PT June 2013

Volume 18 • Issue 5 • June 2013 • £6.50

www.polotimes.co.uk

Zacara retains US Open title PLUS: Exclusive interview with Enigma patron Jerome Wirth Polo in Morocco Fitting saddles with Paul Treloar

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Contents

54

28

Contacts Publisher Margie Brett margie@polotimes.co.uk Editor John O’Sullivan john@polotimes.co.uk

40

What’s inside...

June 2013 News

Youth polo

Deputy editor

8 All the latest news

48 School profile - Cheltenham College

Georgie May georgie@polotimes.co.uk

14 Club News

50 Exeter University in South Africa

15 HPA News

53 St Andrews charity match

Junior editor

Comment

Knowledge

16 Backchat with Clare Milford Haven

54 Fitting saddles with Paul Treloar

18 Herbert Spencer’s Global view

60 Know your game

20 Umpire’s corner

62 Know your horse

22 Your views: letters

64 Ones to watch

Polly Bryan polly@polotimes.co.uk Advertising manager Lily Cox lily@polotimes.co.uk Art editor Nicki Averill nicki@polotimes.co.uk Marketing & PR PJ Seccombe pj@polotimes.co.uk

Features 24 Cover story: Interview with Enigma high-goal patron Jerome Wirth 28 Polo in Morocco 32 Memories of Coronation Day

Reports Subscriptions Sarah Foster sarah@polotimes.co.uk Accounts Philippa Hunt - accounts@polotimes.co.uk

Tel: 01993 886885 Fax: 01993 882660

www.polotimes.co.uk

34 Cover story: US Open, IPCPB, Florida, USA 38 Copa de las Naciones, Palermo, Argentina 40 Miami Beach Polo World Cup, Florida, USA 42 Home and abroad

66 In polo – London Executive Aviation

Sidelines 68 Gossip: Don’t be the last to know 70 Social: Cartier Queen’s Cup draw; Ham Polo Club pre-season cocktails 72 Social: US Open; PJ’s drinks party, Fulham; Toulston book launch 74 What’s on in June 82 Passions: Matt Perry

Cover photograph: Cristian “Magoo” Laprida shows his delight after helping to guide Lyndon Lea’s Zacara to the US Open title for the second year in a row. By LILA PHOTO

Polo Times, June 2013 7

from the Editor

News

UK high-goal season in full swing SIXTEEN TEAMS ARE currently contesting the Cartier Queen’s Cup at Guards Polo Club. The competition commenced on 21 May, officially kickstarting the high-goal season in the UK. Polo Times previously published the 16 teams rumoured to be taking part in the high-goal this year and all teams were confirmed by Guards at the President’s The trumpeters of the Band of the Irish Guards with the league tables for the Draw in mid-May. It was Cartier Queen’s Cup at the President’s Draw in May (see page 70) announced that El Remanso will be joined by two-goaler Ali Paterson but the Bears, La Bamba de Areco, Salkeld and UAE. fourth members of Talandracas and UAE Polo Eight teams will advance to the quarter-finals were still to be confirmed as Polo Times went – which begin on Saturday 8 June – while the to press. remaining eight teams will go on to contest the Queen’s Cup defending champions Dubai Prince of Wales Trophy at the Royal County of return this year, albeit with a different lineBerkshire Polo Club (RCBPC). The semi-finals of up, which now includes seven-goaler Nico the Queen’s Cup will take place on Wednesday Pieres – replacing Ignacio Heguy. Last year 12 June and the final is on Sunday 16 June. they defeated Ayala/Ellerston, who will not The Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup will commence be returning to the mix this season. Dubai on 25 June. Harald Link’s Thai Polo will be will play in League One, joined by Enigma, taking part, featuring Malcolm Borwick, Nic Emlor and El Remanso. Last year’s Gold Cup Roldan and Ale Agote. The final of the 22-goal winners Cortium are in League Four, alongside tournament will be held on Sunday 21 July.

Talandracas, Sumaya and HB Polo. League Two w To view the teams and keep up to date with includes Twelve Oaks, Zacara, Les Lions and results, visit www.polotimes.co.uk EFG Aravali and League Three features Black

One of the big talking points in the polo world this month has been the conduct of Adolfo Cambiaso in the US Open final – see page 34. With his Valiente team trailing by two goals in the final chukka against Lyndon Lea’s Zacara, the world’s leading player voluntarily walked off the field with over a minute to play following a heated exchange with the umpire. Nobody wants to see polo’s number one player behaving in this way. But the fact is, Cambiaso is a very passionate and aggressive player, who wears his heart on his sleeve. If he did not play in this way, I’m confident he never would have reached the heights he has as a player. The downside to this, however, is there is such a thin line between being aggressive and losing control and it is inevitable that you will, on occasion, overstep the mark. It would be a pity to see a repeat of similar histrionics at Guards or Cowdray Park this summer, but one hopes Cambiaso and his fellow ten-goalers will play with their customary urgency and passion on the hallowed turf of England’s most famous grounds.

8

Polo Times, June 2013

JERSEY BEACH POLO will hold their second consecutive event on Friday 20 September.

Two sponsors have already signed up – Archer

Photograph by Tony Ramirez

Email me: john@polotimes.co.uk

Jersey polo event seeks sponsors

Jersey Beach Polo will take place on 20 September

Street and Banjo. However, organisers are still seeking two further sponsors.

Four teams of three players are set to be taking part and more than 30 ponies will be transported to Jersey specially for the tournament – at present there are no polo ponies or polo facilities on the island. Last year’s event, which was held mid-week, attracted more than 2,000 spectators so it is hoped that even more will descend on the beach this year with it being held on a Friday.

As well as sponsorship opportunities, there are also opportunities for corporate guests. For more information contact Julie Settle on 07797 740913 or jsettle@jerseymail.co.uk. www.polotimes.co.uk

Photograph by Tony Ramirez

This month high-goal patron Jerome Wirth of Enigma kindly invited me to his polo farm in West Sussex. We discussed his team’s new partnership with merchant banking firm RJI and he told me about his vision for the future of polo. Jerome is a serious businessman, who is serious about polo and he is eager for the game to move away from being perceived as a “social sport”. He thinks it is time for the top-level of the game to become fully professional and, with the help of RJI Capital’s Ron Wahid, he is committed to do whatever he can to make this happen. Jerome may not be the first person to have this vision for polo, but he certainly has the connections and the financial backing to make a good go of it, so it will be interesting to see how things progress over the coming years. He is a passionate man with many interesting things to say. See my interview with him on page 24.

News

Polo in the Park this month HURLINGHAM PARK IN Fulham, London, will host MINT Polo in the Park from 7-9 June. Six teams are taking part in the 16-goal three-a-side tournament, played on a smaller grass field with adapted rules.

George Meyrick will once again feature on the London team, who won the tournament last year. Oli Hipwood and Nick Britten-Long join him this year. The Sydney side only features one Australian this year, in the form of Ruki Baillieu. Michael Bickford and Jamie Morrison make up the remainder of the team. Abu Dhabi, Buenos Aires and Moscow will be fielding teams, as well as newcomers Beijing, which will feature Tang Polo Club’s Shilai Lui. The increasingly popular event kicks-off on “City

Friday”, where corporate guests can dine at the Hurlingham Club before heading over to the polo ground for three matches. Over the weekend, there will be four main bars for spectators to enjoy – The Pommery Champagne Garden, Mahiki Bar, Polo Bar and the Pimm’s Bus and Garden – all based around the edge of the polo field.

Finals day on the Sunday will feature two matches and for the first time there will be children’s games on the polo ground before the first game – the subsidiary final. w Tickets start from £20 for adults and £10 for children – see www.ticketmaster.co.uk

News in brief w GLEN GILMORE HAS now begun his role as polo manager at Guards Polo Club.

The Australian seven-goaler arrived in the UK at the end of May, having recovered from the recurrence of a melanoma (see the news pages of the March 2013 issue of Polo Times), which delayed him from taking up his post earlier in the year. w RETRAINING OF RACEHORSES are holding their second Racing to Polo Challenge this month. The competition will be held at RCBPC on Monday 17 June, from 3.30pm to 6pm. There are three sections (three year olds, four year olds and five/ six year olds) and prizes of up to £1,500 are up for grabs. For further details about the event, see page 15. w POLO TIMES IS now available to download via the Polo Times app, available on all android devices through Newstand and Google Play. Single issues and subscriptions can be purchased via the app, but if you want to see what it is all about first, the Jan/Feb and March 2013 issues are free to download.

Polo in the Park team captains (l-r): Jamie Morrison, George Meyrick, Oscar Mancini, Max Charlton and Nacho Gonzalez

www.polotimes.co.uk

Polo Times, June 2013

9

News

Aiming high IKE AZZARO: the seven< Mgoaler won his seventh US Open title in April when Zacara successfully defended their title, defeating Valiente in the final at IPCPB, Florida. See pages 34-36 for the report

DUBAI POLO: the Dubai Gold < Cup Series will be played at 18goal level in 2015, making it the highest handicapped patron-led tournament in Asia.

IPCPB: The International Polo < Club Palm Beach received the

Providencia Award in recognition of the club’s positive impact on the tourism industry. Earlier in the year the club’s president John Wash also received the Palm Beach County Sports Commission’s President’s Award.

ONIES WITH SORE < PBACKS: Australian equine

therapist and saddle fitter Paul “Poppy” Treloar is currently in the UK until the end of September.

Read more about Treloar on pages 54-58.

Swinging low BALDING: = GtheERALD 8-goal tournament at Cirencester Park received less entries this year. However, last year’s winners – playing as Cheshire Polo this year – are back to defend their title. The final will be held on 2 June CAMBIASO FANS: those = that turned out to witness Adolfo Cambiaso in action in the US Open final would have been disappointed when the 10-goaler walked off the field before the end of the game.

See pages 34-36 US LEGAL SYSTEM: = IPCPB founder John Goodman will be back in court for a re-trial after juror misconduct in the original court case, which sentenced Goodman to 16 years in prison for DUI manslaughter 10

Polo Times, June 2013

Hurtwood Park’s future is bright drummer Kenney Jones, is being sold. However, OVER THE PAST few months it has been the club maintain that this is not the case and it speculated that the future of Hurtwood Park Polo Club was in doubt. However, the polo fraternity will is looking forward to a busy summer, including the 6-goal Brokers Cup from 1-2 June and the be happy to learn that the club has informed Polo Bremont Watch Trophy, in aid of Winston’s Wish, Times that its future is secure and that members from 8-9 June. The statement concluded: “We can look forward to many more years of polo. have been the victim of the economic downturn “Hurtwood Park are just about to sign a joint (as have other clubs) but with such a high profile venture deal with a partner,” Hurtwood Park owner, the press seem to have an insatiability over confirmed in a statement to Polo Times. “This our misfortune. Surely the national press have deal has been in negotiation for some time while more important stories to report on that affect due diligence has been undertaken and we have mankind and the world.” been subject to a confidentiality agreement. In the meantime there has been a recent flurry of speculation over the club’s future.

Rest assured the club has a full calendar of events for the season and is looking forward to a long and fruitful partnership with our investors.”

It was recently reported in the national press that the club, which is owned by rock Kenney Jones’s Hurtwood Park Polo Club is looking forward to a busy summer this year

Brits travel to Denmark for Copenhagen Open THE FIRST EVER Copenhagen Open takes place this month in the centre of Copenhagen in Denmark. The 8-goal tournament has four international teams confirmed to be taking part, with British players Henry Brett, Ryan Pemble and Matt Lodder among those travelling out to play.

In a similar fashion to Polo in the Park, the tournament will be three-a-side and played on a Henry Brett will feature in Denmark

smaller ground, making it more spectator friendly.

The inaugural event, which takes place from 22-23 June, is expecting 10,000 people to attend and a further 350 in the VIP marquee on each day.

Representing team London are Michael Husted, Greg Greening and Henry Brett, while Ryan Pemble will lead the Copenhagen side, which also features Matt Lodder and Leah Hamdan. Teaming up for team Oslo are Nicholas May, Thea Museaus and Casimir Gross and representing Stockholm are Per Jacobsson, Niclas Johansson and Santiago Shanahan.

The event, which is being run by the Danish Polo Association (set up earlier this year), will feature two matches on each day, as well as a polo demonstration by Ryan Pemble.

See www.copenhagenpoloopen.dk. www.polotimes.co.uk

News

England take on South Africa at Beaufort

Photograph by Audi

AUDI INTERNATIONAL DAY at Beaufort Polo Club will take place on Saturday 15 June. England will face South Africa in the Test Match, while England Ladies will play England U21 later in the afternoon.

Neither side for the Test Match was confirmed before Polo Times went to press. However, it has been rumoured that the home side will be the same line-up that will play at Audi International Day at Guards on 28 July. Usually the teams for the

Action between England and The Commonwealth at last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Audi International at Beaufort Polo Club

international at Guards â&#x20AC;&#x201C; where England will take on the USA for the Westchester Cup this year â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are announced in July so this will mean that the home side will be known much further in advance.

The Test Match at the Beaufort forms part of the Gloucestershire Festival of Polo, which runs over the whole weekend and includes a Country Fair.

On Sunday 16 June there will be a charity polo match, which has traditionally featured one, if not both, Prince Harry and Prince William â&#x20AC;&#x201C; although it is not yet known if they will be taking part this year.

The finals of the Eduardo Rojas Lanusse Cup will conclude on that day.

Royal Salute will be hosting an after-party following the Test Match. Tickets cost ÂŁ20 and will not be available on the door. VIP areas cost ÂŁ300, which include a bottle of Royal Salute Whisky.

General admission tickets cost ÂŁ20 per person and there are also hospitality packages available at ÂŁ100 per head. w T o purchase tickets for the either day of the Gloucestershire Festival of Polo, please contact 0844 477 1000

Gannon final moves to earlier date and packing up camp. Therefore, as a trial, the Gannon final will be played on Friday 9 August at 5.30pm to coincide with the Branch Managers drinks party. This timing has the additional advantage of releasing the Gannon players to fulfil their other playing commitments at the weekend.

Organisers are looking for a sponsor for the evening. Sponsors will be able to meet with many of those involved in junior polo and their families.

If you would be interested in sponsoring the new event, please contact Laura Armstrong on laura@pcuk.org.

The Pony Club Polo Championships parade

Photograph by Georgie May

FOR THE FIRST time, the Audi Pony Club Polo Championships will be holding the Gannon final on the Friday night (9 August), rather than on the Sunday (11 August) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the last day of the championships. The U21 Gannon final is the highlight of the championships and a match that spectators are always eager to witness.

With more sections on offer within the Pony Club and Junior HPA, the time pressure is considerable for everyone involved: players, parents, coaches, team managers and hosts Cowdray Park Polo Club. This means that many players and parents are not able to watch the main final as they are so busy clearing out their stables

www.polotimes.co.uk

Polo Times, June 2013

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11

News

Teams confirmed for Argentine Triple Crown

News in brief w LONDON NIGHTCLUB BOUJIS will be hosting an after-party on the grounds of Guards Polo Club at this year’s Audi International on 28 July. Boujis will serve its signature cocktails and provide the headline DJs in the evening, while Keith Prowse will provide hospitality during the day, including a three-course lunch and afternoon tea.

For more turn to page 68.

THE SIX TEAMS contesting this year’s Argentine Triple Crown have been confirmed, plus the six teams taking part in the Hurlingham and Argentine Open qualifiers.

