lameness and respiratory problems. Horses developing a heart problem are likely to perform poorly (tiring easily, sweating-up, etc.) and may show symptoms such as distended veins and swelling of the limbs. They may also appear visibly weak and, in extreme cases, a horse with a more severe condition might even collapse.

H

Photographs courtesy of Mark Emerson

Structure and function The equine heart is located at the front of the horse’s chest, largely covered (externally) by the upper part of the forelimbs. The heart is divided into right and left sides by a wall known as the septum. Each side has an atrium (a receiving chamber) and a ventricle (an ejecting chamber).

During a heartbeat, the muscular walls of the ventricles contract to propel the blood to the lungs (in the case of the right ventricle) and to the body as a whole (in the case of the left ventricle).

One-way valves between the atria and ventricles ensure that blood does not return to the atria when the ventricles contract. Exit valves also prevent blood from flowing back from the outbound arteries into the ventricles when they relax to refill.

The main artery leaving the left side of the heart is known as the aorta. The aorta branches into a complex network of smaller arteries, arterioles and capillaries to deliver the oxygenated blood to all the organs and tissues of the body. In horses, 100 per cent of the total blood volume passes through the heart each minute.

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Above: In the first instance, a stethoscope is the most useful tool for diagnosing heart problems

Thus, coordinated contraction of the heart chambers and proper functioning of the valves is essential.

Contractions are instigated by the heart’s natural pacemaker, the SA node, located in the wall of the right atrium.

Electrical signals spread from the SA node through the heart tissue and along special nerves to ensure coordinated contractions.

External signals tell the pacemaker to speed up or slow down according to the body’s immediate requirement for oxygen.

When things go wrong While horses are technically at-risk of suffering from either congenital (present at birth) or acquired heart conditions, cardiac disease is rare in polo ponies.

Some of the more common conditions include abnormal heart rhythms and leaky valves. Treatment and prognosis for the various conditions are dependent on the underlying cause and the exact nature of the disease process. Horses that collapse

and die suddenly during or immediately after extreme exercise are likely to have ruptured an aortic aneurism rather than have suffered a “heart attack”.

Valvular heart disease/murmurs Heart valves play a vital role in ensuring blood moves in the right direction through the heart. Leaky valves, often referred to as insufficient valves, are those that allow some blood to flow back through a supposedly closed valve, returning to the chamber from whence it came. A degree of backflow will reduce the efficiency of the heart as a pump and ultimately affect a horse’s performance.

Valvular insufficiency can also be associated with other heart problems.

The actual backflow, depending on the severity and the exact valve that is affected, usually results in a heart murmur. A murmur is an abnormal heart noise (typically detected by vets with a stethoscope) that often sounds

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Clockwise from above left: ECGs are used to assess the electrical activity of the heart; an ECG trace is recorded for later analysis; ultrasound scans of the heart can be used to assess the size, shape, and structure of the heart in motion; colour doppler ultrasound can be used to assess the speed and direction of blood flow within the heart

like a “whoosh” or even a “squeak”. A murmur itself simply indicates that the blood flow in a specific region of the heart is turbulent, not that the horse has a valve problem.

Many completely healthy horses have heart murmurs due to “normal” blood turbulence, and it is often a challenge for vets armed only with a stethoscope to distinguish between physiologically normal murmurs and murmurs that may be indicative of valvular heart disease.

Irregular heartbeats Irregular heartbeats are frequently referred to as arrthymias. In many polo ponies, particularly fit ones, the most common arrhythmia is known as a second degree A-V block and is characterised by an occasional missed beat when the horse is at rest. This arrhythmia is often regular in its irregularity and disappears as the heart rate increases – it is not associated with ill health.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common

arrhythmia associated with poor performance in athletic horses such as polo ponies. It is caused by a malfunctioning of the pacemaker – instead of a single signal stimulating a coordinated contraction of the heart, several signals are generated in the atria, resulting in an irregular heart rate and decreased cardiac function during exercise.

Diagnosing heart abnormalities Since many polo ponies have murmurs or arrhythmias that do not impact on their health or performance, or occur only intermittently, interpreting test results and obtaining a diagnosis can be challenging.

In the first instance, the most useful diagnostic tool is a stethoscope, which can be used to note heart-rate and rhythm, and detect the presence and characteristics of murmurs.

ECGs (electrocardiograms) are used to assess the electrical activity of the heart and provide a visual representation of the electrical signals generated in the heart.

ECGs can be performed for a short period of time while the horse is at rest, or can be done continuously over prolonged periods, including while being exercised, using equipment that fits on to the horse and records or transmits the data for collection. This latter technique allows vets to better evaluate cardiac function and to diagnose intermittent or occasional arrhythmias.

Ultrasound scans of the heart (echocardiography) can be used to assess the size, shape, and structure of the heart in motion and, in particular, to assess valve function. Modern ultrasound scanners allow vets to evaluate blood flow within the heart, using colour to display its speed and direction. F ◗ Mark Emerson is based at Thames

Valley Equine Clinic, Sheephouse Farm, Reading Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 4HF. Tel: 01491 414007; email: tvec@btconnect.com www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 49

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The knowledge Pony power

Pulpera Tony Ramirez talks to Eduardo Novillo Astrada in Sotogrande about Pulpera, a kind, comfortable, steady mare whose only weakness is that she takes time to fitten

Vital statistics

Photographs by Tony Ramirez

Name: Pulpera Height: 15.2hh Colour: Chestnut Age: 12 years old Sex: Mare Breed: Argentine Thoroughbred

What is Pulpera’s history?

She is owned by the Las Monjitas polo team, whose patron is [the Columbian] Camilo Bautista.

She was bred by the Menditeguy family, who have been involved with thoroughbreds in Argentina for many years and have a large and important stud farm called Abolengo. [Argentine professional] Silvestre Donovan bought her from them and played her for five or six years – she won the best playing pony award with him at the Cámara de Diputados in Argentina three years ago. We bought her from Silvestre about a year ago in Palm Beach.

Which tournaments has she played since Las Monjitas bought her?

In the year we’ve had her, she has played the three major 26-goal tournaments in Palm Beach and the three 20-goal cups at Sotogrande this August. This is the first time she has travelled with the team.

What are her strengths?

She is very complete. She has everything you want in a polo pony – she is steady and comfortable and goes very low to the ground.

In my opinion she is the ideal horse and has no weaknesses. The only fault, if any, is that she takes a little longer than the others to get fit, as she is a very strong mare.

What is her temperament like?

Nice and kind. She is the type of horse anyone can ride, even a child.

Who plays her?

I’m the only one who plays her. While I am playing the Argentine season she is turned out in the field in Florida. Matias Fernandez Llanos, our manager, gets her ready for when I come back for the US season from February to April.

In which chukkas do you normally play her?

I always play her in the first and fifth or second and sixth. Because she is one of my best horses, I try to play her towards the beginning and end because she gives me a lot of confidence.

What regime do you follow to keep her in top form?

As I said, she is a little more difficult to get fit than the other horses – therefore at the beginning she has to be ridden more but, as the season develops, she gets better and more agile and then it is a matter of normal maintenance. She doesn’t have any special dietary requirements; we just give her a little less hay before games to keep her weight down.

Would she ever be for sale?

I don’t think so. I think she will finish her polo career with us and then in three or four years’ time she will go back to Argentina to breed.

Camilo Bautista already has an embryo centre in Argentina and so I suspect the breeding will be done there. F

Experts in polo nutrition Tel: +44 (0)1371 850247 www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk 50 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

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Ascot Park Arena Polo

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100m x 50m Arena - International size Arena Full Fixture list of tournaments High quality club polo Home of City Polo Club Junior Polo Academy Livery - Livery inc stable rental and turn-out - Full social calendar of events

Club membership: £500 (Arena only) or £135 plus VAT per month (Annual) Contact Ascot Park Polo Club Tel: 01276 858 545 or email: info@polo.co.uk

www.polo.co.uk

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Feeding The knowledge Lorna Jowett, specialist equine nutritionist, gives expert advice on all things edible

Group grazing – how should we feed? y en español...

Con un grupo de amigos estamos buscando un lugar donde tener nuestros 20 caballos sueltos durante el invierno. Cuánto espacio van a necesitar? Hace falta que los dividamos en grupos? Hace falta que les demos una ración diaria?

Un grupo de 20 caballos va a necesitar entre 10 y 12 hectareas, dependiendo del tipo de pastura, la pendiente y desagüe del terreno.

Si el terreno se inundara o se rompiese con facilidad dejando huellas, durante los períodos de mas lluvia sería recomendable moverlos a terrenos secos.

Tip of the month Paying ponies more attention in winter allows them to come back into work more quickly and you won’t have to play catch-up with their condition and health in the spring.

A group of us is arranging winter grazing for our 20 low-goal ponies. How much space will they need, and do we need to split them up into smaller groups? What should we feed them?

A group of 20 horses would require about 25 to 30 acres, depending on the land drainage and types of grass present. If the land they are on becomes very wet and poached during wet weather, you should consider moving them to drier pastures.

In an ideal world, it would be great if you could split the good doers and poor doers into two groups and they can then be fed accordingly. Very often a poor doer in a group pasto largo may be a quieter terrenos secos individual that gets buena calidad bullied away from the sales/minerales forage or feed.

Estales encima a los caballos durante el invierno para asegurarte que no pierdan peso y condición general. Si dejas que decaigan te va a costar mucho mas recuperarlos en el verano.

rapidly. Supplementing with good quality hay or haylage will provide more nutrients and complement the poor grass.

Offer some hay/haylage – if they do not eat it all then the grass is sufficient. If some is eaten, then offer small amounts every couple of days, ensuring it is spread out in piles across the field or a couple of bales are put out at a time, not just one for = long grass 20 ponies. = dry ground

Lingo Lesson

= = pobre calidad = fardo = lluvia =

What is nearly always overlooked is that, just because the grass is long and green in September/October, it does not mean it is nutritious. It will give big grass bellies but won’t be giving many nutrients, hence why the topline falls off so

good quality salts/minerals poor quality hay rain

Hard feed – ideally they should receive a basic ration (high-fibre cubes for example) over the winter. If this is not possible, then at least provide paddock licks to allow them access to vitamins and minerals, ensuring good immunity, a healthy coat and hoof growth and using the grass and hay/haylage as the calorie source. F

En un mundo ideal, lo mejor sería poder separar en dos grupos a los caballos que son “mantenidos” de aquellos a los que les cueste mantener su peso, para poder alimentarlos en forma adecuada. A menudo los caballos mas sumisos y débiles de caracter terminan comiendo menos si el resto los empujan y maltratan.

Se suele confundir al pasto largo y verde de Septiembre/Octubre con pasto nutritivo, y si bien genera panzas llenas y gordas, no suele aportar nutrientes, por lo que los caballos tienden a perder la musculatura superior rápidamente. Darles fardo de pasto seco o húmedo, “haylage”, de buena calidad, les dará mas nutrientes y servirá de complemento al pasto de pobre calidad.