Ellerstina, who have moved up to 39-goals, with Mariano Aguerre’s handicap moving up to 10-goals at the end of last season, now match La Dolfina on

w TAMARA FOX’S POLO pony Toque, ridden by Diana Wilkinson, won the polo pony showing class at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in May. Finishing second was Moreira, ridden by Eleisha Gwynn-Jones. Moreira is one of Carlitos’ White Waltham Polo Club’s ponies that is available to hire for chukkas.

Photograph by Rolex

w A YOUNG FRENCH side will play England U21 for the John Cowdray Trophy at Cowdray Park Polo Club. The match was due to take play on the St Regis International day on 18 May but has been postponed to a later date, which is yet to be confirmed by the HPA.

handicap. La Natividad, La Aguada, Alegriá and La Aguada-Las Monjitas will join them in the running for the Tortugas Open, Hurlingham Open and Argentine Open. Last year, La Aguada-Las Monjitas had to qualify for the Hurlingham and Argentine Opens, which they did successfully, but with Pilará not taking part this year they have gained automatic entry to all three tournaments. While Pilará’s Hilario Ulloa has found a place on the Alegriá team for this season, his former teammates Francisco Bensadon, Sebastian Merlos and Francisco de Narvaez are without teams this year.

The six teams taking part in the qualifiers are Magual (who qualified last year), Chapaleufú, Cuatro Vientos, La California, Las Overas and La Vanguardia. Two teams will go through to play in the Hurlingham and Argentine Opens.

Meanwhile, away from the high-goal, there were some notable handicap changes at the end of the Argentine season in April.

British players Matt Perry, Ali Paterson and Tommy Beresford have all seen their Argentine handicaps move up – to four-goals, two-goals and one-goal respectively. South African Jean Du Plessis has seen his handicap move up from five to six-goals and fellow South African Dirk van Reenen jumped up from zero-goals to three-goals.

Ellerstina unexpectedly beat La Dolfina to win last year’s Argentine Open

w T o find out more about Matt Perry, see his Passions interview on page 82

Effective horsemanship requires perfect communication

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Polo Times, June 2013

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News

Prince Harry Seb Dawnay scores winning designs new polo saddle goal in USA PRINCE HARRY CONCLUDED his tour of the USA on a winning high in the middle of May, scoring the winning goal for his team in the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup. His Sentebale Land Rover team, which also featured Malcolm Borwick, defeated St Regis 4-3 at Greenwich Polo Club in Connecticut.

Photograph by Royal Salute

w See page 43 for more.

Michael Carrazza, Malcolm Borwick, Prince Harry and Marc Ganzi with the trophy. Above, the prince in action

www.polotimes.co.uk

SEBASTIAN DAWNAY HAS teamed up with Irish saddle-makers Berney Bros to design two new polo saddles. The Dawnay saddle features a memory foam seat and a laminated beechwood tree with a reinforced gullet. The lightweight saddle can be reflocked and repaired, giving it a longer lifespan than many other polo saddles.

The Dawnay Pro saddle has been specially designed to help players adopt the correct half-seat position. It features suede along the front of the saddle flap as well as on the seat, making it easy to find and stay in the correct position as well as giving extra grip when leaning off the pony.

“The suede helps the general balance and control of the horse by holding you in the right position,” four-goaler Dawnay told Polo Times.

“Three generations of Dawnays have played polo in Berney Bros saddles – they are so well made and don’t deteriorate like other saddles.” w The Dawnay and Dawnay Pro saddles are currently available to buy through Tally Ho Farm. See www.tallyhofarm.co.uk for details.

Polo Times, June 2013

13

News

Club news

News in brief w HAM POLO CLUB will offer non-playing membership this summer. Regular visitors can join as field members for £175 per year and will enjoy unlimited free field-side access, invitations to all social events, priority booking for major events and more. For more information see www. hampoloclub.com. The club has also confirmed the continued sponsorship deal with IG Index for the 2013 season. w LITTLE BENTLEY PARK Polo Club, in Essex, will hold the Glen Percy Memorial Trophy tournament on 1-2 June. The -8 to -4-goal tournament will be a tribute to the club’s former polo manager and well-respected coach, Glen Percy, who died on 3 June 2012. An asado will follow the polo on the Saturday, and all proceeds from the tournament will go to the British Heart Foundation. To enter a team, please contact the club manager, Louise Norfolk, on 07853 187260.

Four clubs become provisionally affiliated FOUR POLO CLUBS have been provisionally affiliated by the HPA for this season.

Rowley Park Polo Club, situated at Little Weighton, near Beverley in Yorkshire, will be run by George Carter and is due to be fully underway by mid-June. The club has also secured premiership football club Hull City as its sponsor this year, with Hull City vice chairman Ehab Allam a regular player at Rowley Park.

“We will promote Hull City and vice versa,” said Carter.

“We are hoping Hull City players will visit the club before their Premier League season starts, although I’m not sure if we’ll get them on horses. We’ve got a lot going on at Rowley Park; the club’s first and second years will be phenomenal.”

Higham Polo Club, near Raydon in Suffolk, will also become an HPA provisionally affiliated club this year, having been run as a private club in 2012. Argentine four-goaler Riki Furno will take up the role of polo manager at the club.

Godalming Polo Club, at Hurtmore in Surrey, and Little Peover Polo Club, at Over Peover in Cheshire, have also received provisional affiliation.

Oscarina with her mother Lulu at Druids Lodge

w THE AL HABTOOR Royal Windsor Cup will begin at Guards Polo Club on 1 June. The final of the 12-15-goal tournament is due to be held on 23 June. Eighteen teams from Guards will be taking part, including last years winner, Chris Mathias’s Clarita Black. To view a full list of teams please go to www.polotimes.co.uk.

Zero-goaler George Carter is polo manager at Rowley Park Polo Club

14

Polo Times, June 2013

Druids’ new arrival

IT’S BEEN A busy spring for Druids Lodge Polo Club, particularly in preparation for their new -4 to -2-goal summer league, which gets underway this month, and also with welcoming some new arrivals. Pictured here is the club’s first foal of 2013, Oscarina, with her mother Lulu.

www.polotimes.co.uk

News

Latest from the HPA HPA chief executive David Woodd rounds up the news from UK polo’s headquarters International matches St Regis Test Match at Cowdray Park The first of this season’s Test Matches saw England play South America at Cowdray Park Polo Club on Saturday 18 May for the Silver Jubilee Trophy.

Audi International at Beaufort England will play South Africa on Saturday 15 June on Audi International Day at Beaufort for the Golden Jubilee Trophy. Car entry is free with an HPA member’s car pass.

Audi International at Guards England will play the USA on Sunday 28 July for the Westchester Cup at Guards Polo Club. Young England will play Young Commonwealth for the Diamond Jubilee Trophy.

Audi International at Chester England will play Australasia on Saturday 7 September on Audi International Day at Chester for the Chester Diamond Jubilee Trophy.

Young England Test Match at Suffolk Young England (U25) will play South America on Saturday 29 June.

John Cowdray Trophy The French Polo Federation has accepted an invitation to play an England 21 team for the John Cowdray Trophy at Cowdray Park. It was hoped the match would be held on the morning of the St Regis Test Match but will now be played at a later date.

Audi Awards and HPA Lifetime Achievement Award The Audi Polo Awards took place on 20 May at Coworth Park where the HPA Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Paul Withers.

Racing to Polo Challenge 2013 Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) and Lycetts will be holding their Racing to Polo Challenge this summer at RCBPC on Monday 17 June from 3.30pm to 6.00pm, followed by prize giving.

Qualification • All horses must have raced in the UK and be registered with RoR. • Passports must accompany ponies to the competition for inspection and verification by microchip scanning.

• Owners may enter a maximum of two ponies per class and need not be the rider.

• Riders must be two-goals and above. However, players with a handicap of less than two-goals may apply to ride if they are the owner/rider or ride for the stable. The application will be subject www.polotimes.co.uk

to approval of the panel. RoR will provide two riders on the day to show the pony if required free of charge.

The competition • The competition will be divided into three age group classes: 3yo’s, 4yo’s, and 5/6yo’s.

• In all classes ponies will be judged on conformation, movement and responsiveness/ willingness with marks awarded for performance.

Each rider will have 1½ minutes of freestyle display in the 5/6yo class; a guide will be given for the routine and exercises expected in the 3yo and 4yo classes.

• The judges will be two/three leading international players and a representative from RoR/HPA. Judges might ask to ride ponies in the 4yo and 5yo/6yo sections.

• Prize money will be given down to tenth place in each class; there will be a limit of 30 horses in the competition. Classes will be balloted if necessary.

• The prizes for each of the three classes will be £1,000 to the winner, £500 for second placed pony, with further prize money as follows: £300 for third, £200 for fourth, £100 for fifth and sixth and £50 for seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth.

• The pony judged to be overall champion of the three classes will receive an additional cheque for £1,500 and the Balding Trophy which will be awarded at the HPA dinner at Guards Polo Club on the 25 July.

• To enter: visit the RoR website www.ror.org.uk and complete an entry form.

• All enquiries, please contact info@ror.org.uk or telephone 01488 648998 Insurance A summary of the HPA’s Members Liability Insurance cover is set out on page 391 of the Blue Book. It is the responsibility of all Associate Members to satisfy themselves that the insurance which is provided through the HPA is sufficient for their polo activities and meets their appetite for risk management and to take out concurrent or additional insurance as they think desirable. Please note that as in previous years’ players of three-goals and above need to take out their own insurance.

Dates for the diary Wednesday 12 June: Coaching Seminar (HPA coaches and instructors), RCBPC Monday 17 June: Mid-Season Handicap Meeting, Sunningdale Park Hotel Wednesday 19 June: HPA Stewards Meeting, Cavalry & Guards Polo Times, June 2013

15

Comment

Backchat with Clare Milford Haven

Wishing a swift recovery to an essential Cowdray polo personality

I

went to see our beloved Cowdray commentator Terry Hanlon yesterday, who has been in hospital for four months now. He is much missed and I told him to hurry up and get better because it’s not the same without his familiar voice booming over the loudspeaker across Lawns or Ambersham.

When I interviewed him for this magazine seven years ago, it took me three days to complete. He had so many stories to tell and, well, I was just enjoying listening to quotes like this: “We’ve got more money than time…that’s what we’re running out of nowadays. I think I’ve made some contribution to the fact that ordinary people can come along, watch polo and be entertained.”

He certainly has done that.

Here’s hoping for a speedy and lasting recovery Terry.

Defying the onset of old age Rather glamorously, I was invited to a ladies lunch at Claridges the other day hosted by jewellery designer Annoushka Ducas. I found myself sitting next to Amy Williams MBE, GB gold medallist for skeleton bob in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. After ten years of hurtling head-first down an icy bobsleigh track, at speeds of up to 80mph, she has now retired aged 30 due to injuries. It got me thinking about the wear and tear of a professional polo player and how their ‘shelf life’ compares to that in other sports, particularly equestrian ones. In last year’s London Olympics, I watched 71-year-old Hiroshi Hoketsu representing Japan in dressage and 55-year-old Nick Skelton winning a gold medal for Team GB in showjumping. More 16

Polo Times, June 2013

The unmistakable voice of Terry Hanlon has lit up the matches at Cowdray Park for many years. We hope he is back soon

recently, 40-year-old jockey Andrew Thornton courageously, or perhaps insanely, rode in the Grand National. And lets not forget Mark Todd, winning

to Argentina, but I am reliably informed that Juan Carlos Harriott won the Argentine Open for the last time in 1958, aged 46.

Most professionals will give up

Terry, hurry up and get better because it’s not the same without your familiar voice booming Badminton in 2011 at the ripe old age of 55.

To my knowledge, the oldest pro to play in the Gold Cup has to be ‘Hanut’ Singh who won it with the Jersey Lilies team in 1964 and 1965 when he was in his mid sixties! I am definitely more sketchy when it comes

playing high-goal in their forties, but continue in medium and lowgoal well into their fifties or until it just gets too painful.

And then what happens?

When should a pro start thinking about the next stage of his life and planning for the future?

What opportunities are there for

a retired polo pro, apart from coaching, team management, breeding and selling horses?

Some might take up professional umpiring if their personality allows and others, like former England captain, Andrew Hine go into more commercial ventures.

One pro I spoke to who is still actively playing in his fifties and runs a highly successful yard near Cowdray said he started thinking about the future in his late thirties.

He told me: “You have to think of other opportunities; it’s a polo version of a pension.” F w Read more “Backchat” from Clare at www.polotimes.co.uk www.polotimes.co.uk

Comment

Global view with Herbert Spencer

Spectators are short-changed when penalty points outnumber field goals

A

well-executed goal scored from the field in polo, either through teamwork or the performance of an individual player, is a joy to watch. When it’s a team effort, brilliant passing puts one player in a perfect scoring position from which he can hit the ball between the posts. Even more exciting for spectators is a blazing long run down the ground by one player as he evades the defence and scores with a shot from as far out as 80 yards.

Compare this kind of crowdpleasing action with goals scored on penalty conversions.

When a foul occurs, an umpire’s whistle stops the action and spectators have to wait while the umpires marshal the players, the ball is teed up and the player taking the penalty rides in to attempt a conversion.

For spectators, fast flowing end-to-end action resulting in field goals wins hands down over time-consuming penalty shots.

Far too often, however, penalty conversions account for as many as a third or even more than half of the total goals scored by the two teams in a match. This is occurring in many a crucial

Games which are dominated by penalties do not show off the fast-paced, all-action nature of high-goal polo

number two in the world, scored 12 goals for winners Zacara – but only three were from the field, the other nine being penalty conversions. His opponent, world number one Adolfo Cambiaso, scored two of his four goals on penalties and four of the six goals scored by Cambiaso’s teammate, young Santi Torres, were from conversions.

Given the complexities of polo’s rules and the speed at which the sport is played, there will always be a certain number of inadvertent and unintentional

Photograph by James Mullan

My impression is that, over the past decade or so, professional players have increasingly adopted the tactic of manufacturing fouls match in the UK, but it also happens everywhere.

For example, in the final of the USPA Open Championship in April, 15 of the 29 goals scored were from penalty conversions.

Ten-goaler Facundo Pieres, named most valuable player and ranked 18

Polo Times, June 2013

fouls resulting in penalties. This is a natural part of the game.

But the number of penalties increases sharply when players deliberately go for fouls in order to get free shots at goal. My impression is that, over the past decade or so, professional players

have increasingly adopted the tactic of manufacturing fouls.

Do such tactics represent acceptable sportsmanship?

Three years ago the late Major Hugh Dawnay, respected worldwide as an instructor and expert on the game, blogged scathingly on the website polocontacts.com about manufactured fouls in the 2009 Argentine Open. All eight players in this epic Palermo encounter between La Dolfina and Ellerstina were 10-goalers who should be role models in the sport.

Dawnay detailed examples of those top-ranked players creating fouls to get penalty shots at goal.

“Anyone who expected model behaviour from these heroes will be disappointed,” Dawnay lamented, concluding: “Many will reply to the criticisms ‘But everybody does it!’. Surely in the interest of safety and fairness, manufacturing fouls should be stopped by the rules of polo being clarified to prevent this unsporting, unfair and dangerous conduct. Leadership and

courage by the polo hierarchy, beginning with exhortations for sportsmanship from the best players and followed by strong discipline for those who fail to cooperate, will be much appreciated by the majority of players and spectators.”

To be fair, it is difficult to see just what more polo’s governing bodies could do. Rules have already been tightened up to penalise players committing technical fouls. Serious offences can bring disciplinary sanctions including suspensions and fines, although applications of these are rare. Umpires must make their calls regardless of whether a rules infraction is inadvertent or deliberate. So change can come only through a change of attitude on the part of the pros.

These professional sportsmen, who should be role models for all players, young and old, argue that the intense pressure they are under to win justify going for fouls.

But is this true sportsmanship? I think not. F www.polotimes.co.uk

Metropolitan Polo Club An Exceptionally Refined World at Your Service www.metropolitanpoloclub.com Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club, 16 Hai Tai Hua Ke Jiu Lu, Bin Hai Gao Xin Qu, Tianjin 30384, China.

T: (86) 22 8372 8888 F: (86) 22 8371 7733

Comment

Umpire’s corner

Change to rule regarding hooking brings England in line with Argentina HPA shakes up reports system

An Argentine player, in light blue, attempts to hook an opponent during a match at the FIP World Cup at Estancia Grande in 2011.

From the start of the current season, the rule regarding hooking in England has changed to mirror the rule in Argentina

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he HPA’s Umpires and Rules Committee has announced a few tweaks to the rules for the English summer season, the most significant of which concerns hooking the backhand.

Rule 36a (ii) – Hooking – has been adjusted to bring it in line with how the rule is umpired in Argentina by the AAP.

Photograph by James Mullan

The HPA hopes that this change will speed up play and lead to a better game for spectators Previously, under HPA rules, an offside backhand could only be hooked if the whole of the stick was below the shoulder and then only on the downward part of the swing. Now players will be allowed to hook the “wind up” 20

Polo Times, June 2013

of the offside backhand, but only on that part of the stick which is below the shoulder.

The new rule reads: “All of the striker’s stick must be below the level of the striker’s shoulder.

However, an offside backhand may be hooked at the beginning of the swing but only on that part of the stick which is below the striker’s shoulder. The nearside backhand may not be hooked in a similar way.”

The HPA hopes that this change will speed up play and lead to a better game for spectators.

Oliver Hughes, deputy chief executive of the HPA, said: “This is the rule in Argentina and it means that players risk being hooked if they slow down to play a backhand, so if they want to play a long backhand they have to go to the ball and play the shot quickly. This should help to keep the game flowing.

“I think it is important that the

HPA rules and AAP rules are as close as possible, and I think you will find that there are now very few differences governing the main rules of the game.” F w What do you think about this new rule? Do you think it will improve the game? Write to letters@polotimes.co.ukw

Another change to the umpiring system introduced this year surrounds the postmatch report forms, which may be filled out by match officials, club officials or team captains after each match.

Under the new rules, any team captain making a defamatory comment about an umpire in the report forms – ie any comments that suggest that an umpire was favouring one team over another – must lodge the report with an HPA official within 24 hours and also put down a £1,000 deposit. A DVD should be provided and the complainant should be available to review the DVD, with an assessor, within the following 48 hours. It is hoped that this will stop any frivolous allegations.

“We do not feel that there is a problem in polo with umpires being biased towards particular teams. However, we do take allegations of this nature seriously,” said Hughes.

Whistle blower…

Q: A player is injured during a match and is replaced by a substitute. The player who comes on in their place has a lower handicap than the player they are replacing. What, if any, effect does this have to the score of the game?

A: See page 75 for the answer

www.polotimes.co.uk

Comment

Your views

Letters Write to the editor in the following ways: w letters@polotimes.co.uk wT he Editor, Polo Times,

Holbrook Farm, North Leigh, Oxon OX29 6PX

The Aussie in Hawaii Sir, may I enlarge on the detail in your Aiming High item (May 2013) of an Australian from Asia introducing Hawaii to polo? The player in question was Curtis Skene (1880-1961), father of ten-goaler Bob Skene (191497) who played successively for Australia, Britain and the US. Born in the state of Victoria, from 1888-1925 Curtis was a tea-planter in Assam where he mastered the game when Assam was the leading British Indian polo club. Returning to Australia with his wife and two children, Phyllis and Bob, who took up polo with his father, he prospered converting stockhorses to polo, exporting them to India. In my chapter Skene the Elder, in Geebung: The Story of Australian Polo (1993), I tell how with two medium-goal Australians and 48 polo ponies, eight-goaler Curtis sailed for Honolulu, where he was joined by two six-goal Americans, Walter Dillingham and Eddie Baldwin. Following exhibition games they proceeded to California where, with Baldwin joining Skene’s team they were runners-up in the Pacific Coast Championship tournament, defeated by a 23-goal team, two of whom, Eric Pedley and Elmer Boeske, later became ten-goal players. Skene then sold his 48 ponies to US players for between US$1,000 and US$2,000 each.

Chris Ashton Dublin, Ireland 22

Polo Times, June 2013

Letter of the month

The HPA’s official line on vaccination Sir, I always enjoy reading Mark Emerson’s excellent pony welfare columns. Having read his article about Equine Herpes Virus (EHV) I would like to point out that the HPA believe that the Gold Star approach is to vaccinate. Mark stated that “vaccinating to reduce the risk of a serious outbreak occurring in polo probably only makes sense if EHV vaccination is made mandatory and the whole polo pony population is regularly vaccinated”.

EHV vaccination is not mandatory in any other equine discipline and the HPA do not consider it appropriate to make it mandatory at this stage.

Simon Knapp LVO BSc BVetMed MRCVS, who is one of the vets on the HPA Polo Pony Welfare Committee would like to provide readers with the following points about the advantages of vaccinating: •

Vaccinated horses are less likely to contract the disease

•

If disease develops, vaccinated horses show less severe symptoms

•

Infected horses which have been previously vaccinated shed considerably less virus into the environment; hence reducing the risk of spread and reducing the challenge to neighbouring horses

•

Vaccination on a herd basis gives added protection and reduces the amount of virus present in the general equine population, lessening the risk of spread.

Should you encounter an outbreak, communication is vital. Please inform the HPA and your polo club of an incident and any owners of horses on the premises itself and neighbouring yards.

David Morley Polo Pony Welfare chairman Hurlingham Polo Association The writer of the Letter of the month wins a bottle of BLOOM Gin

The polo community must do Tweets worth more to prevent accidents re-tweeting Sir, I am a young polo player based in Germany. I recently attended a conference about riding accidents and prevention under the leadership of Professor Pöschel and Professor Meenen, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, and I thought your readers would be interested to hear about it.

Two forms of prevention were discussed: active and passive. Active prevention includes good horsemanship and constant attention to surroundings and anticipation of a horse’s reactions towards it. Passive prevention includes wearing a helmet, protective jackets, airbag vests and other protective gear. Where helmets

are already a proven lifesaver, the conclusion of the day was that there is a lack of research into the use of airbag vests.

At present there are no special norms for polo protective gear and no empirics about the effect of the use of the current standard ones.

It also includes the ongoing question about to wear or not to wear a faceguard. I hope that we as a polo community could push forward with some research in this area – because in my opinion bad accidents are not the course of misfortune, but mainly a lack of right prevention.

Enri Strobel Germany

We follow them on twitter, to save you bothering:

Justin Scott Taylor @ JustinTaylor_MR 15 May Queens Cup League one is the ‘Group of Death’ with Dubai, El Remanso and Enigma. That’s going to be #tough Louisa Dawnay Polo @ LouisaDawnay 14 May FACT- only Tony from @ ImagesofPolo can work an entire room full to the brim of polo people & not need to ask for 1 name! #PoloPro #PjsParty Richard Le Poer @ RichardLePoer 14 May Losing in the pouring rain in extra time #sucks! www.polotimes.co.uk

Your views

Comment

Confusion over ownership of famous high-goal trophy

Photographs by James Mullan

Jane Kang’s requests that Cirencester Park Polo Club “do the decent thing” and return the Warwickshire Cup to the Rugby Polo Club (letters Polo Times, May 2013). However, Ms Kang is wrong in her belief that the Warwickshire Cup once belonged to Rugby Polo Club, an error that also appears in your article on the Rugby Polo Club – 120 years (April 2013) and on the club’s website. The Warwickshire Cup has never belonged to the Rugby Polo Club.

The cup has engraved on it: “The Warwickshire Polo Club Cup. This cup was presented by a few of the inhabitants of Leamington and neighbourhood to the Warwickshire Polo Club in 1894.” The Warwickshire Polo Club had been founded in 1884 in Leamington Spa. The club initially played matches at Warwick Park, on a ground inside the racecourse before moving to a permanent ground on Sydenham Farm.

The Warwickshire Challenge Cup was open to invited teams whose aggregate handicap did not exceed 22-goals and was played for each year from 1894 to 1913 until the dissolution of the Warwickshire Polo Club in 1914. I assume that

Ms Kang’s confusion might arise from the fact that the Cup was won by Captain ED Miller’s team (Capt. Miller and his two brothers George and Charles founded the Rugby Polo Club at Spring Hill in 1892) in the tournament’s inaugural year, 1894, and again in 1895 and in 1896 by a Rugby Polo Club team.

The winning team in 1913 had been Friz Hill captained

by Frank Hargreaves and he held on to the cup following the Warwickshire Club’s closure. In 1932 Hargreaves presented the trophy to the Roehampton Club. It was called the Hargreaves Cup and it was to be played for in a match between Roehampton and Hurlingham, or a visiting overseas team.

When polo ceased to be played at Roehampton in 1956 the cup was given to the HPA. In 1959 the cup was given by the HPA to Cirencester and it began as a high-goal exhibition match during County Cup week and soon became a preliminary qualifier for the Cowdray Gold Cup until 1970 when it became a high-goal tournament in its own right. The Warwickshire Cup is described by Dr Horace Laffaye in Polo in Britain as “the grand old lady of English highgoal competitions.” It is, along with the Queen’s Cup (started in 1960) and the Cowdray Park Gold Cup (started in 1956), part of the British Triple Crown for Polo. Cirencester Park is modestly proud of the importance of this trophy, not least as only one team has won the British Triple Crown in a season. The feat was achieved by Sam Vestey’s Cirencester-based Stowell Park team in both 1973 and 1978.

“We may not be able to play like Cambiaso, but we can lose like him”

Well done to Aldro School Sir, it was great to read about Aldro School’s achievements of winning the Fluffy section at the SUPA Junior School Arena Tournament in your last issue (May 2013). It is the first year that Aldro have had a polo team, so for Moses FiddianGreen, Freddie Pritchard and Freddie Cooper to win a

SUPA tournament is a great achievement. The boys have done extremely well this year and I thought it would be wonderful if you could include a picture of them in the magazine to celebrate this.

Sandy Kinney Aldro School

Nigel à Brassard London www.polotimes.co.uk

Polo Times, June 2013

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Feature

Interview – Enigma patron Jerome Wirth

Enigma patron aims to break the mould Enigma’s French patron Jerome Wirth has signed a partnership agreement with merchant banking firm RJI Capital, which he describes as “groundbreaking”. In an exclusive interview with Polo Times Jerome explains what is so special about this new deal and discusses his aspirations to make top-level polo fully professional

John O’Sullivan

Photographs by Vanessa Taylor

in West Sussex

It sounds as if you have some exciting ideas about the future of polo. Can you share them with us?

My idea is, because polo is the last pro-am sport on the planet, to move it little by little, from a pro-am sport to a professional one. I see that polo in the future will be like Formula One. You are going to have a professional tour where the most important thing for the patron is not playing with the team, but to find the best players, provide the best horses and to make everything much more professional. It will move towards TV and that is the angle.

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Polo Times, June 2013

Why do you feel inspired to do this?

I’m fed up with hearing people say that polo is just a social sport. This is not true. We invest a lot of time, effort and money into it – it is a serious sport. The polo social scene, that is not me – I am not interested. People outside polo do not know the game properly. The impression given by the press is that it is just people watching Prince Harry play. We need to change this, we need to show people what polo is really about. If you could get it on TV and capture the action and have slow-motion it would be incredible. It is way better to watch polo than ping pong and curling. I apologise to these sports, but there is a huge difference.

So how do you propose to do this?

First of all I think it is important to state that this is a long-term vision. This is not something that is just going to happen overnight.

We have to make the sport as professional as possible, we need to change people’s

Main picture: Enigma patron Jerome Wirth and Ron Wahid of RJI Capital at the Enigma polo farm in West Sussex. The pair have big plans for the future of polo Right: Pro Charlie Hanbury in the team’s new shirt

impressions and we need to bring more big sponsors into the game, people who have never been interested in the game before.

What will happen to the patron in a professional game?

The idea is to replace the patron in the side, and I know this will not make me popular with other patrons, but it will make sense for www.polotimes.co.uk

sponsors. Nobody wants to see anyone on the TV with a fat belly chasing around on a horse.

They want to see the best players, riding the best ponies. My goal is to help to deliver this.

The patron will still get to play because the

go on the boat and do whatever they like, but it is still a professional sport – it is televised. They work to have the best boat and the best crew, we will be working to have the best ponies and the best team. It is quite similar. The aim

“Nobody wants to see anyone on the TV with a fat belly chasing around on a horse. They want to see the best players, riding the best ponies” – Jerome Wirth, Enigma patron game will continue to be played at different handicap levels. I think the best example is sailing’s Americas Cup. In the America’s Cup, the patrons can still www.polotimes.co.uk

is to raise the level. In Argentina you have professional tournaments, where unless you are six goals or over you cannot enter. We need to u build on this.

u

Polo Times, June 2013

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u How does your new partnership with RJI Capital and their CEO Ron Wahid fit in with this view?

There are already sponsors in polo, but we are not talking about the same kind of sponsorship. We are going to another level, thanks to Ron and RJI Capital. It is not just about having a name on the shirt and then moving on after a few years. We will be working together to make Enigma more professional, to improve our breeding and to improve our players. We will also work together to bring more people into the game, more sponsors who can make a difference.

We have the same vision. Ron is here to help and he believes in what I am thinking. He is a huge support and I wish that more people

“I hope to gain some silverware this season”

Photographs by Vanessa Taylor

– Jerome Wirth, Enigma patron like him could exist on the planet. I hope we are right, and if not at least we can say that we’ve tried.

I think other teams will see this approach and maybe in two years you will have three or four teams doing the same. Maybe a little further down the line you can have six very professional organisations, then we can start to develop something.

You say this vision will take some time. What can we expect to see this year?

This season is about bringing a lot of people outside the polo world together and 26 Polo Times, June 2013

Above: Ponies in the Enigma high-goal barn. Top: Enigma’s impressive West Sussex-based polo farm

introducing them to game. Between myself and Ron we have a lot of business contacts, people who have big companies. We want to bring them to polo and to share our ideas about the potential of polo with them.

Breeding seems to be a very important part of your vision for polo. Can you tell me a bit more about your own operation?

I have got what I call a boutique breeding operation near Ayacucho, in Buenos Aires – it is about quality, not quantity. I started with the best bloodlines from Gonzalo Pieres, from Mariano Aguerre, from Cambiaso, plus some of the best Thoroughbreds off the track. I set it up five years ago and my youngsters are going to be played by ten-goalers in the Argentine

Open this year. The best players in the world, playing the best ponies, that is what I think polo is all about.

Finally, what can we expect from Enigma in the high-goal this season?

We have changed the team totally and I’ve got a great feeling. I have got two people who have never played the high-goal in England before – Sapo Caset and Temi Willington. They are both excellent. And we have Charlie Hanbury, one of the best young English players.