Ofreceles fardo, si no lo comen es porque estarán satisfechos con el pasto verde. Si no comen todo, dales menos cantidad dia por medio y siempre asegurate de esparcirlo en varias pilas para evitar que se peleen, o si fueran rollos, separalos bien por la misma razón, para 20 caballos vas a necesitar por lo menos dos.

Ración – Lo ideal es que reciban una ración básica durante el invierno (por ejemplo de cubos de alto contenido de fibra). Si esto no fuera posible, al menos pone cubos de sales minerales que puedan lamer en el campo, asegurándote así que tengan acceso a vitaminas y minerales, lo que les dará buena inmunidad, un pelaje saludable y buen crecimiento de los vasos, dejando al pasto y al fardo como únicas fuentes de energía. F www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 53

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The knowledge Travel

Clockwise from above: John Lister puts a guest through their paces; Val de Vie from the air; action; crowds relax watching South Africa vs Chile last February at the club

Where the coaches’ approach makes playing a pleasure The intrepid Bruce Cowley, last seen on these pages playing in Gilgit, visits an up-and-coming South African club just 30 minutes from Cape Town airport, where sheer enjoyment and maximum time in the saddle are the top priorities

ifestyle Polo? Didn’t sound like my kind of thing. I thought it smacked of people in shirts with little horse logos who spend more time in the bar than on the field.

Of course I couldn’t have been more wrong.

John Lister’s idea of lifestyle polo is all about more time on the horse. And more time on the ball, for everyone. Lifestyle Polo at Val de Vie is about playing polo as it was meant to be played, as a team sport – where everybody, from highgoal players to beginners can enjoy themselves.

And what a place to play! From the moment you enter the Val de Vie Wine and Polo Estate, you know you’re in for something special. It feels as though CEO Martin Venter gave somebody a blank cheque and said: “Create your dream polo club.” In fact, Martin visited polo clubs all around

L

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Jo and John Lister, who lived in Argentina and Chile for 10 years. “We’re trying to move away from rugby on horseback,” says John, a player since childhood

the world before selecting the best practices to incorporate into Val de Vie. From the pavilion and chic Sabrage Lounge bar (a delight to any longsuffering spouse, used to sitting on a deck chair beside the field) to the laser-levelled field, sloping towards the pavilion at one degree, for better viewing – not a detail has been missed.

But the magic of playing at Val de Vie is not only in the fantastic facilities, or the breathtaking combination of vineyards and mountains, forming the backdrop to the estate – or even the easy-onthe-wallet prices. It’s John’s approach to the game. “We’re trying to move away from the bad old days of rugby on horseback,” says John, “and make it a sport that everyone can enjoy.”

To understand the concept, you first need to understand the man. John was playing polo with adults by the age of 10 and was one of the first X

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Val de Vie essentials ◗ Val de Vie is a 40-minute drive from Cape Town’s city centre and 30

minutes from the airport. ◗ The 220-hectare estate features orchards, vineyards and four lakes that

provide freshwater fishing, canoeing and birdwatching opportunities. ◗ Villas are available for longer stays, with a hotel and polo village planned

◗ ◗ ◗

◗ ◗

for the future. Meanwhile visitors have a range of accommodation choices. A local b&b costs from 500 Rand (£41) per room per night.

Val de Vie is also a residential estate and you can invest in a piece of polo paradise – ranging from plots to established homes.

The facilities can also be rented for functions – from weddings to corporate days to photo shoots.

Rates are very reasonable when compared to international clubs, and include VAT and club fees, which some South African clubs charge on top. A half-day lesson costs from 650 Rand (£53) and the chukka rate for beginners (including pony hire) starts at 450 Rand (£37). An intensive six-day beginner’s course costs from 8,500 Rand (£700) including morning lessons and afternoon chukkas but not accommodation. Discounts for groups and longer stays are also available, and prices vary according to season and the polo levels.

The season runs from October (or late September if the weather is good) until May. For more, visit www.valdevie.co.za, or to contact John and Jo Lister, call +27 (0) 21 863 6170 or email polo@valdevie.co.za.

Photographs by Shane Doyle and Jean Pierre Uys

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The knowledge Travel Travel news in brief ◗ FOR THOSE SUBSCRIBERS STILL wondering where to go this winter, Polo Times has put together a list of exchange rates for the five main polo destinations and flight cost comparisons on our news pages. The list allows you to see how various exchange rates this winter compare with those of previous years. The flights cited are the cheapest offers we could find at the time of going to press. See page 6. ◗ UK-BASED POLO PLAYERS and their families are expected by the dozen at South Africa’s Oaklands Polo & Country Club this winter, as the club gears up for a busy winter-long season and the arrival of a travelling English team this month. The blend of beaches, game safaris and English-speaking yearround polo is proving an increasingly attractive alternative for northern hemisphere travellers who might usually have gone to Argentina. While much of the country’s polo scene doesn’t hit full flow until February, in the words of Oaklands owner Jamie Bruce, the club “will be pumping on with stacks of polo right through Christmas, all the way to the start of the English season in April”.

Oaklands will welcome Sebastian Dawnay, Ryan Pemble, Tim Bown and Ed Morris-Lowe as part of an action-packed fortnight this month, in which the tourists will take on South Africa in an Arena International Test Match and play a series of 10goal matches on the club’s grass ground (which celebrates its first birthday this month).

There will be a “Polo in the Park”-style format to some of these contests, with slightly different rules.

Bruce’s idea is to demonstrate to the South African polo-playing public that innovations are to be embraced rather than feared. He wants to encourage more South Africans into the club’s arena next winter, where they can play all year. ◗ ARGENTINA HAS RECENTLY welcomed back Juan Martin Sarli from five years in the UK to run La Tarde Polo Club this season. Lying just over an hour north-west of Buenos Aires, in Mercedes near Pilar, La Tarde sits on a 180-hectare estate and has undergone an extensive facelift in recent months.

Its newly-built clubhouse with bar and games room provides a focus away from the polo fields, and there’s a new tennis court, a swimming pool and accommodation for up to 30 guests.

The club’s slogan is “As much polo as you can take!” and there’s a current special offer of $1,600 (£977) for a week. Guests this year will have the added bonus of receiving a polo helmet, shirt, whites and knee guards that will be theirs to keep.

Manager Juan was formerly based at Stewarton Polo Club in Scotland and at Kirtlington and Ascot Park. La Tarde, which has four polo grounds, is also a working stud. Visit www.latardepolo.com. ◗ VISITORS TO NEW ZEALAND this winter might like to depart from their regular North Island haunts and pay a visit to South Island, where a breeding and training set-up is making a splash as a guest ranch. Marlborough Polo, run by Daniel Loe, a three-goal pro who spent the summer in Cheshire, operates on a friendly, cosy scale – it has just two double rooms, though extras could squeeze in at a push. The farm itself, on the island’s north-east tip, extends to 5,000 acres and adjoins wonderful coastline and vineyards. A week’s full-board, including polo, costs NZ$2,400 (about £1,000).

56 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

Players parade in front of Val de Vie’s impressive two-storey clubhouse before the start of a match

X young South African players to travel to the UK

and Argentina to improve his polo knowledge (John and his wife Jo lived in Argentina and Chile for 10 years). It’s this passion for knowledge, and his love of sharing it, that has made John such an effective coach.

John’s emphasis is on horsemanship. Not just learning to ride better, but how to “utilise what your horse has to offer and not more”. A refreshing approach in a sport where much sound advice has been given about the game, but not about the horse, which accounts for so much of the game.

Until very recently it was nearly impossible to learn to play polo in Cape Town, and even for experienced players, renting horses and getting a game presented a real challenge.

Val de Vie and John Lister’s initiative has changed all that. Val de Vie is essentially the first formal club in the Cape Town district where you can have lessons, rent horses and play chukkas, as a visitor. It was worth waiting for.

John encourages a style of polo that lets players of all levels build on their individual strengths, as part of a team. This may seem logical, but how often have we all played games of eight individuals, some of whom happen to be wearing matching shirts? “Lifestyle polo means enjoying what you are doing whether you are a starter or a 10-goaler,” says John. “It’s about letting every player feel like they contribute to the game; making a play and receiving a pass – and above all enjoying your horse.”

Val de Vie has attracted a lively mix of players, from local farmers who truck their horses in for weekend matches, to international visitors and everyone in between. There’s a strong female contingent, encouraged by Jo Lister, who staged the first ladies’ match in the Cape this year.

Now approaching the start of its third season,

the club has hosted guests from worldwide, and has witnessed a tremendous growth in local polo players. Ages vary from 10 years to players in their 50s; some have never ridden while others are experienced players. Val de Vie was also the first club near Cape Town to host an international – the 14-goal South Africa vs Chile match in February this year.

John provides coaching and introductory chukkas during the week, with games at the weekend for more experienced players. The decent selection of ponies means guests aren’t over- or under-mounted.

The fields are superb, as are facilities for nonplayers. Once you’re tired of lounging in the Sabrage Lounge Bar – perhaps sampling wines

Until recently it was nearly impossible to learn polo in Cape Town, and renting horses presented a real challenge from the vineyards grown on the estate - while loved ones charge around, there’s the option of riding out or walking amongst the vineyards.

An area of arresting beauty, the Franschoek region was settled by the French Huguenots in around 1665 and their culture is still reflected in the wine and cuisine to be found in the area. A great accommodation option is to stay at one of the B&Bs dotting the local farms, and John and Jo happily advise guests on where to stay and what to do while they’re in the area.

Whether you’re a seasoned player who wants to combine a trip to South Africa with playing polo at the kind of club you dream of, or you’re considering taking up the sport for the first time, a quick skip from Cape Town you could find the answer to your needs. F

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The knowledge Travel

My travels

Winter Special

Cape Town or Canuelas? Polo or pole-dancing? Antje Derks reveals what some of polo’s familiar faces will be up to in the next few months, and their memorable moments from past winter travels

Lucy Taylor “My hairiest moment was on Route 6 to Pilar” Lucy, who is in her 30s, has been playing polo for “too long”. She thinks she might be the longest-standing one-goaler on the planet, having achieved her handicap almost 14 years ago. Lucy’s family lives in Cheshire but she was based at the Beaufort this summer.

Main photograph by Alice Gipps

Where are you going this winter?

I am off to Aiken, South Carolina, in the United States for a week and then on to Pilar in Argentina until December. I’m renting a house with friends for the first time in Pilar and am hiring a string of ponies to play some tournaments. When I am finished in Pilar, I will head to a fantastic estancia called Don Manuel near Canuelas, which belongs to my good friend Emiliano Blanco. However, I haven’t yet decided what to do after Christmas – I suppose it depends on my bank balance, so it may well be Warrington!

Is your trip business or pleasure?