The mix is good. It is a young team (apart from me!) and all players that are on the way up. I have great expectations. I hope to gain some silverware this season. F www.polotimes.co.uk

Feature

Feature â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Polo in Morocco

An unlikely alliance

Chris Ashton flew to Morocco to discover what brought famed entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson to a polo resort in the Atlas Mountains

By Chris Ashton in Morocco

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he last weekend in April saw an improbable alliance in Morocco go public: a charity for impoverished children coupled with a polo resort, each celebrating the other to mutual advantage.

The charity is the Eve Branson Foundation, named after its founder Eve, 88-year old mother of Sir Richard Branson. Visiting her sonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sumptuous Hotel Kasbah Tamadot in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains some years ago, she decided to improve the prospects for children of the local subsistence farming communities. With paid staff and volunteers she provides healthcare, schooling and vocational training.

To raise funds for her foundation, a year ago she forged an unlikely partnership with Amar Abdelhadi, 39, president of the Jnan Amar Polo Resort, which includes a polo field, stabling and a clubhouse, with more to come. Standing on a 50-hectare plot, it lies 20 kilometres west of Marrakesh, a city whose sublime architecture, cuisine and year-round sunshine has attracted such winter refugees from northern climates as Winston Churchill, Ralph Lauren and Yves St. Laurent.

Though Amar never played polo, his affection for the sport was kindled by poloplaying friends, and expressed through the family business, property development, in sponsoring teams contesting tournaments whether in Dubai, Saint Tropez or the Moroccan capital Rabat.

The polo resort is his brainchild. Still to come are more stables, enough for 120 polo ponies, another polo field, and an equestrian centre offering coaching not only for polo but other horse-borne sports plus riding lessons for children. Also still on the drawing board, courtesy of the global luxury hotel-chain Ritz Carlton, is a five-star hotel offering 60 suites and attendant amenities, plus 20 villas and 80-plus three, four and five-bedroom houses u for sale, set in lush ornamental gardens, Photographs by Jack Brockway

Main picture: a stunning view over the polo fields at the Jnan Amar Polo Resort. Inset: Richard Branson, his mother Eve and Amar Abdelhadi on the sidelines

Polo Times, June 2013

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Feature

Feature – Polo in Morocco

The stables at the Jnan Amar Polo Resort, with a Moroccan flag flying in the background. Former FIP president Patrick Guerrand Hermes lent 28 ponies for the match

The Eve Branson Foundation works with the people of the Atlas Mountains

u scheduled for completion in 2015.

To appreciate more fully what lies ahead, and well aware of the delicate balance between polo resorts which pay their way and those which end in tears, in December Amar flew to Buenos Aires to attend the Argentine Open final, for beginner lessons in polo and to pick the brains of such luminaries as Gonzalo Pieres, Fred Mannix and Clemente Zavaleta on the art of polo management.

The last weekend of April saw people from all over the world, mostly friends of the Branson family, gravitate to Marrakesh. Each donated £1,000 to the Foundation, in return for which they were treated to lavish lunches and dinners, and to speeches paying tribute to their host and hostess, the unlikely couple.

After lunch on Saturday at the polo resort, 30 Polo Times, June 2013

Former FIP president Patrick Guerrand Hermes, left, was an interested spectator

a public auction raised a further 28,000 Euros for the Foundation from items ranging from hotel bookings and tickets for the Argentine Open to artworks and such polo memorabilia as a polo shirt signed by Adolfo Cambiaso.

The climax, of course, was the four-chukka exhibition match, which followed between teams named after the hosts, Jnan Amar Polo (15 goals) and Eve Branson Foundation (13 goals). The mishmash of nationalities (including two from the Moroccan Royal Guards Regiment) and of low, medium and high-goal handicaps, riding unknown mounts with just one chukka practice the day before, did not augur well.

But as the game it progressed, it far surpassed my expectations. Jnan Amar captain Fred Mannix and his number four

Mariano Uranga offered a combination to which the opposing team, led by Santiago Novillo Astrada, had no answer. The third chukka saw them level at 2-2, before Jnan Amar Polo went on to win 5-3. But it was never the rout I had feared.

In the trophy presentation, involving the British and Argentine ambassadors to Morocco and Sir Richard presenting the winner’s trophy, tribute was paid to French polo patron and former president of the Federation of International Polo, Patrick Guerrand Hermes (in polo circles known as ‘PGH’) who lent 28 polo ponies from his stud near Tangiers. The spectators, some watching polo for the first time ever, were ably instructed by the commentator ex-British army officer Sam Mattock. F­­­­­­ www.polotimes.co.uk

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Feature

60th anniversary of the Coronation

One of Her Majesty’s first public engagements after her Coronation was to attend the final of an international tournament held at Cowdray Park. The prize was the Coronation Cup and Argentina beat England 7-6 in the final. Here, Her Majesty is pictured with Lord Cowdray and the winning Argentine team

Coronation memories June 1953 Photograph from the Michael Chevis photo archive

This month Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of her Coronation held in Westminster Abbey on 2 June, 1953. To mark the occasion Polo Times asked a few of polo’s more senior citizens where they were on the great day and discovered that Lord Patrick Beresford had the best story to tell

Lord Patrick Beresford

A

leading player and polo administrator in the early days of Guards Polo Club, Lord Patrick Beresford was also lucky enough to play an active role in London on the day of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation. The former Guards Polo Club polo manager, who won 32

Polo Times, June 2013

the Gold Cup twice with Windsor Park in the 1960s, was an 18-year-old officer cadet in his intermediate term at Sandhurst in 1953. He was selected to be part of the Guard of Honour, stationed opposite the entrance to Westminster Abbey.

“The Commandant at Sandhurst at the time was Major General David Dawnay – Hugh’s father and Seb’s grandfather,” recalls Lord Beresford. “I was selected along with two other groundsmen to be

one of his four stick-orderlies, as a result of which we were given the Coronation Medal. Another subsequent polo player David Walter, who played at Guards and in Scotland, was also selected.”

Lord Beresford’s day on 2 June, 1953 started far earlier than a normal day at Sandhurst as the Reveille took place at 2.20am. He was taken by train to Vauxhall before marching to Millbank for breakfast.

Lord Beresford and his colleagues arrived in www.polotimes.co.uk

Remembering Coronation Day

Feature

Arthur Douglas-Nugent Former HPA chief umpire

Photographs by

On Coronation Day 1953 I was serving with my Regiment, the 17/21 Lancers, in Munster, West Germany, as part of the 6th Armoured Division.

We were, however, in barracks and the BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) had issued regiments with televisions so that they could watch the ceremony. We were sitting in a darkened room in the mess to view the occasion on a black and white flickering screen. At one point I nodded off, probably as a result of a late night, and was woken by the Adjutant, one Edgar Hutchings saying: “Wake up – this will only happen once in your lifetime.” And it looks as if he may have been right!

Margie Brett Founder of Polo Times

The 18-year-old Lord Patrick Beresford is on the left, pictured outside the RMAS Chapel in 1953. He is with polo players David Walter and Major General David Dawnay, who were all involved on the Queen’s Coronation Day

their position in Parliament Square at 8.10am and that is where they would stay until 4pm, before returning to Sandhurst by train. “This was a wonderful vantage point from which to observe the arrival of the mink and ermineclad peers and, of course, the Royal party itself,” he remembers.

On being dismissed at 7.45pm, having

“My memories of the day are of the euphoria of the crowds and the splendour of the Royal procession” already been awake for 17 hours at this point, Lord Beresford could have been forgiven for putting his feet up, but he was eager to take in the celebratory atmosphere in the capital again.

Patrick and four of his colleagues jumped into civilian clothes and immediately returned to London to join in the celebrations around www.polotimes.co.uk

I had been sent home to boarding school in England from Africa where I was born.

We used to come by flying boat from Dares-Salaam to Southampton. On Coronation Day I was taken out from school by my godmother and we all watched the Coronation on a very small black and white television. I particularly remember the wonderful music and Queen Salote of Tonga.

The Coronation Medal awarded to Lord Beresford

Herbert Spencer

Piccadilly Circus. Eventually they got back to Sandhurst at about 3.30am the following day.

“My main memories of the day are of the euphoria of the crowds and the splendour of the Royal procession, both of which more than compensated for having to stand in the same spot for all that time,” he added.

Eminent polo journalist

w To read about Queen Elizabeth II’s love of polo, see Herbert Spencer’s feature in June 2012 issue of Polo Times

The Coronation passed me by completely. I was studying journalism and political science at Emory University outside Atlanta, Georgia, while working as a political writer for the award-winning daily newspaper The Atlanta Constitution. I had absolutely no interest in the British monarchy! Local, state and federal government affairs was my scene.

Polo Times, June 2013

33

Reports

Maserati US Open, International Polo Club Palm Beach, Florida

Cambiaso walks off as Zacara retain their US Open crown

Photographs by

England-born patron Lyndon Lea lifts the trophy for the second straight year, while former ten-goaler Mike Azzaro wins the title for the seventh time

xxxxxxxxx

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Polo Times, June 2013

www.polotimes.co.uk

Photographs by LILA PHOTO and Gary Hulton

Maserati US Open, International Polo Club Palm Beach, Florida

Reports

Analysis

by Juan Martin Nero

Zacara Valiente

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16 13

he conduct of the world’s number one polo player Adolfo Cambiaso overshadowed an historic and big-scoring US Open final at International Polo Club Palm Beach in late April. England-born patron Lyndon Lea led his excellent Zacara side to their second straight US Open title and former 10-goaler Mike Azzaro got his hands on the famous trophy for a seventh time.

However, the talk in the iconic stands at the Florida-based polo club after the final bell sounded was not the achievements of the winners, but the antics of Cambiaso. The Valiente number four, who brilliantly guided patron Bob Jornayvaz’s team to the USPA Gold Cup against the same opposition the previous month, walked off the grounds in the closing stages following a heated disagreement with the umpires.

Left: The jubilant Zacara team of Mike Azzaro, Cristian “Magoo” Laprida, Lyndon Lea and Facundo Pieres hold aloft the US Open trophy. Above: The Maserati hospitality tent at IPCPB

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With just over a minute to play and Valiente trailing by two goals, 15-13, Cambiaso’s side were awarded a penalty in midfield. Adolfo, eager to get on with it, took the penalty before the officials had given the go-ahead and he was quickly given a technical foul. A frustrated Cambiaso continued to argue with the officials before voluntarily leaving the field in anger. In the absence of their talisman, Valiente conceded a further goal and ended up losing 16-13.

It is the first time that a team has retained the US Open crown since Crab Orchard in 2008 and, understandably, the winning patron Lyndon Lea was keen to focus on his own side’s performance after lifting the trophy. “It was a real team effort. Everybody wanted it so badly,” he said. “We spent so much time talking about how we were going to play this game and we came out and played it exactly as we discussed. It was text book.”

An estimated 4,000 spectators turned out at Wellington for the flagship final of the US season, including former basketball star Dennis Rodman, who has been in the news recently because of his unlikely friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jung-Un. Until the final seconds there was never more than two goals between the two sides in what proved to be a u very even contest.

Juan Martin Nero watched from the sidelines as fellow ten-goalers Adolfo Cambiaso, David “Pelon” Stirling and Facundo Pieres battled it out in the US Open final.

The US Open final was a very tight game. Before the game started we were thinking that maybe Valiente was the favourite, but it turned out to be Zacara’s day. I think Zacara was lucky that none of their handicaps changed after winning the US Open last year. That is why they were able to stay with the same team this year. Last year I was playing with Lechuza Caracas. We lost to Zacara in the final and our team’s handicap went up by one goal, but the Zacara team stayed the same. I think that was a mistake from the handicap committee.

But we cannot take anything away from Zacara. They played really well. I think Magoo

“I think Zacara were lucky none of their handicaps changed after winning the US Open last year.” was amazing. So was Mike Azarro. Overall I think Zacara were a very good team and they deserved to win it.

It did not happen for Valiente and Cambiaso ended up walking off in the end. He was upset. It is Adolfito, he is passionate and sometimes when you are losing these things happen. I think he was mad, he was unhappy, so he said something to the umpire. Nobody likes to lose. F Polo Times, June 2013

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Maserati US Open, International Polo Club Palm Beach, Florida

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Cambiaso (V4) races past Pieres (Z1) and takes the ball upfield

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who scored 12 of his side’s goals. “We did a great job analysing the game beforehand. We watched a lot of videos and talked about the way we were going to play. The idea was to be really tough on defence and when we were attacking we needed to control the ball.”

Pieres won the MVP award after the game, but the prize could have easily gone to eightgoaler Cristian “Magoo” Laprida or seven-

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But, Pieres plucks the ball out of mid-air with an amazing helicopter swing to defend the Zacara goal

goaler Azzaro, who both excelled in the final.

For Azzaro, the victory brought a seventh US Open triumph. This means that only the legendary Gracida brothers have now won more US Open titles than he. Carlos Gracida has won nine, while Memo Gracida is still well ahead of the pack, having won a staggering 16 titles.

You can’t help but think, however, that the 2013 US Open final will be remembered for Cambiaso, rather than for the brilliance of Azzaro and his teammates. F

Only the Gracida brothers have won more US Open titles than Mike Azzaro

Photograph by LILA PHOTO

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Valiente had the edge at half-time, leading 8-7, but Zacara went in front in the fourth chukka and they managed to stay ahead in a second half that was littered with fouls.

Having lost to Valiente in the USPA Gold Cup, Zacara went into the game as underdogs, but ultimately their game plan got them over the line. “Before the game Valiente were the favourites. They were playing better and they were the team that everybody thought was going to win,” admitted Facundo Pieres,

Polo Times, June 2013

The ball rebounds off the boards and is picked up by Stirling (V3)

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Zacara (Z) line of ball Valiente (V) line of ball Ride Off

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KEY VALIANTE Bob Jornayvaz Santi Torres Pelon Stirling Adolfo Cambiaso

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Gary Hulton identifies an example of why Zacara won their second straight US Open title. This play shows that, despite Valiente’s exceptional individual players, Zacara had an answer to everything that was thrown at them

ZACARA 1 Facundo Pieres 2 Lyndon Lea 3 Magoo Laprida 4 Mike Azzaro

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Play of the day

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Reports

u M aserati US Open; 27 March - 21 April; International Polo Club Palm Beach Result: Zacara beat Valiente, 16-13 Principal sponsor: Maserati Handicap level: 26-goal Number of team entries: 11

Adolfo Cambiaso had been in fine form during the US high-goal season before losing his head in the final

Finalists Zacara (26): Facundo Pieres 10; Lyndon Lea 1; Cristian “Magoo” Laprida 8; Mike Azzaro 7 Valiente (26): Bob Jornayvaz 0; Santi Torres 6; David “Pelon” Stirling 10; Adolfo Cambiaso 10 www.polotimes.co.uk

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Polo Times, June 2013

37

Reports

Copa de las Naciones, Argentina

Argentina win on home soil Luke Tomlinson formed part of the Rest of the World team that played Argentina for the Copa de las Naciones at Palermo at the end of April, where powerhouses Facundo and Gonzalito Pieres led the home side to a win, crushing their opposition 13-8

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he iconic Palermo number one polo ground in central Buenos Aires hosted an international Test Match between Argentina and a Rest of the World team on Saturday 27 April, where the home team went on to win 13-8. The Copa de las Naciones was originally due to be held between Brazil and hosts Argentina but with Brazil pulling out a month before and no other countries available to play at short notice, a Rest of the World team was put together.

Current England captain, seven-goaler Luke Tomlinson, played alongside Juan Zavaleta

Photograph by James Mullan

The Rest of the World team faced a well-oiled opposition (who holds a Spanish passport), Chilean Jaime Garcia Huidobro and Argentine Pascal Sainz de Vicuña – representing the Rest of the World team. The well-balanced team on handicap faced a tough and well-oiled opposition of ten-goalers Facundo and Gonzalito Pieres, seven-goaler Diego Cavanagh and one-goaler 38

Polo Times, June 2013

Fernando Rivera who punched well above his weight in terms of his handicap.

With the Rest of the World team having little pre-planning and only one practice match under their belt the odds were stacked against them.

“It was a big level game,” Tomlinson told Polo Times. “Without knowing in advance that I would be playing in a 28-goal match, it was difficult to get organised. We were under-horsed and not up to speed. Therefore our strategy was to keep it simple, put the pressure on Argentina and hope it pulled off.

Unfortunately, with a team featuring such an amazing player in the form of Facundo, as well as his brother and an exceptional one-goaler, we weren’t able to pull it back, despite playing a better second half.”

More than 3,000 people flowed into the stands to witness the match, which saw the Rest of the World make a slow start. By halftime Argentina were five goals ahead of their opposition, 7-2. However, entering the final chukka with the home side seven goals ahead, the Rest of the World pushed hard to close

Palermo hosted the Copa de las Naciones in April

the gap. The visitors managed three goals, while Argentina only managed one, scored by Facundo Pieres, who was still revelling in his US Open win only six days before. But it was too little too late, as Argentina won.

A junior game between a young Argentina team and Rest of the World team, which featured British player Tommy Beresford, also took place at Palermo on the same day.

Argentina triumphed 9½-6. F u C opa de las Naciones; Palermo, Argentina; 27 April 2013 Result: Argentina beat Rest of the World, 13-8 Handicap level: 28 Chukka scores (Argentina): 2-1; 5-1; 7-2; 11-3; 12-5; 13-8 Teams Argentina (28): Fernando Rivera 1; Diego Cavanagh 7; Facundo Pieres 10; Gonzalito Pieres 10 Rest of the World (28): Pascual Sainz de Vicuña 6; Juan Zavaleta 7; Jaime García Huidobro 8; Luke Tomlinson 7 www.polotimes.co.uk

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Polo Times, June 2013

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Reports

La Martina Miami Beach Polo World Cup, USA

Raleigh win World Cup at South Beach Berkshire-based trio Jamie Morrison, Seb Dawnay and Oscar Mancini were among the players at this year’s La Martina Miami Beach Polo World Cup

Photographs by The Polo Life/Mitchell Zachs

Raleigh/Comcast La Martina

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12 10

olo mingled with sunshine, surfers and beach bodies on South Beach, Miami, for this year’s La Martina Miami Beach Polo World Cup. The three-day tournament was blessed with warm Florida sunshine this year, after being disrupted by rain in 2012, and plenty of beach-goers turned out to get a taste of the action, and the social scene.

Among the six teams taking part were Brits Sebastian Dawnay, making his beach polo debut, and Jamie Morrison, who played for James Royal Palm Hotel/Jetblue and Merchant Hub respectively. But despite gutsy performances by both teams, it was the talented Raleigh/Comcast squad of Bash Kazi, John Gobin, Juan Monteverde and David Totari who took the title.

Having earned their ticket to the final in a penalty shoot-out earlier that afternoon, Raleigh/Comcast and La Martina faced one another in the tussle for the title. Raleigh/

Comcast found themselves trailing 6-4 by halftime, but as the second half got underway, the trio upped their game, scoring six swift goals to put them in front. La Martina – Guillermo Steta, Santi Torres and Carlos Gracida – attacked hard in the final chukka, but the Raleigh/Comcast defence held strong, and the match ended 12-10.

After losing their matches earlier in the tournament, Dawnay and Morrison had to

“The whole thing was good fun with a great vibe” – Seb Dawnay

settle for a battle in the subsidiary final, which ended in a 10-10 draw. Morrison teamed up with Tommy Kato and Luis Escobar, while Dawnay played alongside Oscar Mancini and the tournament’s only female player, Nigerian Neku Atawadi.

The victorious Raleigh/Comcast squad of Juan Monteverde, David Totari, Bash Kazi and John Gobin with La Martina CEO Adrian Simonetti

www.polotimes.co.uk

Bikini-clad beach bods on Florida’s South Beach enjoy action from the La Martina Women’s Beach Polo Cup, which took place alongside the main competition in late April

“Oscar [Mancini] put the team together but unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to practise together before the tournament, as most of the other teams did,” Dawnay told Polo Times. “But we did well and were unlucky not to win on the last day. Beach polo is very difficult – it’s hard to hit the ball after about two minutes because the sand gets so deep, and it’s often down to luck.

“The whole thing was good fun with a great vibe, although it was a bit surreal playing on South Beach. My only criticism is that the general public couldn’t always see what was going on, due to the barriers. It would be good to get them more involved, as many seemed interested in the game.”

South Beach also played host to the La Martina Women’s Polo Cup, which was won by the Cheeki team of Whitney Ross, Cristina Hosmer and Tiffany Busch. F w For more Beach Polo action, see page 44 for coverage of the 2013 Julius Baer Beach Polo Cup in Dubai www.polotimes.co.uk

Title sponsor La Martina wowed spectators at the tournament by hosting a fashion show featuring its polo clothes

Polo Times, June 2013

41

Reports

Home and abroad

Cowdray Park – Tyro Cup

Photograph by Clive Bennett

Four Quarters Black win with golden goal ROMILLA ARBER WON her family’s first trophy of the season when her Four Quarters Black team lifted the Tyro Cup on Sunday 12 May, writes Liz Higgins. Since it was first presented in 1921, play for the grand silver Tyro Cup has traditionally opened the season at Cowdray Park Polo Club, with twelve 12goal teams contesting the 2013 tournament.

The Four Quarters Black team of Romilla Arber, Max Charlton, Richard Le Poer and Jack Berner met Athena – Edward BannerEve, Ed Hitchman, James Beim and Angelos Damaskos – in the final, the teams having overcome Hollycombe/Hurlingham Media and La Manada in the semi-finals.

In what proved to be a pacy, attacking match, Four Quarters Black took a early lead with a penalty scored by Le Poer, which was quickly matched with a field goal from Banner-Eve for Athena. By the end of the second chukka, two more goals from Le Poer had given Four Quarters Black a 3-1 lead.

Following the tread-in, it was a different story. Banner-Eve and Hitchman swiftly equalised the scores, while Four Quarters Black failed to produce any goals in the third

Richard Le Poer, Romilla Arber, Max Charlton and Jack Berner hold aloft the Tyro Cup at Cowdray Park

chukka. The final chukka opened with Berner and Charlton scoring to take Four Quarters Black ahead, but Athena rallied once again, with goals from Hitchman and Beim bringing the scores level at 5-5 as the final bell rang.

The teams returned to the field for a fifth and deciding chukka, and it was Le Poer who finished the match as he started it, scoring an early golden goal to secure the Tyro Cup for Four Quarters Black.

Cirencester Park – 0-40-Goal Cup

Trumpington triumphant in Cirencester 0-40 Trumpington who came up with the goods, winning 9-5 in wet and windy conditions.

The 6-goal Bob Music team of Alex Brooman-White, George Gemmell, Michael Henderson and Grant Collett started with

Photograph by Christopher Fear

THE CIRENCESTER PARK POLO CLUB season got underway in May with the 0-40Goal Cup. Jeremy Pemberton’s Trumpington went head-to-head with Alex BroomanWhite’s Bob Music in the final, and it was

Mark Emerson moves towards goal during his side Trumpington’s 0-40-Goal Cup final victory over Bob Music

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Polo Times, June 2013

a 4-goal advantage against the 12-goal Trumpington team, on which Pemberton was joined by Mark and Will Emerson and Peter Webb. This lead was soon reduced with goals from Webb and Mark Emerson for Trumpington, but a field goal from Collett kept Bob Music two goals clear of their rivals.

But it proved to be the first and last time Bob Music would score, the combination of Webb and Will Emerson proving too strong for Brooman-White’s team. Between them they put seven goals away during the remainder of the game, securing a 9-5 victory for Trumpington.

The Jamla Dubar Plate subsidiary final was narrowly won by the Rigby & Rigby team of Jenny and Steve Rigby, Matias Amaya and Michael Henderson, who defeated Poulton 5½-5. A fantastic goal from 80 yards by Henderson, set up perfectly by Amaya, clinched the victory seconds before the bell. www.polotimes.co.uk

Home and abroad

RCBPC – Willow Foundation Charity Polo Day

Teams tie at Willow Polo Day

FOR THE FIRST time, the Willow Foundation Charity Polo Day was held at the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club and once again proved to be a great success. Now in its fifth year, having been previously held at the Beaufort Polo Club, the event attracted around 250 guests.

In addition to an auction hosted by “Homes under the hammer” presenter Martin Roberts, the day featured a 12-goal exhibition match, with the Black team of Romilla Arber, Max Charlton, Richard Le Poer and Jack

Berner taking on the Orange team of Simon Arber, Tom Morley, Matt Lodder and John Martin. Despite the Black team leading for most of the match, a successful penalty scored

by Orange in the final minute brought the scores level, and the match finished as a 6-6 draw, with both teams sharing the Willow Shield. Lodder received the most valuable player award.

More than £50,000 was raised on the day for the Willow Foundation, which supports seriously ill young people.

Reports

News in brief w T idworth – The first tournament of the Tidworth Polo Club season, the Rabbit Cup, was held in late April. The Coombe Place team of Maggie White, Simon Jackson, Michael McPherson and Cam Ellis triumphed in the 2-goal section, defeating The Dead Eyed P’s, while The Cholderton Cheetahs – Rosie and Susie Richards, Graham Nicholas and Tom Lamacraft – beat The Royal Navy to win the -2-goal final. ruids Lodge – The 3-4-goal Spring w D Trophy was contested by four teams at Druids Lodge Polo Club on 27-28 April.

Emlor triumphed 3½-1 in the final, with the team of Emma and Clinton McCarthy, Hazel Jackson and Harry White getting the better of the Dark Ice/Silverwood team, which featured Helen Godard Watts, Hayley Hyde-Andrews, Eden Ormerod and Roddy Stanning.

Photograph by Sabby Lawrence

w R utland – Ten teams were in action at Rutland Polo Club on 11-12 May. The 2-goal Rutland Cup was won by Stapleford Park – Tom Collie and Marcus Collie, Charlie Kemp and Shuif Hussain – who defeated C.A.N.I by half a goal.

Six teams were split into two divisions to contest the -2-goal Twidale Cup, with Spartans taking the division one title and Sporting Designs winning division two.

Max Charlton of the Black team plays a nearside shot to keep the ball away from Tom Morley of the Orange team

USA – The Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup

Photograph courtesy of Royal Salute

Prince Harry triumphs in USA PRINCE HARRY’S OFFICIAL visit to the USA ended with victory when his Sentebale Land Rover team won the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup at Greenwich Polo Club.

The Prince teamed up with England international and six-goaler Malcolm Borwick, who captained the team, as well as Michael Carrazza and Marc Ganzi. In a closely-contested match, Sentebale defeated St Regis 4-3, with Harry scoring the winning goal to retain the title and lift the cup for the second consecutive year.

A high-profile crowd turned out to watch the prince’s team battle it out with St Regis, which was captained by Argentine six-goaler Nacho Figueras, and featured Peter Orthwein, www.polotimes.co.uk

Steve Lefkowitz and Dawn Laurel-Jones.

Launched by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2010 in Barbados, the event raises funds and awareness for Sentebale, the charity founded by the two princes to support orphans and vulnerable children in Lesotho. As Polo Times went to press, this year’s event had exceeded its target and raised over US$1m for the charity.

“The success of our three previous polo events has helped Sentebale make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable children in Lesotho,” said Prince Harry.

Prince Harry rounds off his official tour of the USA with victory at Greenwich Polo Club, Connecticut

Polo Times, June 2013

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Reports

Home and abroad

Dubai – Julius Baer Beach Polo Cup

Photograph courtesy of Revolution Sports

Al Habtoor brothers do battle on the beach

The international crowd, which included Lionel Ritchie, look on as Rashid Al Habtoor steals his brother’s crown

A SELL-OUT international crowd witnessed title sponsors Julius Baer win the 2013 Beach Polo Cup in Dubai. Revived after a six-year lapse, the event featured four 6-goal teams playing at Mina A-Salam, Dubai.

As in the event’s previous years, the final was a battle of brothers, with Julius Baer patron Rashid Al Habtoor denying his younger brother and Maradiva patron Mohammed Al Habtoor victory for the first time, winning 6-3. With Rashid teaming up with his son Khalaf, as well as British six-goaler Nacho Gonzalez, and Mohammed playing alongside his son Habtoor and JJ Storni, the final turned out to be a real Al Habtoor family affair.

In addition to the polo, the weekend also raised money for UAE-based charity Noor Dubai, by giving children at the event the chance to paint four horse sculptures, which were then auctioned at the prize-giving ceremony, raising AED130,000 (£23,230).

China – Tang Polo Arena Cup

Photograph by Tang Polo Club

Home team wins arena title TANG POLO CLUB started the new season with its much anticipated arena polo tournament on 20 April. The annual tournament, which was held at the Beijing club for the first time in 2012, was contested by two teams this year – the tournament sponsor’s team, Peninsula Residences, and eventual winners, Tang Polo.

The teams of three were made up of local Chinese players, showcasing the increasing standard of polo in China. The fast-paced four-chukka match was played in Tang’s impressive 5,600 sqm indoor arena, and got off to an exciting start with Tang Polo putting the first goal on the scoreboard within 20 seconds. But it didn’t take long for Peninsula Residences to fight back and take a narrow 5-4 lead by half time.

Tang stormed back in front with a hat trick of goals in the third chukka to put them 7-5 ahead, but as the final chukka got underway 44

Polo Times, June 2013

Guests enjoy the arena polo action from the luxurious viewing area inside the boutique hotel at Tang Polo Club

the scores were tied once again. It was a successfully taken penalty by Tang in the last minute of the match that secured the win.

Aside from watching the action from the viewing area of Tang Polo Club’s boutique hotel, guests were treated to stick-and-balling

on foot, a dressage formation display and an asado dinner to round off the day. w Tang’s chairman Shilai Lui will represent Beijing at Polo in the Park this month. See page 9 for more www.polotimes.co.uk

Reports

Home and abroad

Jamaica – Senior Cup

News in brief

St Ann seals hat trick of wins

w A rgentina – Four teams of up to 28-goals contested this year’s La Aguada Open, held at La Aguada Polo Club, Argentina. In the final, which had to be rescheduled due to rain, La Aguada El Dok triumphed 11-10, denying defending champions and hosts La Aguada a second consecutive win. The La Aguada El Dok team of Ignacio Novillo Astrada, Matias Fernández Llanos, Santiago Solari and Lucas James, who filled in for Cristian “Magoo” Laprida, snatched victory when James scored the winning goal in overtime. uards – Jonathan Munro Ford’s Black w G Eagles team continued their winning streak from the winter into Guards Polo Club’s first tournament of the summer season. The team, featuring Jack Hyde, Matias Carrique and Daniel Otamendi, won the Spring tournament, defeating Brian Stein’s Oakholt 6-5 in the final.