Hopefully both – we are still unsponsored and open to offers! We are entering an all-female side for the first time in history into an Argentine Association tournament, the Estimulo 7-12-goal in November. However, my team-mates Nina Clarkin and Emma Tomlinson are currently injured, as am I. We hope to be back on fighting form with Tamara [Vestey] by November. Before Emma and Tamara arrive in November, Nina and I will be combining during October with different duos for various tournaments at different levels.

On 6 November we are forming a side for the first-ever female England International against Argentina. Nina, Tamara and I will be joined by Rosie Ross, forming an 8-goal team.

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Where have you been in winters past?

In years gone by, I’ve probably spent the best part of six winters in New Zealand – though not necessarily playing that much polo. For the past three years I’ve played much more, mainly in Argentina before Christmas and Barbados after. I can’t remember a winter where I haven’t been to Barbados for at least a week, but I’m often there longer.

What’s been your most memorable trip?

I’ve been incredibly lucky with how women’s polo has developed over the years, which has led to some fantastic “battle of the sexes”-themed trips to some brilliant locations.

A recent trip to Jamaica sticks in my mind. We were there over Easter and Tamara and I landed on our feet, staying at a private villa at the Royal Plantation Resort with our own butler called Jase.

Jamaican polo is very low key, but the horses were a pleasure to ride and the club was fun and friendly. I also learnt not to drink coconut milk before a game in the heat!

Any awful or funny experiences?

My current injury, a fractured ankle, came from jumping off a fence while watering my horses! I haven’t had much luck with ankle injuries all round really. On a trip to South Africa in 2003, I was playing as part of an all-female England

side that was playing against Africa in Johannesburg, and the game was followed by a photo shoot for a glossy fashion magazine the following day. I had to appear on crutches after tearing all the ligaments in my ankle. The assumption was that I had done it playing polo.

The truth, though, was that it was a dance-floor related mishap, suffered whilst pole dancing around the marquee supports!

Another memory from my travels concerns a hairy incident in Argentina last year. We had been told not to travel in the dark on Route 6 – the road between Canuelas and Pilar – because that whole stretch is notoriously potholed and a target for hold-ups. However, Emma, Nina and I were tired after a tournament and keen to get home quickly. So we decided to take Route 6.

Nina was driving when, two-thirds of the way home, we hit a pothole deeper than the wheel and the tyre punctured. We went into panic stations, arming ourselves against possible roadside assailants with the wine bottles and umbrellas we had won as prizes, while Emma pretty much changed the tyre single-handedly!

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Clockwise from top left: Jamaican waters; the road from Pilar, Argentina; snowy St Moritz

Luke Tomlinson “I miss a good fry-up and a decent pint” Seven-goal England captain Luke Tomlinson comes from one of the UK’s most illustrious polo families, which owns the Beaufort in Gloucestershire and La Quinta in Argentina. He and his brother Mark were on the Apes Hill side that won this year’s Queen’s Cup Luke, where are you planning to spend this winter?

I arrived in Argentina last month, but I will go to Barbados later in the winter and from there I may head on to New Zealand and Thailand. My base from September to April is mainly in Pilar, and I will travel to the other places I am playing when necessary. I am also planning to pop back to England for Christmas and New Year.

How many years have you been wintering in Argentina?

I’ve come out to Argentina for the past 10 winters, but during this time I’ve also been lucky enough to travel and play in South Africa, Florida and Australasia at various opportunities. But I’m mainly to be found during the English winter in Pilar or at the polo grounds in 25 de Mayo.

Are your trips business or pleasure?

My trips are mainly about business. I am still trying to improve my performance as a player and I’m also always on the lookout for more decent

Cup earlier this year was pretty awesome too.

We played a great game and defied the odds to win, despite the Americans being on home turf.

horses. The only way I can improve my game is to play as much high-level polo as possible. But since I love it, it does also involve a good deal of pleasure too.

What has been your most memorable trip?

Probably my trip to New Zealand to play the Test Match in 2006. We won what turned out to be a thrilling game and New Zealand is such a beautiful and rural country. Going to Florida to play against the USA for the Westchester

Any bad experiences?

Going to Argentina can be challenging. Despite it being the mecca for polo and a great place to hang out, the system has its ups and downs and it is sometimes not that easy to find your way through it.

Fondest memories?

My fondest memories have to be travelling to South Africa to play with Leo Baxter and I also love going to Barbados with Sir Charles Williams.

What do you miss most about the UK? I miss a good fry-up and a decent pint most of all over the winter, as well as the English countryside and culture.

X

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LA MARIPOSA POLO FARM

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Polo lessons – Clinics – Pony Hire – Livery – Tournaments Horses for sale Mob – +44 7947 725 305

Come and join us for the 2009 Season mfdarritchon@fibertel.com.ar

60 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

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Travel The knowledge

“The elephants have a mind of their own, which ensures the game is hilarious” – Nina Clarkin

Nina Clarkin “My suitcase is always over the weight limit!”

At four goals, Nina is now the world’s highest-rated female polo player, having just been put up from three in September’s handicap changes. She is married to John Paul Clarkin, the eight-goal New Zealand captain

X Where are you off to this winter?

I’m going to Argentina, New Zealand and St Moritz. John Paul is already over in New Zealand for a few weeks but I’ve stayed here in England for the moment in order to get everything ready for a Sushi bar in Cirencester that I’m opening.

I’ll meet up with JP again later this month in Argentina and we’ll stay there until after the Open in early December.

Then it’s off to New Zealand for the season out there, and we’ll travel back through Europe in January for the Cartier Polo World Cup on Snow in St Moritz. We’ll then head back to New Zealand until the start of the 2010 UK season in May.

What has been your most memorable trip?

It wasn’t polo, but I’d have to say that the trip John Paul proposed to me on was pretty amazing!

We were on Benguerra Island, off the coast of Mozambique. From a polo point of view, I probably can’t single out one trip away, but winning the New Zealand Open last year with John Paul, Craig Wilson and George MilfordHaven was definitely one to remember.

Funniest memory?

JP and I went to Nepal to play elephant polo years ago, and I basically spent the entire trip in hysterics. We had so much fun and loved our time out there. The elephants have a complete mind of their own at times, which ensures the polo is incredibly unpredictable –

and absolutely hilarious! However, despite that – and the fact that you are always in the hands of your Mahout for steering – the games were still surprisingly competitive. It was actually great fun to watch and play and I would certainly recommend it.

What can’t you leave home without?

Books! I take mountains of them with me.

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Main photograph by Tony Ramirez

Where do you stay when you are away?

In Argentina we rent a nice house in a country club called Murray with some friends. In New Zealand we are at home on John Paul’s farm, Mystery Creek on North Island. In winters past we have stuck to a similar routine, although

JP and I used to go and play in South Africa’s Plettenburg Bay over Christmas and New Year, which was always good fun.

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The knowledge Property

Seeking a pad at Palermo What is it like to rent a flat in Buenos Aires during the Argentine Open, and what can visitors get for their dollars this year? Yolanda Carslaw investigates he two times I have escaped the British winter to watch the Argentine Open in late November and early December, friends and I have rented a flat rather than stay in a hotel – a solution we found to be good value, convenient and easy to arrange.

We were flexible on layout, storey and décor: all we knew was that we wanted to be on a quiet-ish street within walking distance of the Catedral de Polo at Palermo. Our first flat, a ground-floor affair in Palermo Hollywood, had a little garden, a rather basic kitchen and living room and an understanding landlady, who kindly came to the rescue when I had my handbag (and therefore her keys) stolen after the Abierto final.

The second, on the seventh floor of a quiet street in Palermo Soho, had a balcony as well as a roof terrace, and wonderful views. The location proved riskily good for shopping and was conveniently close to parks and the river for walking or running – but further from our favourite Las Cañitas parillas (restaurant). Both times, we paid less than $500 (£300) for the week between three of us.

We used only the web and our common sense to track down a base in what was initially, for us, an unfamiliar city. And while we struck it lucky despite going in “blind”, several agencies do have a polo connection – which polo-playing travellers may find reassuring.

Sussex-based player David Taylor, who is

T

This flat in Palermo Soho, at $1,530 (£930) a week, has a roof terrace with a private pool and a barbecue

married to the polo photographer and fellow zero-goaler Vanessa Taylor, has recently set up Shortstay-BA (www.shortstay-ba.com) with Buenos Aires-based Joaquina Llambias to rent out high-end apartments in Palermo, Recoleta and San Telmo.

Though Shortstay-BA’s website features fewer apartments than some agencies, its website is especially informative and easy to navigate – and the “map” function excellent. At the time of writing the firm had a handful of apartments left during the Open.

Examples in Palermo included a one-bedroom flat in a new block on Guatemala/Armenia at $750 (£460) a week. Like all Shortstay-BA’s flats, it has cable television, wireless internet, telephone, a safe and a twice-weekly maid

service. This one also has magnificent views, plus the use of a pool, gym, sauna and observatory.

“Like many things in BA, renting can be hit or miss,” says David. “There are one or two other decent companies and many cowboys. The first advice I’d give is to book early. We only have a few flats free at the time of the final, but readers could email us and if we can’t do it we can at least put them on to a reputable company.”

A second agency with polo connections is BA Total (www.batotal.com), which has 100 flats on its books. Its co-founder is Martina Cendoya, daughter of former six-goaler Federico Cendoya.

The weekly rate for BA Total’s Palermo flats ranges from about $300 (£180) to $2,000 (£1,200)-plus. One option for keen sunbathers in a city with limited public pools is a two-bedroom

Our landlady came to the rescue when my bag – and her keys – were stolen triplex flat (sleeping four) at the junction of Uriarte and Niceto Vega in Palermo Soho. As well as a large balcony, it has a roof terrace with a barbecue and small private outdoor pool.

At $1,530 (£930) a week, it would have stretched the budget of myself and my friends, but for visitors who require plenty of outdoor space close to the action, it’s worth a look – and still cheaper than staying in a top-end hotel. F

Three flats for rent near the Catedral de Polo

$2,100 (£1,280) a week – a four-bedroom apartment (sleeping eight) on Dorrego/Zapata, where Las Canitas meets Palermo Hollywood. In a recently built block, it has 24-hour security, plus the use of a gym, tennis court and outdoor pool. Through BA Total (www.batotal.com)

$790 (£480) a week – recently renovated two-bedroom, sixth-floor apartment (sleeping four) with bright, cheerful décor and a balcony among the treetops. Great location on the corner of the Botanical Gardens and Arenales. Through Shortstay-BA (www.shortstay-ba.com)

For further information with regard to equestrian property sales contracts, please contact Mark Charter at Blake Lapthorn directly: on 023 8085 7116; via email, at mark.charter@bllaw.co.uk; or write to Mark Charter, Partner, Real Estate, Blake Lapthorn, New Kings Court, Tollgate, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, SO53 3LG

62 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

$750 (£460) a week – one-bedroom apartment on the 11th floor of a new building on Guatemala/Armenia with superb views, a balcony, an especially nice bathroom and use of the block’s amenities, including a pool and gym.

Perfect for a couple. Through Shortstay-BA, as before

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ENTIRE DISPERSAL AUCTION SALE On behalf of

Inglesham Polo Club (Midway Highworth & Lechlade on A361, M4 J15 15 mins.)

SATURDAY 17th OCTOBER 2009 at 11 am

TRACTORS

GENERAL IMPLEMENTS

POLO GROUNDS & POLO EQUIPMENT

Iseki TR63 on grass tyres, M F Highway 20F and loader on grass tyres cw set of 4 wide Flotation tyres. Case 856 X L 4 WD & Quikie 5300 loader. Kubota mini.

Weeks 3 T tipping trailer and one other. McHale bale squeezer and bale spike. Ferti spreader. Rotavator. Quad chain harrows Parmiter hyd. Harrows. Grader blade. 2 all weather track conditioners. Cambridge 3 gang rolls. Chain harrows. Old crop sprayer. Twin Axle horse Trailer. Cement mixer 240v as new.

Car trailer Ground auger. 2500 litre trailer water bowser

Polo boards for 5 grounds.

Polo scoreboard remote digital on trailer.

Qty goal posts.

Umpiring Kit. Saddlery & Tack.

Qty new posts and rails.

YARD & WORKSHOP EQUIPMENT

CLUB HOUSE, BAR & OFFICE, STAFF ACCOMMODATION

POLO GROUND/GRASS/PADDOCK MAINTENANCE EQUIPMENT. Set Kesmac 9 gang mowers with back lapping gear box 3 y.o.

Set 7 gang ground driven Allet Rangers. X3 gang slitters.

Richard long 2003 Versatile Active link hydraulic 8’ grass mower roller topper/collector/conditioner . John Deere L107 Automatic ride on mower (only 477 hours) & one other. Logic motor paddock sweeper. Grass strimmers & Mowers.

VEHICLES Iveco 7.5 tonne 6 horse box P reg. 12 months MOT Honda 400 CC 4 x 4 QUAD Auto/Tiptronic 2 y.o.

2500 litre & 1500 litre Deso bunded fuel tanks cw 12 v elec. pump and meter. Anvil. Petrol generator. Hedge cutters Arc welder. Elec. fencers. Knapsack sprayers Steam pressure washer (Diesel). Submersible water pumps Welding kit. Air compressor. Workshop powered & other tools.

Ladders, wheel barrows, forks buckets, feed bins etc.

Rubber mats. Horse clippers.

Contents.

HAYLAGE – approx 730 big square & round bales in 6 lots POLO PONIES. The remaining ponies - particulars nearer time of sale.

Catalogue on our website week before sale: www.kidsontrigg.co.uk Enquiries 01793 861000 or email kidsontriggauctions@btconnect.com - Caterer in attendance Payment terms – Debit Card, Credit card (Surcharge 2.5%) Cheques only accepted from purchasers known to the Auctioneers, otherwise bank references please.

Kidson Trigg Auctioneers, Highworth. Swindon, Wiltshire SN6 7PZ

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The knowledge Gear

OJPolo (top row)

La Martina (lower and middle left)

Akuma (lower and middle right)

www.ojpolo.co.uk; 07790 283988 Male shirt: A loose-fitting, lightweight cotton polo shirt with button collar and good length sleeves. Available in XXS-XL. Female shirt: A fitted, lightweight cotton shirt with a button collar and cap sleeves offering a feminine fit.

Available in sizes 8-16.

The verdict: An economical option for teams on a budget. Both male and female shirts are available in seven different colours with up to six different art pieces either embroidered or printed.

The damage: £119.95 for a set of four (inluding free delivery and free set-up costs for team badges).

Individual shirts can be brought for £30 each.

www.lamartina.com; 01784 437962 Male shirt: The new “dry-fit” shirt is made of a lightweight, stretch fabric that absorbs sweat. The shirt has underarm panels of vented material, allowing the garment to “breathe”. A close-fitting shirt with zip-up collar.

Female shirt: A quality cotton shirt offering a flattering cut with slightly longer sleeves than others. A rigid button collar in lilac with stripes on the reverse. Tasteful embroidery and pattern designs on front and reverse.

The verdict: The luxurious, elaborate choice, both the male and female shirts can be made to order, with logos, colours and a number of different design features.

The damage: £55 each for female shirts; price on application for male shirts

www.akumapolo.com; 01676 533320 Bespoke long- and short-sleeved shirts made in Leeds by an enterprising firm that makes rugby shirts. Adolfo Cambiaso was among the testers, and Dubai wear Akuma shirts in the UK and abroad. Fabric is technical polyester, which wicks sweat away from the body. Available either with a button or a zip-up collar, in traditional or semi-fit.

The verdict: A professional looking garment that feels great to wear. Outstanding service – made-to-order shirts are sent out within days, and Akuma will also visit yards to size you up. We loved the online kit designer – customers input logos, words and patterns, which are imprinted via a method called sublimation, so no extra appliqué is needed.

The damage: £69.99 + VAT per shirt, including logos

64 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

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Book review The knowledge

From Rattle and Frizz to Chinese quotations The entertaining content and pacey, absorbing style of acclaimed polo author Horace Laffaye’s latest volume impresses Arthur Douglas-Nugent his is a masterful book that will surely take its place in any sporting library as the definitive reference on polo. At the hint of an unanswered question, go straight to the index and all will shortly be revealed. This is a work of scholarship and detailed research, covering every aspect of the game from its earliest history and through the many other stages in the interim to polo as we know it today. But it is more than just a work of reference – it also makes for a

T

There is the story of the Manipuri player who pawned his wife to buy a better pony, and many such entertaining tales thoroughly good and interesting read, moving effortlessly from one era of play to another.

Although the author is American, there is full coverage of the development of the game in England and Argentina, and generous tribute is given to the contribution made by the British Army in spreading the game worldwide. At times, indeed, The Evolution of Polo reads like an old edition of the Army List, with a plentiful smattering of majors, colonels and brigadiers with nicknames like Rattle, Frizz and Shabash.

There is a wealth of quotations from the early Chinese: “Polo is akin to heavy

drinking, gambling, popular music, licentious conduct and other forms of immoral activity” being a personal favourite.

The book then moves on to discuss when the game started to become popular in England: “It was admitted by all who were watching that the game was more remarkable for the strength of the language used by the players than anything else.”

The Durham Light Infantry had the right philosophy, when commenting on the play of a member of their opposition: “Their best player, Freddie Ker, pinned his faith on the dribbling game. We, on the other hand, trained on the principle that pace will always defeat the slow game and so it proved.” There is also the story of the Manipuri player who pawned his wife in order to buy a better pony, and many more such entertaining anecdotes.

I did, however, feel that the author was unduly harsh on Kerry Packer: yes, he might have raised the price of polo but he did set a standard in ponies, grounds and players, the influence of which is very much with us today.

As a personal note, I would have liked to see mention of the golden age of polo in the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) at the time when the experience and skills of the old guard from India were passed on to

The front cover shows Billy and Bill Ylvisaker, Adie Von Gontard Jnr and young Adie Von Gontard III before a practice game in the 1970s

those fortunate to serve there at the time, leading to the revival of German polo.

There is an excellent and thoughtful chapter on umpiring, as well as one on ponies.

This is a fine book and well illustrated but sadly is thus far only issued in paperback, which is much less than it deserves. Nothing less than leather binding with gold lettering would be worthy of such a splendid volume which should have a place in every polo lover’s bookcase.

PT RATING: ★★★★★ ◗ The Evolution of Polo by Horace Laffaye (£42.50; McFarland & Co Inc) has 364pp and 101 photos. ISBN: 978-0-7864-3814-3

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The knowledge Dates for the diary

What’s on in October Principal fixtures at home and abroad UK highlights Low- and medium-goal Epsom – The Columbus Cup (3-6 goal): 10-11 October Wicklow – Novice Cup (0-8 goal): 24-25 October Druid Lodge – Sandpool half-term Cup (Open): 25 October Vale of York – ABI Beach Challenge (Open): 25 October Maywood – Ladies Tournament (0-2 goal): 31 October

Overseas Argentina Tortugas – Tortugas Open (40-goal): 22 Sept – 10 October Hurlingham Polo Club – Hurlingham Open (40-goal): 3-31 October Palermo, Buenos Aires – Argentine Open (40-goal): 14 November – 5 December China Beijing Polo Club – International Polo Open (Australia; Brazil; China; New Zealand): 5-6 October Nine Dragons Hill Polo Club – Royal Salute Polo Gold Cup Finals (12-goal): 17-18 October India Jaipur Polo Club, Rajasthan – Army Commander Polo Cup (8-goal): 05-11 October Army Polo & Riding Club, New Delhi – Bhopal-

Pataudi Cup (8-goal): 20-24 October Army Polo & Riding Club, New Delhi – RMRM Gold Vase (10-goal): 27-31 October South Africa Oaklands Polo & Country Club – 15-goal Arena Polo International (South Africa vs England): 10 October Singapore Singapore Polo Club – Ladies International Tournament (Open): 14-18 October Spain Villafranca de Castillo, Madrid – Zarzuela Polo Lawyers Cup (Open): 9-10 October USA 302 Polo Club, South Carolina - 2009 Silver Cup (16-20): 9-25 October

Other dates Tattersalls, Newmarket – October Yearling Sale (Books 1, 2 and 3): 6-9, 12-14 and 15-16 October Tattersalls, Newmarket – Autumn Horses in Training Sale: 26-29 October

Corrections In the news section of the September issue of Polo Times, Alberto van der Mye was described as an Argentine. He is, in fact, from Cuba.

Also in the September issue, Polo Times incorrectly and inexplicably suggested that Vaux Park Polo Club is in Yorkshire. It is, of course, in Somerset.