Nineteen teams took part in the 6-goal tournament, with Clarita winning the subsidiary final against Cadz & Dogs.

w W est Wycombe Park – Titanium were the winners of the Friends Cup, held at West Wycombe Park Polo Club on 4-5 May. The team of Vicky Griffin, Holly Butler, Harry Hutchings and Stuart Beetles defeated El Cassel 6-4. West Wycombe also hosted their Bank Holiday Special over the same weekend, with Greenpoint defeating Kennel Farm. w B eaufort – Supernova won the 8-goal Badminton Cup at Beaufort Polo Club.

The team of Sarah Hughes, Harry White, Olly Tuthill and Mark Baldwin were unbeaten in the round-robin tournament.

Photograph by Rachel Turner

w T hailand – Harold Link’s Thai Polo team lifted the Princess Pa Cup for the third consecutive year, when they beat the Macau team in the final of this year’s Asian Beach Polo Championship. Playing alongside Sukampa Supachai and NgoaOsa Verachit, Link’s team comfortably defeated Macau 5-0 on Hua Hin beach, playing Thai-bred ponies, who were making their match debut. The charity event raised money for HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha’s Inspire project, which helps rehabilitate female prisoners.

The St Ann Polo Club team of Shane and Kurt Chin, Craig Russell and Andy Vernon before the Senior Cup final

THE ST ANN team defended their title when they won the Senior Cup at home at St Ann Polo Club. The 12-goal Senior Cup, which has traditionally been played between clubs since 1906, brought the Jamaica Polo Association tournaments to a close, with St Ann, Kingston and Chukka Blue polo clubs each represented by their four best players.

With wins in both the Junior Cup and the Hurlingham Cup behind them, the St Ann team of Shane Chin, Kurt Chin, Andy Vernon and Craig Russell faced Kingston – Jonathan Dougall, James Robertson, Paul Lalor and Ricky Wates – in the Senior Cup final, and

convincingly defeated them 8-2. St Ann took control of the match from the start, fending off the Kingston attack with fast, open play.

Shane Chin was named most valuable player, with his pony Fire Fire, owned by Tony Brennan, awarded the best playing pony prize.

For the fifth year, the Senior Cup aimed to raise funds and awareness for the St Mary/ St Ann Cancer Society. With a large crowd in attendance, this year’s event raised $200,000 (Jamaican) for the society. w The Jamaica Open featured in April’s Polo Times

Singapore – Diplomats Cup

Europe triumph in Singapore THE DIPLOMATS CUP concluded at Singapore Polo Club at the end of April, with a win for the Europe team. The 6-goal team of Jonathan Gabler, Miguel Diaz, Lynly Fong and Anna Lowndes came up against Africa in the four-chukka final, who they defeated 9-5½, overcoming their initial one and a half goal deficit due to handicap difference. Asia faced The Americas in the subsidiary final, winning 4-1½ to take third place.

The Europe and Africa teams fight it out in the final

46

Polo Times, June 2013

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Chukkas at Cheltenham

Despite churning out some of Britain’s most talented players over the past few decades, Cheltenham College only officially began an active polo club 17 years ago. Georgie May speaks to head of polo Sarah Styler about the school’s polo achievements

C

heltenham College has enjoyed an active polo club for almost two decades, while Cheltenham College Junior School (CCJS) began its own polo club two years ago. The school, which caters for boys and girls aged three to 18, is located in the spa town of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire and is fortunate to be within six miles of Longdole Polo Club.

Head of polo Sarah Styler looks after the school’s polo activities, with the help of the school’s sports department and polo coaches Dan Banks and Rob Cudmore. In the senior school, players in third and fourth form take the ten-minute minibus journey to Longdole for lessons on Mondays, while fifth and sixth formers play on Wednesdays. Matches usually 48

Polo Times, June 2013

take place on Sundays but pupils are also able to play on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Cheltenham College has three main teams, led by 17-year-old Jack Severn, and there is also a thriving girls squad led by Frankie Dent, who is in upper sixth. As well as Frankie and

One of the highlights of the year is the Cheltenham College Polo Day every June Jack, the school’s other leading players include Jack’s younger brother Ollie, George White and Hector Lopez-Valido. Of the younger generation, Minty Lawson Smith and Tom

Severn have started to show great potential as polo players.

There is a mixture of talent, with some pupils having not played before they joined the school. Some of the more established players have their own ponies and play polo with the Pony Club – with the Cotswold Hunt, Heythrop or South Berks branches.

However, the majority of the 16 regular players hire from Longdole for lessons, chukkas and tournaments.

Cheltenham College traditionally play against Marlborough College, Millfield, Eton, Shrewsbury, Radley, Cheltenham Ladies’ College and Rugby. The teams compete in all SUPA tournaments and also the HPA Four Chukka League. In 2012, Cheltenham College www.polotimes.co.uk

School Profile

Youth polo

Education from every angle Our education expert Adam Caller gives advice each month on dealing with the quandaries facing young players looking to balance their polo and their studies.

Ollie Severn, Jack Severn, JJ de Alba and George White lift the Cheltenham College Polo Trophy last June

were the winners of the SUPA National Schools Arena tournament, SUPA National Schools Intermediate Arena tournament, SUPA National Girls’ Arena tournament and the HPA Four Chukka League. Forming the team for the latter was Jack Severn, Ollie Severn, George White and JJ de Alba. The school continued its arena winning streak this year, once again celebrating several SUPA arena tournament wins.

The College’s alumni include Jamie Le Hardy, Adam Buchanan, James and Tom Beim, Ollie Cudmore, Max Lopez-Valido, Nick and Will Hine, George Meyrick and Matt Cudmore. Indeed there were three Old Cheltonians, Ollie Cudmore, Tom and James Beim, in the England team playing Australia in March this year.

Tom Beim’s 10-year-old son Zac is among the players to watch that currently attend CCJS. Benedict Shallamach, Felicity Townend and Arthur Townend are also names to look out for in the future. Teacher Sophie Bryan has run the CCJS polo club since it began in 2011 and this year CCJS entered a record number of teams into the SUPA National Junior Schools arena tournament (see May 2013 issue of Polo Times).

One of the highlights of the polo season for Cheltenham College as a whole is the annual Cheltenham College Polo Day at Cirencester Park. Held on Saturday 1 June this year, Cheltenham College will play Marlborough College and Old Cheltonians will play the Hackett British Army team. CCJS will face Beaudesert and crowds of more than 1,000 people are expected. F

Cheltenham College’s Alicia Williams in action

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Cheltenham College supporter Mimi sporting her tailor-made coat in the school's colours

The summer exam session is one of the most stressful times of the academic calendar for pretty much every student.

If you are not taking IB, GCSE or A level exams, then there are often internal school exams or the ubiquitous SAT (for American Universities) or ACT. Everyone is in the final stages of preparation for something significant. With all this going on it may be hard to maintain sporting commitments at all, let alone to continue to excel.

So, how should you try to do both without one detrimentally affecting the other? There is no simple solution, but there are certainly things you can do to help.

The most important of these is to be prepared and stay organised. Plan a revision timetable that includes sufficient time for study and sport, and stick to it. If you made your plan well then you can study knowing that there is time for practice, and you can play sports knowing that you’re not eating into essential study time. At this time of the year you need to be strict on yourself and your friends. There will be plenty of time to relax and play when exams are behind you, but in the short term you need to be strong enough to turn down unplanned distractions unless you made gaps on your study and sporting timetable for them. Even if you did, be strict…do not stay out so late that it affects the next day’s plans.

For some, stress is a good thing in short doses. Some people perform better while others lose confidence. It’s important for you to understand yourself and learn which one of these you are so that you do not become over-confident or over-whelmed. Whichever one you are, remember to eat well, get good sleep, and just take one day at a time. w Adam Caller has been the Senior Partner of Tutors International for 12 years. Tutors International is a specialist private tutoring and educational consultancy headquartered in Oxford Polo Times, June 2013

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Photographs by Jo Clarke

wT ickets for the Cheltenham College Polo Day on 1 June cost £10 each (free to under 12s).

Contact Rebecca Creed on 01242 265694.

u C heltenham College Year established: 1841 Type of school: Co-ed independent boarding school Ages: 3-18 Number of pupils: 600 at Cheltenham College and 400 in the Junior School Headmaster: Dr Alex Peterken (Cheltenham College) and Mr Jonathan Whybrow (CCJS – as of September 2013)

Combining academic and sporting excellence at exam time

Youth polo

Exeter University polo tour to South Africa

Heading south for polo tuition and much more A group of polo players from Exeter University, from beginners to those more experienced, travelled to South Africa in May to enjoy a week’s intensive training at Stonefield Polo in Plettenberg Bay

Lucy Gibson reports from South Africa

A

group from Exeter University Polo Club enjoyed two weeks in South Africa over the Easter break with polo, beaches and sun providing the perfect release from university work, revision and the British weather.

Seven days of intensive polo at Stonefield Polo was bookended by three days either side exploring the Southern cape and Plettenberg Bay. Accommodation was in large self-catered cottages overlooking the stick and ball field at the ground, which is set up for polo players

throughout the season. But before we even started training we visited Kurland Polo Estate and watched the finals of the Cape Championships, as well as visiting Natures Valley, which boasts prehistoric landscape along with stunning lagoons and beaches.

For training, the group was divided into two; beginners who only had experience of arena polo and non-beginners who had varied levels of experience on grass. Coaching was with Guy Watson, manager of Stonefield Polo, and Shaun Brokensha and each day we stick and balled and played afternoon chukkas.

The week’s polo ended with a mixed ability tournament with the beginners and nonbeginners being split over the four teams and a professional (Guy, Shaun, Harold Hodges and Chris Mackenzie) on each team.

The final was between team F.I.T – Fliss

Newland, India Ringer, Tara Macey and Harold Hodges – and Guy’s Gals, which comprised Olivia Bodle, Hatty Walsh, Lucy Gibson and pro Guy Watson. It was a closely fought match with strong defence by Ringer and Gibson, ending in a draw 1-1. The winner was then decided by a run down, which was won by team F.I.T. The combined ability aspect of the tournament meant any discrepancy in ability was evened out and having the chance to play with a pro opened the games up and kept them flowing. Having played continuously

“South Africa never fails to deliver. Being able to combine polo with relaxing is great” – Harold Hodges

Photographs by Lucy Gibson

for seven days, there were understandably a few falls but everyone improved remarkably, especially in competitive chukkas and riding for those who had limited riding experience before beginning polo.

“We were quite spoilt in a way, having our first experience of grass polo out here,” said Thomas Kebbell, one of the beginners.

“The coaching was phenomenal and it was a completely different experience to playing in the arena.”

Despite it being the end of the South African polo season the nightlife was upbeat with Plettenberg Bay boasting many different restaurants serving amazing food for relatively

Left: Discovering the vast South African plains Right: Meeting the locals in the Plettenburg Bay Game Reserve

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Youth polo

Polo action gets underway at Stonefield Polo Club

The Exeter University students enjoyed the best of the South African beaches and countryside during their trip

cheap prices. We visited Newstead vineyard, owned by patron Dougie Lund and family.

Despite only having been established a few years ago their wine has already won international accreditation.

We also had the opportunity to explore Plettenberg Game Reserve via a horseback safari, which was a great experience, cantering along with springboks, debating the logistics of

zebra polo and seeing many different animals, all in the stunning South African landscape.

“It was great for everyone to have the intensity of polo over the week,” said EUPC captain Harold Hodges who organised the tour. “They all improved on every level.

“South Africa never fails to deliver, it’s a fantastic country and being able to combine intensive polo training with relaxing on the

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beach and in town is great.”

At the end of the two weeks everyone agreed that this was probably the best university tour for any sport with great accommodation, amazing food, wine and location and fantastic polo. Everyone at EUPC was hugely grateful to Guy, Shaun, Grace and Alicia for their wonderful hospitality and for providing excellent coaching. F

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St Andrews Charity Polo Tournament, Scotland

Youth polo

The grass-roots view The latest from Theresa Hodges, UK Pony Club Polo chair, in her regular column Extra Tournament Due to cancelling the two Arena tournaments in the Easter Holidays as a result of Equine Herpes Virus, Cisy Chamberlain and Longdole Polo Club have got together to give you all a half term tournament on grass on Monday 27 May. I do hope this is well supported and please contact Laura at PCHQ for any details (laura@pcuk.org).

The Oxford team (in navy) and the St Andrews (in blue) continued their rivalry at the Charity Polo Tournament

St Andrews beat Oxford in annual charity match St Andrews University Polo Club raised £1,500 for Help for Heroes at the end of April, through hosting a charity polo day which saw St Andrews defeat rivals Oxford in the main match of the day

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n Sunday 29 April, Strathtyrum Estate in Scotland hosted the annual St Andrews Charity Polo Tournament, sponsored

by EFG. The event is the highlight of St Andrews Polo Club’s calendar and all players involved eagerly awaited the outdoor tournament, having spent the winter playing arena polo.

The day kicked off in the sunshine with the beginners match. This was the first time that most of the players had ever played on grass and they all handled it magnificently, creating much excitement among the building crowds.

It was Talia Sarafilovic who shone throughout, leading her HPS Consulting team to victory and picking up the CCW most valuable player award. The next chukkas were the third and fourth play-offs and final of the novice tournament; the preliminary chukkas of which were played on the beach the previous day.

The contest for Hartley Cup was battled out between teams Turcan Connell and Those Guys in what has been described as the best novice performance at this event to date. In www.polotimes.co.uk

the end it was Felix Kaplan’s Those Guys who took home the cup and Theo Varenne was named most valuable player.

The crowd were then treated to an exhibition match featuring the best of Scottish polo in a very exciting two-chukka match, made somewhat more exciting when the VIP tent was lifted up by the wind. Despite the gale force winds, the 500-strong spectators stuck it out to watch the grand finale: the varsity match between St Andrews and Oxford, and what a spectacle it turned out to be. It was a closely fought match right until the end, made even more exciting by the fact that the rivalry was more than just academic; there was sibling rivalry between brothers Alexander (St Andrews) and Jamie (Oxford) Lindsay who were playing on opposing teams. In the end it was St Andrews who battled through and finished victorious, 6-4½.

For the fourth consecutive year the club was supporting Help for Heroes and were proud to have raised £1,500 through the event. Next year it is hoped that the weather will be a little more forgiving. F

Rule Changes The Pony Club Polo Committee (PCPC) discusses any necessary rule changes with Branch Managers and Junior HPA Team Managers every August at Cowdray. Any accepted changes are made for at least one of four main reasons: safety, pony welfare and quality or fairness of play in a contact sport. The changes are then agreed by The Pony Club HQ team relative to other disciplines – remember there are over 30,000 members of The Pony Club in the UK of which only 300 play polo. The rules within The Pony Club Rule Book 2013 must be adhered to for legal reasons and particularly those relative to player age across all Sections, training and pony height and make (fluffies only) for Jorrocks and Handley Cross.

Watching polo The Pony Club season on grass is fast approaching and with it comes the annual spectacle of connections – mainly parents – supporting, cajoling and shouting from the side-lines. Please remember that any player (yours included) cannot foul the ball: they can only foul (or be fouled) by another player. The whole game becomes much more enjoyable if you watch the line of the ball rather than individual players and in so doing, you will discover that the umpiring will seem much improved! The Pony Club is hugely grateful to the large number of players who volunteer to umpire at Pony Club tournaments and we can all make their lives easier by understanding the rudimentary aspects of the game.