For comprehensive tournament listings and results, visit www.polotimes.co.uk

Fixtures Outdoor – Below 0 Goal FHM Rose Bowl

10 Goal 3 October

International Open W Wycombe Indian Summer Trophy* 3-4 October

Arena October – 12 Goal 31 Oct - 28 Feb

8 Goal Wicklow Novice Cup

24-25 October

6 Goal Epsom The Columbus Cup

10-11 October

4 Goal Epsom United Nations Cup Epsom All Saints Day Trophy

31 October

Open Druids Lodge Sandpool Cup Vale of York ABI Challenge

25 October 25 October

November - International Werribee Park Polo, Melbourne Cup 1-8 November Werribee Park Polo, Polo Cup 29 November

15 Goal RCBPC High Goal Challenge

21-22 November

12 Goal RCBPC Metropolitan Trophy

Druids Lodge Poppy Sunday Trophy Druids Lodge SOS Trophy

7-8 November 28-29 November

6 Goal Vaux Park Challenge Cup Epsom Remembrance Cup Epsom The Churchill Cup Druids Lodge The Barfoot Bottle Fifield First Winter Cup* Ascot Norway Trophy Tidworth Full Swing Trophy

28-29 November 7-8 November 21-22 November 14-15 November 14-15 November 21-22 November 28-29 November

4 Goal 17-18 October 31 Oct - 1 Nov

2 Goal Maywood Ladies Tournament

21-22 November

8 Goal

Villafranca del Castillo Lawyers Cup 7-9 October

All Clubs The Polo Masters

Druids Lodge Chatanooga Salver

20-29 November

66 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

Epsom All Saints Day Trophy Epsom St Andrews Cup Maywood Remembrance Day Ascot Tiki Trophy Tidworth Cholderton Trophy

31 Oct - 1 Nov 28-29 November 7-8 November 14-15 November 14-15 November

2 Goal FHM The Polo Splice Tournament Fifield Ice Challenge

28 November 21-22 November

Open AEPC Champagne Jaquart Challenge AEPC The Seico Polo Club Inglesham Roxtons Longdole Open Tournament Vale of York ABI Challenge

14-15 November 21-22 November 21-22- November 21-22 November 22 November

Club

contacts (UK and Ireland)

AEPC – Hickstead 01273 834315 All Ireland – +353 (1) 6896732 Apsley End – 01462 712444 Ascot Park – 01276 858545 Ash Farm – 01932 872521 Asthall Farm – 01367 860207 Beaufort – 01666 880510 Belmont, Mill Hill – 01344 829955 Beverley – 01964 544455 Binfield Heath – 01491 411969 Borders Reivers – 01890 840777 Brannockstown – +353 45483708 Brightling – 01435 810017 Bunclody – +353 876605917 Burningfold – 01483 200722 Cambridge & Newmarket – 07769 976781 Carlton House – 01986 892231 Cheshire – 01270 611100 Chester Racecourse – 01244 304602 Cirencester Park – 01285 653225 Cowdray Park – 01730 813257 Coworth Park – 01344 875155 Curraghmore – +353 51387102 Dedham Vale – 01473 280900 Donaghadee – 02891 882521 Druids Lodge – 01722 782597 Dundee & Perth – 07831 365194 Edgeworth – 07879 825660 Edinburgh – 0131 449 6696 Epsom – 01372 748200 FHM – 07778 436468 Fifield – 01628 620061 Foxhill – 0115 9651790 Frolic Farm – 01223 812922 Guards – 01784 434212 Haggis Farm – 01223 460353 Ham – 020 8334 0000 Herbertstown – +353 872552331 Hertfordshire – 01707 256023 Hurtwood Park – 01483 272828 Inglesham – 01367 253939 Kinross – 07831 365194 Kirtlington – 01869 650138 Knepp Castle – 01403 741007 Lacey Green – 07947 725305 Ladyswood – 01666 840880 Limerick – +353 872373903 Little Bentley – 01206 250435 Longdole – 01452 864544 Maywood – 01962 885500 Moyne – +353 851313224 New Forest – 02380 811818 Offchurch Bury – 07785 223383 Orchard – 01258 471000 Park Lane – 01491 411969 Ranksboro – 01572 720046 RMAS – 01276 412276 Royal County of Berkshire – 01344 890060 RLS – 01926 812409 Rugby – 01788 817724 Rutland – 01572 724568 Silver Leys – 01279 652652 St Albans – 07710 262435 Stewarton – 01560 483411 Suffolk Polo – 07990 576974 Sussex Polo – 01342 714920 Taunton – 01823 480460 Tidworth – 01980 846705 Toulston – 01422 372529 Vale of York – 07788 426968 Vaux Park – 01460 242684 West Somerset – 01884 820432 West Wycombe – 01865 858475 White Rose – 01430 875750 Wicklow – +353 (0) 404 67164 ◗ To contact the HPA, tel: 01367 242828 ◗ To contact SUPA, tel: 01344 625124

PTOctober 2009 p66-67 Whats on & handicaps YC JM

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Handicap changes The knowledge End-of-season UK handicap changes The following changes were agreed at the HPA meeting on 14 September. They are effective from the New Year and are still to be ratified by the Stewards MOVING TO SIX de Estrada, Santiago: 7 to 6 Vianini, Andrea: 7 to 6 MOVING TO FIVE Etcheverry, Horatio: (6) to (5) Saavedra, Justo: 6 to 5 MOVING TO FOUR Charlton, Max: 3 to 4 Clarkin, Carina: 3 to 4 Garcia Del Rio, Marcos: (3) to (4) Hernando, Santiago: (5) to (4) Otamendi, Daniel: 3 to 4 Toccalino, Manuel: (3) to 4 Tuthill, Oliver: 3 to 4 MOVING TO THREE Aguirre, Louis: (2) to (3) Anderson, Lance: 2 to 3 Duma, Sibusiso: (2) to (3) Gahan, Jeronimo: 2 to 3 Gavina Naon, Tomas: (2) to (3) Gonzalez, Carlito: 2 to 3 Ormerod, Maurice: 2 to 3 Richardson, Jack: 2 to 3 Sheridan, Lanto: 2 to 3 MOVING TO TWO Cabana, Facundo: (1) to (2) Cordoba, Fernando: (1) to (2) Ellis, Cameron: 1 to 2 Emerson, Mark: 3 to 2 Fernandez, Tommy: 1 to 2 Fewster, Martin: 3 to 2 Furlong, Patricio: 3 to 2 Ghio, Manuel: (1) to (2) Glue, Martin: 3 to 2 Hill, George: (1) to (2) Jones, Jay: 1 to 2 Leal, Nicholas: (1) to (2) Maldonado, Carlos: 3 to 2 Morgan, Tommy: 3 to 2 Muriel, Danny: 1 to 2 North, Joe: 1 to 2 Parsons, Edmund: 1 to 2 Richmond-Watson, Mark: 1 to 2 Roberts, Nicolas: (1) to (2) Rodriguez, Daniel: (1) to (2) Rosales, Noberto: (1) to (2) Seavill, Charles: 3 to 2 Smith, Charles: 1 to 2 Viglierchio, Vittorio: (3) to (2) Wesche, Tony: 1 to 2 White, Lucas: 3 to 2 Wooldridge, Charlie: 1 to 2 MOVING TO ONE Andrews, Jessica: 0 to 1 Bacon, Dillon: 0 to 1 Baillieu, Alexander: 2 to 1 Beitner, Nick: 0 to 1 Berner, Jack: 0 to 1 Berner, William: 0 to 1 Bromley-Martin, Edward: 0 to 1 Cabrera, Carlitos: (2) to (1) Cabrera, Facundo: 0 to (1) Cerboni, Carlos Ignacio: (2) to (1) Dear, Fred: 0 to 1 Dechet, Andrew: 0 to 1 Eastwood, Aurora: 0 to 1

Galland, Santiago: 0 to (1) Gebbie, Andrew: 0 to 1 Harilela, Aron: 0 to (1) Hernandez, Ivan: 0 to (1) Heywood, Dominic: 0 to 1 Hodges, Harold: 0 to 1 Hutchinson, Max: 0 to 1 Jackson, Hazel: 0 to 1 Lamacraft, Tom: 0 to 1 Leal, Martine: (2) to (1) Mains, Alexander: 0 to 1 Maitland, Ben: 2 to 1 Marot, Guy: 0 to 1 Mason, Richard: 0 to 1 Mayou, Tom: 0 to 1 Medina, Harry: 0 to 1 Mesquita, Jack: 0 to 1 Minns Shearer, Charlie: 0 to 1 Morris-Lowe, Edward: 0 to 1 Pailloncy, Ludovic: (2) to 1 Parsons, Issy: 0 to 1 Pepper, Jonathan: 0 to 1 Powell, Oliver: 0 to 1 Raschia, Adrian: 2 to 1 Rivero, Juan: (0) to (1) Seccombe, Max: 0 to 1 Selfe, Patrick: 0 to 1 Sepulveda, Andres: (0) to (1) Sleeman, John: 0 to 1 Spicer, Robin: 0 to 1 Swanson, Charlie: 0 to 1 Sweeney, Charlotte: 0 to 1 Thompson, Logan: (0) to (1) Ventura, Michael: 0 to 1 Wentworth-Stanley, Harry: 0 to 1 Woodhouse, Rex: 0 to 1 MOVING TO ZERO Abel Smith, Tom: –1 to 0 Alhamrani, Salman: –1 to 0 Andrews, Rob: –1 to 0 Aprahamian, Charles: –1 to 0 Aylott, Hedley: –1 to 0 Bahlsen, Nikolai: –1 to 0 Banner-Eve, Alec: –1 to 0 Barnacle, Sian: –1 to 0 Batchelor, William: –1 to 0 Beavan, Huw: –1 to 0 Bellm, Anthony: –1 to 0 Benyon, Harry: –1 to 0 Berry, Alex: –1 to 0 Boyd, Nicholson: –1 to 0 Breheny, Neil: –1 to 0 Brown, Roger: 1 to 0 Browne, Sam: –1 to 0 Choo, Stephen: –1 to 0 Christodoulou, Charlotte: –1 to 0 Clevett, Emma-Kate: –1 to 0 Connolly, James: –1 to 0 Conroy, Ryan: –1 to 0 de Alba, Juan Jose: –1 to 0 Dornom, Chris: –1 to 0 Douglas, Mark: –1 to 0 Dumrath, Heinrich: (–1) to (0) Ephson, Ludo: –1 to 0 Faggionato, Aristide: –1 to 0 Finbow, Izzy: –1 to 0 Fingleton, Barry: –1 to 0 Foster, Edward: –1 to 0 Fox-Andrews, Guy: –1 to 0 Frankum, William: –1 to 0

Gilks, Henry: –1 to 0 Giori, Gualtiero: (1) to 0 Gordon, Jake: –1 to 0 Greenwood, Giles: 1 to 0 Gunn, John: –1 to 0 Hannam, Toby: –1 to 0 Harmsworth, Vere: –1 to 0 Harper, David: –1 to 0 Harris, Tom: –1 to 0 Henry, Nick: –1 to 0 Heriot Maitland, Jamie: –1 to 0 Higson, Charlie: –1 to 0 Hughes, Sophie: –1 to 0 Humfrey, Freddie: –1 to 0 Hutley, Francis: –1 to 0 Jackson, David: 1 to 0 Jackson, Hilary: –1 to 0 Lakin, Piers: –1 to 0 Lineham, Elliott: –1 to 0 Lomberg-Williams, Jake: –1 to 0 Marlow-Thomas, Angus: –1 to 0 Meacher, Maddie: –1 to 0 Meade, George: –1 to 0 Merriam, Peter: –1 to 0 Morten-Hart, Jonathan: –1 to 0 Munro, Douglas: –1 to 0 Murphy, Chris: 1 to 0 Otamendi, Ariel: (–1) to (0) Padden, William: –1 to 0 Papoyans, Andreas: –1 to 0 Ponsonby, Luke: (–1) to 0 Potter, Fraser: –1 to 0 Rawlins, Daniel: –1 to 0 Richardson, Ralph: –1 to 0 Robertson, Guy: (2) to 0 Roe, Conor: –1 to 0 Salem, Maurice: (–1) to (0) Schraepler, Manfred: –1 to 0 Scott, Charlie: –1 to 0 Scott, Hamish: –1 to 0 Scott-Hopkins, Amelia: –1 to 0 Servaes, Alice: –1 to 0 Seymour-Williams, Roddy: –1 to 0 Simms, Jonny: (1) to 0 Simpson, Charlie: (–1) to 0 Simpson, Matthew: –1 to 0 Smyth-Osbourne, William: –1 to 0 Squire, Alice: –1 to 0 St Aubyn, Tom: –1 to 0 Stella, Pietro: –1 to 0 Stirling, Jonathan: (–1) to 0 Swanson, Jeffrey: –1 to 0 Winterton, Nicholas: –1 to 0 Woodd, Tabitha: –1 to 0 Woolley, Joshua: –1 to 0 Wright Roberts, Charlie: (–1) to 0 MOVING TO MINUS-ONE Ahern, Bob: –2 to –1 Arber, Romilla: –2 to –1 Baring, Cosima: –2 to –1 Barrera, German: (–2) to (–1) Beckley, Philippa: –2 to –1 Benyon, Thomas: –2 to –1 Beresford, Camilla: –2 to –1 Bertola, Matias: (0) to (–1) Bhinsaeng, Ploy: (–2) to (–1) Boucher, Alex: –2 to –1 Brodie, Thomas: S to –1 Brown, Philippa: –2 to –1 Campbell, Gordon: –2 to –1

Cannon, Patrick: –2 to –1 Cardale, Alicia: –2 to –1 Carroll, Danny: –2 to –1 Chaudry, Zach: –2 to –1 Chua, Victor: –2 to –1 Copcutt, Nicholas: –2 to –1 Cory-Smith, Alexi: –2 to –1 Coulbeck, Jack: –2 to –1 Dann, Nicholas: –2 to –1 Darrington, Emma: –2 to –1 Davies-Gilbert, Max: –2 to –1 de Bellissen, Odon: –2 to –1 de Montfalcon, Adrian: –2 to –1 Dear, Arabella: –2 to –1 Denton, Hamish: –2 to –1 Donaldson, Sally: –2 to –1 Edmondson, Toby: –2 to –1 Elliot, Annabel: –2 to –1 Elliot, Karl: –2 to –1 Fair, Hector: –2 to –1 Fallon, Ken: –2 to –1 Fitzpatrick, Hannah: –2 to –1 Foster, R Lee: –2 to –1 French, Georgina: –2 to –1 Fuller, Page: –2 to –1 Gaddas, Andrew: –2 to –1 Gibbs, Amber: –2 to –1 Giles, Sandra: –2 to –1 Goff, Charlotte: –2 to –1 Greening, Greg: –2 to –1 Greenleaves, Kevin: –2 to –1 Groves, Chris: –2 to –1 Hale, Sarah: –2 to –1 Hall, India: –2 to –1 Hancock, Sebastian: –2 to –1 Hinamen, Jessica: –2 to –1 Hislop, James: –2 to –1 Hoey, Derville: –2 to –1 Holmes, Emma: –2 to –1 Hooper, Alice: –2 to –1 Hoskins, Rosemary: –2 to –1 Hudson, James: –2 to –1 Hugh Smith, Peter: –2 to –1 Hugo, Jeanine: –2 to –1 Human, Byron: –2 to –1 Hussain, Shuif: –2 to –1 Igoe, Paul: –2 to –1 Irlam, Michael: –2 to –1 Jacob, Nell: –2 to –1 Johnston, Janet: –2 to –1 Jones, Oliver: –2 to –1 Kemmis-Betty, David: –2 to –1 Kennedy, Edward: –2 to –1 Kerin, Phoebe: –2 to –1 King, Clive: –2 to –1 Knight, Paul: –2 to –1 Lent, Terence: –2 to –1 Letts, George: –2 to –1 Lewis, David: –2 to –1 Lewis, Hugo: –2 to –1 Lindsay, Alexander: –2 to –1 Lindsay, Jamie: –2 to –1 Lourvanij, Robin: (0) to (–1) Lovelady, Stephen: –2 to –1 Mackie, Ed: –2 to –1 MacRae, Justin: –2 to –1 Maddison, Louis: –2 to –1 Mander, Lucia: –2 to –1 Marsaglia, Carlo: –2 to –1 Masojada, Adam: –2 to –1 McCormick, Karen: –2 to –1

McGrath, John: –2 to –1 Meredith Hardy, Charles: –2 to –1 Mitchell, Colin: –2 to –1 Mooney, Ryan: –2 to –1 Muddle, Jess: –2 to –1 Murphy, John: –2 to –1 Murphy, Ronan: –2 to –1 Murray, Jamie: –2 to –1 Neal, Justin: –2 to –1 Oliver, Alex: –2 to –1 O'Neill, Jamie: –2 to –1 Oosthuizien, Cornel: –2 to –1 Owen, Caroline: –2 to –1 Paiva, Roberto: –2 to –1 Parry-Jones, Susie: –2 to –1 Parry-Jones, Tom: –2 to –1 Pearce-May, Tim: –2 to –1 Petersen, Tom: –2 to –1 Phillips, Nick: –2 to –1 Phillips, Victoria: –2 to –1 Powell, Maimie: –2 to –1 Purvis, Jason: –2 to –1 Reather, Charlotte: –2 to –1 Reith, Charlie: –2 to –1 Revell, Mike: –2 to –1 Richardson, Conor: –2 to –1 Rigby, Max: –2 to –1 Riordan, Ben: –2 to –1 Roberts, Estee: –2 to –1 Robertson, James: –2 to –1 Ross-Wilson, Alex: –2 to –1 Rowlinson, Anna: –2 to –1 Rutland, Henry: –2 to –1 Ryan, Peter: –2 to –1 Scheyd, Oliver: –2 to –1 Servaes, Harriet: –2 to –1 Severn, Jack: –2 to –1 Shairp, Naomi: –2 to –1 Shelton, Ed: –2 to –1 Shumiloff, Laura: –2 to –1 Simpson, Miranda: –2 to –1 Sleeman, Lucy: –2 to –1 Small, Toby: –2 to –1 Smyth-Osbourne, Archie: –2 to –1 Stacy, Freddie: –2 to –1 Stacy, Max: –2 to –1 Stead, Deborah: –2 to –1 Steed, Emma: –2 to –1 Sunderland, George: –2 to –1 Swindells, Gemma: –2 to –1 Targett, Stephanie: –2 to –1 Thomason, Paul: –2 to –1 Tilley, Isobel: –2 to –1 Tobin, Nicholas: –2 to –1 Townrow, John: –2 to –1 Valdes-Scott, Charles: –2 to –1 Van De Steen, Alexander: –2 to –1 Vandamme, Brenda: –2 to –1 Von Bulow, Nichola: –2 to –1 Walton, Charlie: –2 to –1 Ward, Anna: –2 to –1 Wathes, Georgina: –2 to –1 Watts, Abigail: –2 to –1 Wethered, Marcus: –2 to –1 Whitelock, Josh: –2 to –1 Wilkinson, William: –2 to –1 Wilson, Ian: –2 to –1 Wood, Georgina: –2 to –1 Worsley, Hector: –2 to –1 Worth, Alexander: –2 to –1 Zekrya, Daoud: –2 to –1

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Out and about Canada vs Barbados, Toronto Polo Club – 22 Aug

Holidays, hog-roasts and a memorable Bajan invasion A radio and newspaper promotion in the Greater Toronto Area in the weeks ahead of the Sapphire Beach Barbados Trophy produced a lot of interest, with a draw for a holiday for two in Barbados promised following the completition of the day’s main game between local Canadians and the visiting Caribbeans.

Sure enough, as the whistle signalling the end of the game turned a tap on in the sky, some 200 people sought shelter from the downpour in the Barbados Tourism Authority’s VIP marquee for presentations, speeches and the drawing of the raffle. The winning ticket fittingly went to a couple who hadn’t been on holiday for 15 years.

Merriment swept through the tent, as the players and VIPs drank the bar dry while the thunder crackled overhead. Then, as the late-afternoon sun broke the murk, the hosts and their Bajan visitors took the party across the club’s three main fields to Mike Egan’s impressively equipped polo ranch. Fine food, plenty of booze, some youthful hanky-panky and much discussion of all things polo ensued in what will surely prove to be one of the most memorably relaxed and enjoyable evenings of the summer season.

Barbados Tourism Authority’s new president David Rice and the BTA’s main Toronto representative Cheryl Carter congratulate the lucky local competition winner (centre), who won a holiday for two to Barbados

Danielle and Philip Tempro

The Bajan players relax after the game with the Toronto-based Jada PR girls and representatives from the Barbados Tourism Authority

Match organiser Karen Kranenburg and local publisher Rika Trela

Justin Fogarty and Evan White provide a very bright sandwich

Percussion in the VIP marquee

These two wasted no time in getting to know each other

Ryan Roy and Ramiro Dagna

Justin Fogarty fools around

Photographs by James Mullan

Bajan three-goaler Danny Atwell and Nicola MacGeogh

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County Cup final – Laird vs Hotel la Tour Cirencester Park Polo Club, 23 August 2009

Club celebrates chairman’s win Held in aid of St John’s Ambulance, the 15-goal County Cup at Cirencester Park Polo Club on Sunday 23 August welcomed warmer, brighter weather than in 2008 and attracted a big crowd for one of the last tournaments of the season on the club’s famous Ivy Lodge ground.

Sponsored by Intuition Publishing, the final pitted Laird and Hotel La Tour against each other in a tight battle that was a fitting finale to what had been a very competitive tournament throughout. Laird’s patron is also Cirencester chairman, Richard Britten-Long, and the club’s figurehead was clearly keen to get his hands on the trophy on his home turf and in front of so many familiar faces. He put together a team combining youth and experience that worked well as a unit, squeezing out strong opposition – in the shape of John Paul Clarkin and Dave Allen – to win narrowly, 9-8.

The subsidiary final for the Neil Haig Cup was another exciting game, as favourites Apes Hill lost out unexpectedly to Satnam Dhillon’s Trewsbury side, 5-3. And there was a further treat on County Cup finals day, with the postponed final of the TH White Subaru Cup, won by Irongate through an excellent performance by Kelvin Johnson.