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Treloar stretches a horse’s muscles, which benefits them in the same way as players, who stretch before and after games to prevent them from getting sore

Back problems solved with Paul Treloar Australian Paul “Poppy” Treloar brought his “drag and release” method to relieve muscle and back pain in horses to the UK some 15 years ago and since then has built up a huge client base, helping players find correctly fitting saddles as well as treating their ponies’ problems

reports Alice Gipps

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ver the past 33 years, Australian Paul “Poppy” Treloar, an equine therapist and saddle fitter, has developed an effective method to relieve muscle and back pain in horses.

Working with horses all over the world, from dressage horses in Germany to endurance Arabs in the Middle East, Treloar is also a familiar face within the polo world.

He first came to the UK in 1997 to further his research and found that the polo industry was very interested in what he had to offer.

Although his method gives instant relief to muscle and back pain, his main concern is to dig deep into the history of the problem and treat the cause in order to prevent it recurring.

The athletic demands polo has on ponies can give rise to sore muscles, sometimes www.polotimes.co.uk

Paul Treloar on fitting saddles

Knowledge Photographs by Alice Gipps

Treloar takes notes on each horse that he treats, including its past history, where it is sore and the treatment given and any further treatment that may be required

resulting from a hard ride off, an accident, ponies not being fit enough or even bad rider posture. However, the biggest culprit Treloar encounters is poorly fitting saddles.

Muscle wastage, indents either side of the withers, bald patches or white hairs on the withers are common signs of poorly fitting saddles – either current or previous saddles.

A horse experiencing muscle pain can show subtle signs – stiffness through the back, resistance to engage, not striding out – or more obvious signs such as not stopping, high head carriage, being stiff to turn, kicking, biting, bucking and resistance to be girthed up. Sensitivity to brushing the saddle area may also indicate a current problem.

Treloar uses a hands-on process to release the appropriate nerves, including Myofacial Trigger Points (MTP) that cause pain. Trigger points are the equivalent of knots in the muscle. They develop in taut bands of muscle fibre when a muscle has acute physical trauma, over training or inadequate rest between training sessions. Badly fitting saddles, riser pads and over tightening of the www.polotimes.co.uk

girth can also cause trigger points. Not only do they cause local pain and muscle tension but they may lead to more serious injuries in completely different locations – such as the tendons – as the horse compensates for the areas in pain.

The trigger point develops to protect that part of the body subjected to undue pressure; the muscle tightens and reduces blood circulation

as human practitioners do. Although Treloar combines stretching and massage with his technique, even a strong man has little impact penetrating the deepest layers of muscle on a horse with massage alone. By working on the trigger points, dragging and releasing them through the muscle mass, with very little physical effort, Treloar can make a huge impact. Blood re-enters the muscle, returning it

The athletic demands of polo can give rise to sore muscles, however, poorly fitting saddles are the biggest culprit to the affected area. If the trigger point remains long enough, muscle tissue starts to waste away and is replaced by inelastic scar tissue causing physical soreness in that area.

Treloar’s technique requires no drugs and differs to those used by osteopaths, physiotherapists and chiropractics as he uses the drag technique to release the sore spots (trigger points) rather than loading the knot with constant force until tissue release occurs

to its full function, relieving pain and tightness.

Unlike the compression technique used by osteopaths, as of yet there is very little scientific evidence to back up Treloar’s drag technique. It’s a grey area in scientific research, but anyone who has seen him in action has no doubt that it works. He has trained up several protégés in his techniques around the world and he’s working towards getting his technique accredited and recognised by the veterinary u Polo Times, June 2013

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Left: Treloar working on a Myofacial Trigger Point, which is the equivalent to a knot in the muscle. Right: Treloar uses his drag and release technique to drag the trigger point through the muscle from the sore point in the back down the side of the horse and underneath its belly, rather than applying constant force to the knot

Photographs by Alice Gipps

u profession by carrying out university trials.

“I have had huge success with Poppy looking at my horses in both the UK and Australia,” Glen Gilmore said. “I always remember when a grey mare of mine was lame behind and Poppy had a look at her. Sure enough she was sound when he had finished working on her. Amazing.”

When shopping for a saddle, it’s not just about finding a good-looking saddle in your price range but also finding one that suits your horse’s needs.

“Saddles are like buying a pair of shoes,” Treloar explains. “If shoes are too small or large, you will have trouble walking let alone running and the result will be pain and blisters. Adding an extra pair of socks to already tight shoes is not the answer. With 56

Polo Times, June 2013

a horse the muscle becomes traumatised, which in turn activates a Myofacial Trigger Point. Comfort will not be provided just because you’ve added padding.”

The shocking reality is that only a very small percentage of people will have tried

Bridging is one of the most severe saddle faults and cause of muscle soreness a polo saddle on their horse to see if it fits before they buy it. In other equine disciplines it’s common practice for a master saddler with three years training to help fit a saddle.

Having to accommodate a large number of

ponies is an inadequate and ignorant excuse to bypass this process. A good saddler can create a saddle to suit several ponies in a string and those with unusual conformation are worth catering for.

Many polo saddles are poor in design, with rock hard under panels and narrow gullets, which are contributing factors to back problems. The harder the saddle panels, the higher the pressure values, especially if the saddle “bridges”.

When running your hand under the saddle panel from front to back there should be equal pressure all the way along. On a saddle that bridges there will be more pressure at either end and sometimes even a visible gap under the middle section of the panel. With the added weight of a rider, huge pressure u www.polotimes.co.uk

Paul Treloar on fitting saddles

Poppy’s top tips

Knowledge

Girths

Polo equipment distributors Tally Ho Farm in Berkshire gave Treloar the opportunity to point out some of the more suitable equipment to benefit your horse’s comfort and prevent problems.

Fitting at the front

This image shows various types of girth in order of worst to best (from left to right). Girths that cause pressure points are those which are narrow or have the lever buckles. The girth on the far right is the best as it is wide and the buckles are on elastic so they expand a little when the horse breathes in and out

Saddle shape

Left: This saddle is poorly fitting at the front – it is too narrow and would pinch the horse. Right: A good fitting saddle at the front

Left: The narrow panels and narrow gullet will cause soreness along the spine.

Right: This well-shaped saddle has wide panels to spread the rider’s weight and a wide gullet down the middle, which alleviates pressure on the spine

Pressure points Near left: Improper use of a gel pad – the pad should come past the end of the rear panels to prevent a pressure point occurring where the saddle sits on the edge of the pad Far right: The correct use of a saddle pad. The saddle also sits level on the horse – not much higher at the front or back.

Bridging Far left: A poorly fitting saddle showing bridging (a gap under the middle area of the panel) Near left: Treloar showing how some riser pads do not help the fit of the saddle, instead making it much worse. Gel pads are much more preferable if a pad is necessary

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Paul Treloar on fitting saddles

Photographs by Alice Gipps

Knowledge

Treloar checks under the saddle for “bridging” and at the front of the saddle to ensure it is not too tight, which would result in pinching and restricting shoulder movement

u points can form at the front and the back of the saddle causing soreness. Bridging is one of the most severe saddle faults and cause of soreness found in scientific studies.

Narrow gullets cause the saddle to sit too high on the withers pinching the horse, while saddles that are too wide at the front result in the rider’s weight bearing down directly on the withers. Even using the well known rule of thumb that the front of the saddle should give at least three fingers clearance of the wither and a tunnel of light seen front to back, fitting a saddle is still best done by an expert.

It is fashionable practice in polo to place the saddle far forward and high up on the withers, which causes bridging and greatly restricts shoulder movement. Over tightening of the girth also reduces blood circulation and can permanently damage the deep caudal pectoral muscles – which cannot expand, affecting the lungs and the muscles that tire quickly from lack of oxygen and the build up of lactic acid, greatly reducing performance.

In conjunction with Polo Gear, a veterinarian and chiropractor, eight-goaler Nic Roldan has 58

Polo Times, June 2013

developed a new free-shoulder saddle that addresses the problem of wanting to position the rider further forward without compromising the horse’s performance. This saddle makes a revolutionary change in concept and design, which has been proved to increase performance. The saddle is also adjustable, offering two different widths that should cover most ponies in the string.

Other professional players are also paying more attention towards saddle design. Bautista Heguy’s saddles have large soft panels which help to distribute the rider’s weight, while Black Country Saddles in the UK produce made-tomeasure flocked polo saddles, which Treloar helped to design.

The first session on a troubled horse may take up to an hour but generally it takes Treloar 15-20 minutes per horse for a maintenance session. He will often leave the owner with exercises and stretches to carry out on the horses to improve blood circulation.

After a session, the release of the trigger point will also cause lactic acid release. To flush this toxin out of the muscle it is necessary

for a period of light work after treatment and any tack thought to be causing the problem should not be used again. In the 18th and 19th centuries horses were “strapped” (lightly slapping the horse’s muscled areas with a cloth, wisp or leather pad) and a lot more time was spent grooming before and after exercise, which helps remove toxins and facilitate fresh blood to the muscles for repair.

The ponies at Black Bears are among those that Treloar routinely checks at the beginning, middle and end of the season and he has helped in choosing their tack and equipment, such as numnahs and girths, all specifically chosen to reduce pressure points.

Ensure your horse is comfortable and in peak performance this season by checking your saddles. F w Poppy Treloar will be available in the UK from the 2 April until the end of September. Call 07711 887675 for more information w To find your local Master Saddler see www.mastersaddlers.co.uk www.polotimes.co.uk

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Knowledge

Know your game

Three-goal pro and 2008 Gold Cup winner Jamie Peel discusses the latest news and developments that are affecting players

Continuity is crucial In the wake of Sir Alex Fergusonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s resignation as Manchester United Football Club manager, there have been a wave of programmes covering his glittering 27-year career that has seen him win just about every major club trophy available.

Although, as a Chelsea fan, I hate to admit that Manchester United is one of the greatest clubs in the world, you cannot escape the success that they have enjoyed under Ferguson. Interestingly he did not enjoy immediate success at United and the board were rumoured to be considering a replacement. However, that did not happen and the rest is history.

Even though Ferguson is arguably the greatest manager of all time, we can look at what he has achieved and learn a huge amount. For any great team or organisation continuity and longevity are central to their achievements. Historically in the English high-goal, big teams like Ellerston and Dubai have made long-term commitments to players and have benefited enormously for it. It is the same in the medium and low goal. Emlor have played for many years with Nacho Gonzalez and have enjoyed numerous tournament victories.

Success is not only monitored through victories, though. For the big organisations that are breeding and training horses, continuity with the people caring for the horses is equally as important. Here, success is monitored by the numbers of horses breaking through into the main playing strings or being sold into the highgoal. Again one of the best examples of

Alex Ferguson has built a dynasty at Manchester United Football Club based on continuity of players and staff

I have talked many times before about the importance of having a good groom and at the top level the grooms are crucial to a playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success. Unfortunately horses do get injured; it is an unavoidable problem that we have to deal with. What we look for in a groom is someone who will take the necessary care and preparation in the horses training to reduce the risk of injury.

And if an injury does occur they must devote the proper attention to treating

Photograph by Andrea Sartorati

In English polo big teams in the high-goal like Ellerston and Dubai both made long-term commitments to players and benefited enormously from this continuity this is Ellerston. Driven by Jim Gilmore, their continued success is phenomenal and their breed remains the number one in polo.

Many people might not have noticed, but the majority of the most successful players have had the same grooms for many years.

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the horse back to fitness in the best state possible. Once a horse gets injured there will always be a risk of recurrence, so in the following seasons that horse must be cared for with the knowledge that there is now a weakness. This is clearly easier to manage

when the groom is the same year after year.

The patron-player relationship is where everything begins in polo and nothing can be achieved until the two have committed to each other. How the relationship develops is then key to how the team and organisation will grow. One hopes that both parties will try to work together to achieve success both on and off the pitch.

When everyone starts to work together and believe in the direction that the team is going in the results will follow. Ferguson has proved this at Manchester United. He has created an environment where everyone in the team puts the club before the individual. I was lucky enough to experience this attitude at Loro Piana where everyone believed in the team and wanted to work together to achieve success. F

w Do you agree or disagree with Jamieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s views? Have your say by emailing us at letters@polotimes.co.uk www.polotimes.co.uk

Know your game

Knowledge

International Polo Academy – don’t end up paying the penalty As in any sport, the margins between victory and defeat in polo are tiny. Ultimately the only statistic that decides the winner of a game is which team scores more goals, which makes it crucial that you make the most of your penalties. Leading coach Gavin Chaplin gives his advice on how to score those crucial shots at goal Golf putting drills are fantastic here. If you read a book called Putting out of your mind

by Dr Bob Rottella, who coaches many golf pros on the circuit, he says you have to establish routines. These should be the same for every putt. For example: stand behind the ball and look at the break on the green, then from the other side, then be methodical and consistent in how you line up the putt and take your stance.

For polo one can tee up the ball facing the horse at the goal. Walk away from the ball toward the goal and get your horse into a canter making a right turn, get your shirt comfortable and whatever else you do that is done every time you take a penalty. Create routines for yourself. Also helpful is focusing on a point behind the goals to aim at, as this also diffuses the focus on the goal.

Dr Rottella says that if one is focused on the routines then it takes away the pressure of thinking about making the putt (scoring the goal) as your attention is then on the

routines and the stroke, rather than the pressure of having to score the goal.

There are many ways to practise. One good way is to put balls in a line with the first at 30 yards and then every five meters back to the 60 yard point. Start with the closer ball and work backwards. If you miss the goal with any ball start again at the beginning. The closer shots relax you and you incrementally build distance.

You usually find the distance that you start becoming inconsistent from. You can then put a number of balls at this

distance and practise until you are good at this range. Repeat the whole process day by day until you are able to hit a high percentage of your 60s through.

I would also recommend making use of video analysis. Using video aids helps to makes sure that there are no hidden gremlins affecting the swing and hence the accuracy. Once your swing is good and you are scoring a high percentage of the 60s then a check up once a month or so is all that is necessary. w Gavin Chaplin is a leading International polo coach with experience of working in four different continents.

International Polo Academy (IPA) works with clubs, teams and players around the world to help improve the level of service, performance and enjoyment of the sport. IPA is providing an exclusive column for Polo Times every month discussing fitness, nutrition, psychology and technique

Playing tips with Rege Ludwig – mark your man Each month, renowned polo coach Rege Ludwig gives his expert advice about how to get more out of your game Marking your man is a fundamental aspect of playing the game of polo, and it is unfortunate that a large percentage of players misunderstand what this means.

The term, “mark your man” does not mean the necessity to bump, rideoff or establishing physical contact with the opposing player. However, it does mean the necessity of having mental and/or emotional contact with that player.

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In Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, “mark” is defined as: “A conspicuous object serving as a guide” and “an object of attack, a victim or prospective victim of a swindle”.

Both of these definitions serves well the meaning of “mark your man” in the game of polo.

Approximately thirty years ago I was conducting a polo clinic with coach, instructor and former seven-goal player Corky Linfoot. In that clinic Corky used a definition that was the most accurate I had heard to that point, or since. The essence being: “Control the opposing

player to keep them from getting where they want to be on the polo field.”