Winners Laird celebrate a hard-fought victory in the County Cup

Laird (15): Richard Britten-Long 0; George Meyrick 4; Glen Gilmore 7; Alan Kent 4 Hotel La Tour (15): Sehr Ahmad 0; Nick Pepper 3; Dave Allen 4; John Paul Clarkin 8

Mark Vestey enjoys the final

Laird’s Alan Kent opens up his grey as he gives chase to the ball

Hotel La Tour’s Sehr Ahmad

JP Clarkin focuses on the game

Countess Bathurst and Richard Britten-Long

Photographs by Cheryl Miller

Boot-cleaning 11-year-old Jamie Salter, who ran his operation at Cirencester Park all summer to save up to buy a saddle (see also page 18)

Groom Casey McGaw, with China

The Gunn and Hales families picnicked in style on the sidelines

The beautiful silver County Cup www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 69

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Out and about Edgeworth Charity Polo Ball, 4 July

Worthy cause benefits from generous Gloucestershire guests We are delighted finally to bring you photographs from the Summer Charity Polo Ball at Edgeworth Polo Club in Gloucestershire. The pictures have been held over from the last two issues of Polo Times for reasons of space. The event was staged to raise money for the County Air Ambulance and welcomed some 300 guests to their specially erected marquee for the bi-annual event.

As ever, the evening was a great success, with tables of guests enjoying an excellent meal prepared by William’s Kitchen and plenty of wine and merriment. The dinner and speeches were followed by entertainment from live band The Accelerators and a fire show by Energy Entertainments, who flew all the way from Ibiza for the event.

There was also a casino for those who fancied themselves as good at calling their fellow members’ bluffs and extra money for the charity was also raised by generous donations in the raffle and auction.

Jono Smail, Gloucestershire Air Ambulance’s John Pottesthwaite, Edgeworth owner John P Smail and Kate Dickens at the presentation

Clifford and Viveka Haydn-Tovey

Vicky Griffiths between young bucks Ed Magor (left) and Kit Brooks

Jackie Brown, Amber Gibbs and Holly Eccleson bring some colour

Photographs by Tom Reynolds

Ashley Dominey, Alex H-C Borgnis, Alex Feetham, Harry Tucker and Elsa Rice are all smiles at the drinks reception before dinner

Sisters, Nina Clarkin and Tamara Vestey 70 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

Mary Reynolds, Charlie Newman and Casey McGaw enjoy the fine weather

Two-goaler Ben Malasomma and Gemma Swindells

Gwen Dalgleish and Richard Bucket

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Adjutant General’s Corps (AGC) Polo Cup Combined Services PC – Tidworth, 31 August

Sun shines on services showdown Several hundred spectators gathered in the sunshine at the Combined Services Polo Club at Tidworth to celebrate the final bank holiday of summer by watching some excellent polo and raising money for a very worthy cause. The Adjutant General’s Corps Polo Cup, held in aid of SSAFA Forces Help (The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association charity), welcomed eight low-goal teams in two divisions, -4 to -6-goal and -8-goal. Polo Times reported in the news section of our June issue on organiser Maj Gillian Shaw’s efforts to co-ordinate the event from Afghanistan.

Division One consisted of teams from the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the Infantry. The Royal Navy produced the best polo of the day, reaching the final and deservedly beating the Infantry to take the AGC Polo Cup, 31/2-0. In Division Two, two Adjutant General’s Corps teams took on sides from the Royal Artillery and London University Officer Cadet Training Corps. The London side beat AGC Red side in the final, 3-1.

All games were played over two chukkas on Tidworth’s Fisher ground, with commentary provided by the chairman of the Army Polo Association, Lieutenant Colonel Simon Ledger.

Tidworth-based military supporter Percy Pearson

AGC Polo Cup winners, the Royal Navy (l-r: Lt Cdr Giles Hadland, Cdr Dean Bassett, Lt Bob Santrian and Cmdr Richard Mason)

Royal Artillery players, Bdr Woody Woodhouse, Sgt Tobi Horn and Maj Andy Ward send out some confusing messages with their team numbers

Major General Andrew Cumming CBE, SSAFA controller, presenting Lt Janet Johnston with the MVP award Commodore Richard Mason, CSPA chairman and captain of the winning Royal Navy team

Photographs by Peter Meade

Michelle Pearce and tournament organiser, AGC Polo secretary Major Gillian Shaw

Action from the day, which welcomed eight teams

Emma Dawson and Hattie Poole www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 71

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Out and about End-of-Season Party, Maddox – 16 September

Late-night large one for the summer season’s last revellers Royston Prisk and Hugo Pearl hosted their annual party to mark the end of the UK polo season last month, at the sought-after Mayfair address of London's exclusive nightclub and restaurant, Maddox.

They welcomed an excellent turnout of players from Ascot Park, Guards, Royal Berkshire and Cowdray Park polo clubs (with handicaps varying from minus-two to six), most of whom descended from the countryside for a 9.30pm kick-off on Wednesday 16 September. Proceedings began with Belvedere Vodka cocktails in the bar, while those who hadn’t yet eaten sampled Maddox’s dining options in the restaurant.

The guests moved downstairs to the nightclub area at around 11pm and danced ferociously to a varied mix of music until way past their bedtimes, especially on a school night. A number of different DJs played everything from 1980s classics to the newest dance tracks, until the last of the evening’s guests staggered reluctantly home at 3.30am.

Party organisers Hugo Pearl and Royston Prisk, with Lauren Burlingham

Kate Mason and Alex Nation

Jake Gordon, Edward Morris-Lowe and Raff Niziol hit Mayfair hard

RCBPC’s Louisa Crofton works it

Tim Wade cut a dashing figure in a smart claret suit

Photographs by Stephanie Elliot

England’s Henry Brett enjoys a drink with Lidja Nusevic

RCBPC polo manager Phillip Elliot was joined by his daughter, Hannah 72 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

Lucy Northmore and a friend (left) with Ascot Park’s James Wayland

Action on the dance floor got pretty sweaty

Max Charlton and Joaquin Pittaluga made a night of it

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Club information

LONGDOLE POLO CLUB Rob Cudmore England Coach, 2 HPA Instructors International Equitrack Polo Arena Fantastic clubhouse with licensed bar & excellent viewing of the arena Polo Pony Hire, School Ponies Chukkas and Matches - call the office for Info Individual Coaching, Group Lessons, Social & Corporate Events

For information on membership, polo lessons and general enquiries please call: Tel: (office) 01452 864 544 Mobile: 07974 532 841 email: rob@longdolepolo.com Longdole Polo Club, Birdlip, Gloucestershire, GL4 8LH

Polo ground available for 2010 We have a full-size ground and a stick-and-ball field with ‘clubhouse’ (double-decker bus with catering facilities). We have a lot of stabling on site, some of which is available now. We have turnout, an indoor school, a walker, a lunging ring and excellent hacking.

Also young two-goal professional available.

Any suggestions?

We are between Oxford (5mls) and M40 J9 (3mls) with good access.

Please call Eric Asker on 01869 351111 or 07887 538843

Maywood Arena Polo Season runs from 3rd Oct to March 28th • Membership from £250 • Half season and monthly rates • Chukkas Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays • Tournaments every two weeks from 2 goal upwards • Only 5 minutes from M3, A303 and A34 Info@maywoodpolo.com www.maywoodpolo.com Tel: 07970 697593

Now open for Winter Membership North Street,Winkfield, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 4TH 01344 890061 Email: info@rcbpoloclub.com

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Classifieds GROUND MAINTENANCE

PONIES

DESTINATIONS

ACCOMMODATION

Accommodation near Pilar Accommodation at estancia in Los Cordales – very suitable for players needing lodgings close to Pilar, which is about 15 minutes away

Excellent access to motorways 70km from Buenos Aires Up to seven rooms available, including a separate two-bedroom apartment Use of ground, stabling, pony hire and livery negotiable Gap year students @ special rates

www.lasortijapolo.com Email: annabelmcnd@gmail.com Tel: Jennifer on 07711 776985

GIFTS

74 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

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Classifieds TRANSPORT

EQUIPMENT

The New Lightweight body by

TRISTAR★★★ This revolutionary horsebox is designed to achieve a payload of approximately 3 tons – which means you can legally carry: 5 medium weight 16hh horses – around 600kg each, or 6 polo ponies of an average 460kg each – and this also includes all tack!

This innovative body can be produced in any length from 10’ – 30’, with the same variations in specification as any other vehicle in our range.

www.tristarhorsesboxes.co.uk

Tel: 01570 422250 Fax: 01570 423842 Email: sales@tristarhorseboxes.co.uk

STABLING

Please mention Polo Times when you contact an advertiser FEED

INSURANCE

www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 75

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Classifieds PONIES 0 - 6 GOAL POLO PONY: 15.2hh, 11 year old, dark bay Argentine mare. Always sound, good manners. Easy, quick and responsive. Suit all levels. £5,000. Call 07768 102492.

CHILDREN'S POLO PONY: 11hh, 11 year old, white mare, good manners. Has done Pony Club polo/camp/hunting. Would suit child up to 12yrs. Lives in or out. £5,000. Call 07768 102492.

8 YEAR OLD IRISH TB MARE: Has played low/medium/high goal. Easy to ride. Good mouth. Would suit patron or professional. Owner giving up polo and must sell all ponies, hence good price £2,650. Please call 07949 237586.

3 EASY PLAYING MARES 4 – 6 YEARS OLD: All young, clean, quiet, played outside and arena, or could be used for teaching. £4,750 each or a deal for all 3.

Also 15.2hh gelding 4 year old, easy, £4,500. Call James 07800 517869.

14.3HH 20 YEAR OLD POLO PONY - FREE LOAN TO PERMENANT HOME: 14.3hh 20 year old polo pony, free to good home - trial period considered.

Owned last four years, but not ridden for the last two, due to owner with bad back and lack of time and money. Good with farrier and to load. Teeth recently done and regularly wormed. Was easy to ride and good in traffic. May suit teenager or possible brood mare. Nicola 07804 496601 or nicolamontagu@yahoo.co.uk PRETTY DUN ROAN MARE: 15.1hh mare, bold, fast and sharp turner, 100% brilliant for good rider, no vices, clean legs. 17-year-old £2000. Also 18-year-old 16hh gelding, not novice £650. For more details 01926 419596 NICE PONY AT A NICE PRICE: 15'1hh grey mare.

Very easy, fast, quick to turn, very strong ride off.

Plays arena/grass. 18 years old with lots left to give.

Finances force sale. £3000ono. 07831 365194 ARGENTINE BAY GELDING: Tractor Sito - 15.1hh, 8 year old Argentine gelding. Ideal for -1 to 1 goal player. Very quick and easy. £5.500. Tel: 07769 870211 ENGLISH THOROUGHBRED MARE: 15.3hh dark bay mare, 6 years old. Ex Racer. Perfect for pro or patron.

Very straight forward and easy to do. Does wind suck. £8000. Tel: 07769 870211 STUNNING 15.2HH BROODMARE £900 ONO: Bright bay, stunning ex high-goal mare, 15years old but extremely low mileage as been in stud last 7 years.

Produced beautiful foals. Compact powerful conformation. Clean limbs, sound. Good to catch and shoe.

Call 07788136378 or email beuer_estates@hotmail.com

15 HH, 11 YEAR OLD BEAUTIFUL ARGENTINIAN POLO MARE: Genuine pony. Fit/ready to go. Always sound. Easy to handle. Played pony club/medium goal.

Currently playing upto 6 goal. Only for sale due to cutbacks. £4,500 private home only. 07970 568555.

SALE OR SWOP 12.3HH SUPERSTAR PONY: Superb 12.3hh welsh mare, competed at championship level, SJ/ODE/tetrathlon/games/Cowdray 09. Played both Jorrocks/HandleyX same home for 10 years.

Sale/swop for larger pony. 14.3+ inc tack. £3950 Tel: 07983 520569 PRETTY DARK BAY MARE: 14.3hh dark bay Chilean mare - 13 years for sale. Would suit beginner, will play up to 4 goal. Easy to play, excellent hitting platform.

Will pass any vet. Call 07789 865691. Can be tried at Ham Polo Club STRIKING ARGENTINE GREY MARE: 15hh, 11 years old, smart, strong, safe, 100% reliable. Amazingly quick and easy to stop and turn. Never had an injury.

Played up to 8 goal. Will double. Lady owner for 4 years. Sale due to restocking. £8,000 ono. Tel 07775 938443 York 13.0HH JORROCKS PONY: Played all jorrocks qualifiers, Hurtwood final with Cotswold Foxes. Fast, extremely agile, sensible. Good dressage, jumping, hunting. 100% box, shoe, traffic etc. A fun friendly loving pony. Not first pony £4,500. Tel: 01285 760358 FOR SALE - PERFECT BEGINNER/NOVICE POLO PONY: Wonderful 15.3hh 9yr old Argentinean gelding.

Has played low goal and pony club. Will easily carry a heavy man. Well schooled, safe, sound and sensible.

Excels in arena. Bought for nervous rider who has since gained confidence and outgrown him. Sad sale, will be sorely missed. £5000ono. Contact rockvalestud1@utvinternet.com GETTING OUT OF POLO SALE: Have fun playing polo? - 3 superb Argentine mares, healthy, fast, comfortable & easy. Two bays both 15.1hh and a chestnut,15.2hh. £4k each including tack - Saddle, bridles & bandages. Tel 07711 900430 14.3HH URUGUAYAN MARE: 14.3hh Uruguayan mare, rising 6 years old. Very sensible, steady and sound. Fit and playing. Playing low goal tournaments.

Suit beginner, pony club, low goal. Good box, shoe, catch etc. £3900ono Tel: 01223 862776 Mob: 07595 293556 e-mail: cherilynloke@hotmail.com BOMBPROOF BLACK BEAUTY-SCHOOLMISTRESS: Perfect 1st polo pony 15.1hh. Never puts a foot wrong. Confidence builder. Played by -1 mother and son. Sound all season. Best private home only. £3.5kono. Tel: 01342 714920 15.1HH ENGLISH THOROUGHBRED MARE: 9 years old. Bred & Trained for Polo. Played Medium/Low Goal.

Has turned her hoof to Polocrosse for the past 2 seasons winning numerous Best Pony awards. Really handy easy mare. Snaffle mouth. No Vices. Perfect in all respects. £4,500. Email:katherinehopkin@aol.com 15 HANDS LIVER CHESTNUT MARE: 11 years super handy pony, very easy would suit patron/PC home.

Played up to 10 goal. £4,000.00 NO OFFERS. Hertfordshire Tel: 07985 500118

BEST PLAYING PONY HX COWDRAY 2009: 14.2h mare 10yrs. Won HX and lead Cartier parade this year.

Easy- fast-great hitting platform. Gadwall took my son to -1. Sadly outgrown. Plays arena & grass. Suit small adult or ambitious pc. Simply the best. £6500 Tel: 01342 714920 15.2HH GREY MARE 14 YEARS OLD: Easy hitting platform. Strong in ride-offs, fast, responsive, stops, turns well ,loves to do her job, Sweet natured, Adapts to any ability, Currently fit and played all season, Too many horses not enough time forces sale. 07850 664235 £3,750 (Yorkshire) TRANSPORT AND MACHINERY BARGAIN HGV POLO HORSEBOX FOR SALE: Leyland DAF FA 65CF.210. 1999 2-Axel-Rigid Body.

Full Service until. May 2010. Superb condition sleeper cab with CCTV. Partitioned for 8. Storage, racks, hosepipe inc. Must sell ASAP hence price. £12,000 Please call 07951 817626 for more info 10-12 HORSETRUCK WITH ALI BODY AND LOCKERS: Double thickness 25ft 17T E reg.

Previously used to show cattle hence very low mileage 130,000km. Has tow bar and plated to March'10. £9000. Tel 07774 774325 DRIVER AVAILABLE: Professional, freelance arctic or rigid driver available, with polo pony experience. Clean LGV class C+E licence for 4 years. No accident claims.

References available. Oxford/Henley based. Call Jonathan on 07810 772778 or email pellyfry@aol.com HORSE TRANSPORT & FREELANCE CLASS 1 DRIVER FOR HIRE: Horse transport & driver available. Also freelance driver/groom. 25+ years experience working with & transporting horses in the UK & Europe. Class 1/O/CPC licence holder & DEFRA approved. 01794 323195 - 07786 475123 (Hants/Wilts based).

EQUIPMENT SCOREBOARDS AND CLOCKS ESPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR POLO: Outdoor and arena sizes.

Fully electronic, displaying the time counting down, both scores and chukka number. Automatic bell/horn.

Controlled wirelessly by a remote control you can even wear on your arm. Visit www.SportingDesigns.co.uk or call +44 (0)7860 303217 SITUATIONS HEAD GROOM: Experienced person required to help run family polo yard. Must hold 7.5ton licence at least.

Capable of taking sole charge, good all round riding experience. On-site accommodation + excellent salary. Tel: 07867 552130 or email Helen on helen@g-w.net

Please mention Polo Times when you contact an advertiser

76 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

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New-style classified adverts for ponies Now you can add a colour photograph of your horse to your classified advert in the magazine for an extra £15 + VAT. Prices for subscribers £15 for 30 words and £5 for every additional 10 words. Plus £15 for a photo in the magazine and on the website, or £5 for a photo on the website only.

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www.polotimes.co.uk October 2009 77

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The last word

A Week

in the life of. .

Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup at the end of the week. The party was incredible and Olga and I didn’t get home until way past my bedtime at about 1am.

ON TUESDAY I had an interview to do with Eduardo Novillo-Astrada for the Pony Power pages of Polo Times back at Dos Lunas [see page 50]. I watched the side play a practice from 10am then I spoke to Eduardo and photographed the pony at 11.30. I was back at Santa María for three medium-goal games in the afternoon, then a memorial service at the club that evening for Spanish-based Englishwoman, Ursula Thompson, a fan and financial supporter of Sotogrande polo for as long as most can remember. Inglesham’s Nick Williams said a few words.

I HAD DINNER on Wednesday, after a day spent shooting more polo, with Beaufort’s Peter and Binkie West, the Warren family and Horse & Hound’s Emma McCall and her boyfriend Rod Hunt, at a villa owned

by Rod’s father.

POLO IS PLAYED EVERY DAY towards the end of August in Sotogrande, as the culmination of the low, medium and highgoal Gold Cups bears down on players, supporters and sponsors like the hot Spanish sunshine. It’s a hugely busy time for me, photographing all the games and attending the numerous functions, whilst also fulfilling my various other work commitments back in the UK remotely over the internet. I spent three weeks over there this year, from 11 August to 1 September.

Photograph by Yolanda Carslaw

MY WIFE JOINED ME on Saturday 22 August and, with no polo until late on Sunday morning, first thing that day was a rare chance to visit Sotogrande’s famous antiques market. Nothing tickled my fancy but, of course, Mrs Ramirez liked the look of some bracelets that I will no doubt end up paying for!

I then darted off to get to two low-goal matches running simultaneously at 11am, and another at 12.15pm. I shoot every game, for my website and a variety of other media purposes, as well as private commissions from players and sponsors as appropriate. Treading in doesn’t happen in Sotogrande, so most of my shots at polo are just of the action and presentations.

FORMER GLAMOUR model Katie Price arrived between the two high-goal games in the afternoon, along with a slavering pack of paparazzi, but I was one of the privileged few photographers with exclusive access to her in Santa Maria Polo Club’s VIP area. My wife, Olga, tells me she then went on to conduct interviews and to do a photo shoot and autograph-signing 78 October 2009 www.polotimes.co.uk

Tony Ramirez

One of polo’s busiest professional photographers lets James Mullan in on the hectic cycle of games, meetings and social outings in Sotogrande session at her KP Equestrian stand, but by this stage I had returned to photographing the polo – I was far more interested in the Broncos versus Ayala match!

MONDAY BEGAN with my usual routine – getting up early (about 8am) to download my pictures, deal with my emails, upload selected shots to my website and update the snaps on the Polo Times news pages. I’m a one-man band, so can’t afford to let any business slip while I am out of the UK. I then had a meeting at Hotel Maritimo with some tournament sponsors that wanted specific photographs. This was followed by high and medium-goal games in the afternoon and a super-posh asado at Alvaro Sainz de Vicuña’s Dos Lunas place that evening for some 150 people. Alvaro is the father of four-goaler Pasual Sainz de Vicuña, whose side went on to lift the high-goal

THURSDAY morning I had an interview with Santa María Polo Club before the high-goal semi-finals in the afternoon.

Olga and I then had dinner at a restaurant in town, La Bodeguita, near our apartment. We’ve had a place in Sotogrande for about seven years now, which we bought partly because of an interest in polo, but mainly at that time as an investment and because I have family in the area. I only became a full-time polo photographer in 2003, jacking in my insurance brokerage business of 20 years to take up my hobby full-time!

AFTER A DAY spent photographing the medium-goal semi-finals and catching up with admin from the tournament to date, Saturday was high-goal finals day.

Broncos got hammered in the subsidiary, which was a shame, but the final that followed (at 6.30pm) was a brilliant game.

It’s often pretty hard to enjoy a game when you are constantly following the ball through a lens and concentrating on trying to take good photographs, but even I could tell what an incredibly exciting game this was. The crowds were the biggest of the month and the weather was as good as it had been throughout, with mid-30s temperatures and the sun illuminating the beautiful fields. Luckily, I have good access through my relationship with the club, so was able to get a good pitch – somewhere in the shade!

WE STAYED PRETTY late that evening for the presentations and cocktail party, attended by the Duchess of York and by numerous government officials from the local area and Madrid, and got home about 1.30am. The medium and low-goal finals followed on Sunday morning and, after a lovely tapas lunch with Olga, I finally made it to the beach (for the first time in three weeks) before a dinner with my brother and his family in the evening.

We returned to England on Tuesday. F

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Polo Times October 2009