That definition suggests and implies that one should haze, heckle, or taunt, with no physical contact necessary, and to ride-off or push where physical contact is essential. I feel safe in stating that, for a lower rated player to control a higher rated player, mental/emotional contact is typically much more effective than physical contact. w Rege Ludwig is a world renowned polo coach and author of “Polo in the 21st Century”

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Knowledge

Know your horse

Mark Emerson MRCVS is a two-goal polo player and an ambulatory equine vet

What is liver disease?

Thankfully liver disease in sports horses is not that common but every year I come across a handful of polo ponies with some degree of liver dysfunction and occasionally the problem can be life threatening.

The liver accounts for about one per cent of an adult horseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bodyweight. The organ lies almost entirely on the right side of the horseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body and is completely encased by the rib cage. Bile produced by the liver is emptied straight into the small intestine and, unlike in humans, is not stored in a gall bladder.

The liver plays a crucial role in digestive processes and is chiefly involved in regulating nutrient distribution around the body. Nutrients absorbed in the gut must pass through the liver, which serves as a clearinghouse of sorts, assigning nutrients to essential roles and maintaining consistent blood levels of nutrients between feedings.

By and large, the liver is fairly resistant to damage and can usually function with as little as two-thirds of it in normal working order, but whole organ disease is possible and is life threatening when it occurs.

Liver disease is more common in older horses and is most often caused by exposure to toxic plants such as ragwort, feed toxins, infections or bile stones. Horses can occasionally develop serious liver disease after treatment with products made from horse

Photographs by Mark Emerson MRCVS

Symptoms of liver disease can include lethargy, weight loss and abnormal behaviour blood, such as plasma or tetanus antitoxin.

Ponies that stop eating, usually due to serious illness, can develop a potentially fatal accumulation of fat in the liver.

Symptoms of liver disease can be vague.

Affected horses may be lethargic, lose weight, have a temperature, or show signs of abnormal behaviour, jaundice, or colic. If blood protein concentrations become low, horses may have 62

Polo Times, June 2013

Clockwise from top left: Exposure to ragwort can cause liver disease; affected horses will look poor and often lose weight; an ultrasound showing the location of the liver, and a biopsy being taken from a sedated horse

fluid swelling of the legs and under the belly.

Some horses with liver disease will develop photosensitisation, which makes them appear to have severe sunburn on the white areas of their bodies such as the face and leg markings.

Bile stones in horses can cause disease if they block bile ducts.

A by-product of protein metabolism is ammonia, which is normally processed by the liver to be excreted in urine. Severe liver disease results in a build-up of ammonia in the bloodstream, which can affect the central nervous system, resulting in abnormal behaviour such as depression, head-pressing, mal-coordination and even seizures.

Some horses with liver disease might have bleeding tendencies because the liver produces many of the bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clotting factors.

Elevated levels of liver enzymes in the bloodstream are often found when blood samples are taken from polo ponies which

are in poor body condition or not quite themselves. Other markers such as bile acids and blood protein levels are also used to assess liver function.

Biopsy is the most definitive diagnostic test for horses suspected of having liver disease.

Liver biopsies are generally safe, and vets can perform them in standing horses using a special biopsy needle guided between the ribs using ultrasound. Small samples of liver tissue are taken and examined under a microscope to determine the cause of liver disease, as well as the prognosis. If bacteria are involved, they can be cultured from the biopsy samples and identified.

Specific treatment of liver disease depends on its cause. Infections can be treated with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs such as corticosteroids. Milk thistle supplements, which have antioxidant and other liver-protecting actions, are often recommended. www.polotimes.co.uk

Know your horse

Knowledge

Lorna Edgar – specialist equine nutritionist

The differences between hay and haylage When it comes to feeding hay and haylage everyone has their preferences, so here are some facts: Hays: • Meadow hay – a mixture of perennial ryegrasses, rough meadow grass and fescue. Typically it analyses better than seed hay as it is cut earlier • Seed mixtures – specially sown as timothy/ ryegrass blends • Seed hay – more mature hay. It generally has a lower nutritional value with higher fibre values • Alfalfa/timothy mixes – generally imported from USA/Canada as 40:60 ratio mixtures.

• Hay is generally made up of 85 per cent dry matter and is at risk of mould if not stored properly. It can sometimes be dusty – soak up to 20 minutes to reduce dust (any longer and the hay will progressively lose more nutrients) • Horses prone to colic are better being fed a soft leafy hay rather than haylage

The crucial factor determining the nutritional value of forage is the time that it is cut. The more mature the plants are when cut, the lower the nutrient levels they are likely to contain. To improve their strength the stem becomes more lignified; lignin is indigestible so nutrients are inaccessible to the horse.

Analysing your forage is recommended as shortfall of a mineral can significantly affect health and performance.

Tips for analysing forage: • Find out when the forage was harvested – May-June forages are likely to have a higher nutritional value than those taken in late July or August (assuming they’re first cuts) • Squeeze the hay in your hand – if it is coarse and causes indentations then it is likely to have a lower nutritional value and is more suitable for good doers.

• Forages that have a strong green colour contain more vitamins – these will decline as the hay gets older though.

Haylage: • Cut between silage and hay stages – pre bud stage about two weeks before hay is cut • Grass left to wilt for 1-3 days depending on dry matter required • Only feed four weeks after baling • Low dust risk • Nutrient quality better and it is often more digestible than hay • Generally ryegrass, high fibre timothy grasses or meadow blends found in baled haylage • Dry matter 45-70 per cent • Be cautious of moulding if the wrapping is punctured • Use within four days of opening Haylages with a high moisture content means the nutrients, particularly fibre, are more diluted so the horse has to eat more – not less as is often suggested. Limiting the amount of haylage a horse is given is more likely to result in digestive upsets and behavioural problems.

w Contact Lorna Edgar of Baileys Horse Feeds on lorna@baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk and 07808 863864

Nutritional management of liver disease is aimed at reducing dietary protein and the amount of ammonia and other gut-derived toxins. Dietary protein should be restricted as much as possible if the horse has signs of behavioural abnormalities. Feeding alfalfa and clover, which are generally high in protein, should be avoided. Horses with

photosensitisation can still graze or be turned out at night to avoid sunlight. Dividing up hard feed rations into several small meals will prevent large amounts of ammonia from leaving the gut and will reduce the load of ammonia that the liver must detoxify.

Beet pulp, maize, and wheat bran all have a favourable proportion of the right type of protein

and it is recommended that they make up the majority of any hard feed given to horses with liver disease. However in all cases, it is more important to keep horses eating to maintain body weight rather than making dietary adjustments that cause them to stop eating.

Horses with severe symptoms and profoundly abnormal blood and biopsy results often have a poor prognosis for recovery.

However, the liver has an amazing ability to regenerate, and nutritional management and medical therapy can help affected horses regain or maintain adequate liver function in those less severely affected. F w Mark Emerson works as an ambulatory equine vet based near Ascot and has polo clients across the south of England: tel 07973 800383 or email mark@ emersonequine.com Left: Post mortem specimen of a horse liver with cirrhosis

www.polotimes.co.uk

Polo Times, June 2013

63

Knowledge

Ones to watch

Henry Fisher The four-goaler speaks to Georgie May about his summer ahead Henry Fisher, the younger brother of John Fisher, is playing for Les Lions in this summer’s high-goal, which got underway in late May with the start of the Cartier Queen’s Cup at Guards.

The team will start their Cowdray Park Gold Cup campaign later this month.

The Cowdray-based four-goaler last featured in the UK high-goal in 2007, when he played for Victor Vargas’s Lechuza Caracas. Playing alongside Sebastian and Juan “Pite” Merlos, as well as Vargas, the team won the Gold Cup that year.

Understandably, the win was the highlight of Fisher’s career to date.

“I’m very excited to be playing for Les Lions this year,” Fisher said.

“There’s lots of good teams, such as

Photographs by James Mullan and John O’Sullivan

Cheeky Monkey Dubai and Zacara, but hopefully we’ll be competitive. Sebastian Merlos called me in August last year about joining the team as we’ve played together before and get on well. I went to Argentina in October for a trial and they offered me the job.”

Fisher currently keeps four of his best ponies with Les Lions in Windsor, two of which he brought over from New Zealand. Having played in New Zealand when he was younger, Fisher often spends a few months a year living and playing there at Jonny Wade’s farm. “I have my own horses out in New Zealand,” Fisher said. “I like the horses over there and often buy ex-racehorses and re-train them for polo.”

Fisher first got into polo through hunting and started playing with the Pony Club when he was 12 years old.

He represented the Cowdray Hunt branch of the Pony Club and regularly played alongside his brother John.

Following the high-goal this summer, Fisher will return to Cowdray to play in the domestic polo with patron Parke Bradley.

64

Polo Times, June 2013

English five-goaler Richard Le Poer tells John O’Sullivan about his favourite pony Cheeky Monkey, who he will be playing in the Victor Ludorum this summer.

How long have you had her?

I bought her seven years ago as a two-year-old in Ireland off a farmer called Robert Hogg, who runs Bunclody Polo Club. My uncle David Thompson is a hunstman with the Laois Hunt, so he helps me out when I am looking for new ponies.

What is her background?

She has a very good bloodline. Her sire Imperial Ballet is by Sadler’s Wells, the famous furlong sprinter. Her dam Pivot D’Amore, was a six-furlong sprinter who was by Pivotal a stallion, who was very famous around Europe.

When did you start playing her?

She was already stick and balling as a two-yearold and it was quite obvious she was a natural.

I took it really slowly for the next two and a bit years. As a five year old I started playing her in some competitive polo. Then as a six year old I started playing her fully.

What have you played her in?

I’ve played her in everything up to 22-goal polo. She won best playing pony at the 12-goal Cheltenham Cup last season and I think she is a

Height: 15.1hh Age: 9 Colour: Bright Bay Sex: Mare Breed: Irish thoroughbred Sire: Imperial Ballet Dam: Pivot D’Amore Owner: Richard Le Poer

good high-goal pony in England. She played with Facundo Pieres in one game during the Queen’s Cup last year. Facundo said he liked her a lot.

What will you play her in this year?

The 12 and 15-goal. She played all of the Tyro Cup and in the semi-finals I scored the winning goal in extra time on her. It was a length of the field run from a knock-in.

What are her strengths?

Over 100 metres she is very quick and powerful.

She has amazing sides, left and right and can go flat out around any corner. She is consistent, she has a big heart and always tries really hard. She rarely gets tired. You can play her in two chukkas and she tries until the end.

Does she have any weaknesses?

She does get off the ground a bit when you are stopping in a straight line. But, if you know her as well as I do, you get used to that.

What are your plans for her for the future? Would you ever sell her?

I want to keep playing her and in the future do a bit of breeding. I would be happy to rent her to highgoal players, but I don’t think I would ever sell her.

She already has two embryos on the ground, one

by Open Maestro and one by Oshgosh – they are two-year olds now. www.polotimes.co.uk

Available for Stud Zorro 2003 Liver Chestnut 15.1hh Stallion Chess x Forrest Jointly owned by Mark Tomlinson he is now in his sixth season used as both a breeding and playing stallion.

His Dam, Forrest, played for Ellerston in the UK. His full sister, Sativa, owned and played by Sapo Caset in the UK 2010 Gold Cup winning team, won best playing pony in the 2011 USPA 26 goal Piaget Gold Cup and went on to excel in the Argentine Open in December 2012.

Zorro is currently at stud with Beaufort Embryo Transfer Centre in Westonbirt Gloucestershire, where chilled, fresh or frozen semen is available on request.

Please contact Mark Tomlinson for more information â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Tel: 07971873599

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Polo Times, June 2013

65

Knowledge

IN POLO – London Executive Aviation

The sky’s the limit From jetting clients to principal polo destinations to forming its own team, London Executive Aviation’s relationship with polo is going from strength to strength

S

ince being founded in 1996, London Executive Aviation has not only established itself as one of the leading players in the international business aviation market, but also in the world of polo. Co-founded by managing director George Galanopoulos, who took up polo five years ago following a Discover Polo day at Ascot Park Polo Club, the company is represented annually in the Aviation Polo

year, the Aviation Polo Challenge will be held at Hurtwood Park Polo Club on 20 July, with LEA hoping to retain the title.

The company’s engagement with polo does not stop at playing and sponsorship. With a 28-aircraft business jet fleet ensuring luxury and efficiency, LEA could well be the answer for those wishing to combine polo with a little extra style and comfort, or if you are simply looking to take the stress out of the travel that

LEA could well be the answer for those wishing to combine polo with a little extra style and comfort Challenge. This year Galanopoulos will once again captain the LEA polo team as they take on their long-term rival, helicopter charter company RotorMotion and, for the first time, a Stobart Air team. Now in its third 66

Polo Times, June 2013

accompanies such a global game. Some of the world’s most popular, and most exclusive polo destinations, such as Deauville, Sotogrande and Dubai are easily and comfortably accessible through LEA, as well as a number of

prime snow polo hotspots, such as St Moritz, Kitzbühel, Val D’Isere, Courchevel and Cortina.

The recent addition of a Dassault Falcon 2000LX to the LEA fleet provides an especially luxurious and convenient option, its impressive range of 4,000 nautical miles at 540mph allowing non-stop flights from London to places such as New York, and Dubai, which has developed into a must-visit polo destination in recent years. It climbs fast, but its unique aerodynamics give it slower landing speeds, meaning it is able to touch down safely at smaller airports, bringing you closer to your destination than a commercial flight, while saving on time. And with one of the most well-equipped, quiet and spacious cabins in the sky, you can relax, enjoy the ride and focus on the action ahead. F For more information about LEA visit www.flylea.com www.polotimes.co.uk

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Sidelines

Gossip

Match made by Morley Congratulations to two-goaler Nick Britten-Long and Gerry Apponyi, who got engaged in London in December. The couple first met on a blind date in October 2010, having been introduced by Tom Morley. With a busy polo season ahead for Nick, the couple will tie the knot in September at Gerry’s mother’s home on the lakes outside Salzburg in Austria.

Marathon man

Tell us yours at gossip@polotimes.co.uk Anonymity guaranteed if you want it...

Competition winners enjoy day at Cowdray Congratulations to Joe Myers and Helena Goodwin, who each won tickets to the St Regis International Test Match at Cowdray Park, through the Polo Times Facebook competition, which was run in conjunction with UberPolo in May. Remember to ‘like’ the official Polo Times Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PoloTimes for details of our upcoming competitions.

Four-goaler Tarquin Southwell completed his third London Marathon on 21 April, raising money for Make-a-Wish Foundation. He crossed the finishing line in four hours and eight minutes, although thinks he could have achieved a faster time.

“I stopped a few times after 19 miles to support my brother Max, who was also running, but struggling,” Southwell said. “I could have been about 25 minutes quicker otherwise. The marathon was generally fine – a walk in the park – although being such a warm day made it more difficult. I trained a lot in Barbados but then arrived back in England to freezing temperatures, which made the warmth a bit of a shock.”

Tarquin has so far raised more than £5,000 and is hopeful of hitting his target of £6,000.

His pre-marathon fundraising included holding a Pony Club polo rally at Ash Farm Polo Club back in February.

If you would like to donate, please go to www.justgiving.com/tarquinsouthwell.

Tarquin Southwell pictured here with his daughter Ruby, who celebrated her first birthday on 28 May

Boogie at Boujis on International Day London nightclub Boujis will host an after-party at Guards at this year’s Audi International Day on 28 July. Following an exciting day of polo as England take on the USA for the prestigious Westchester Cup, guests will enjoy Boujis’ signature cocktails while dancing the night away to its headline DJs. Keith Prowse will provide the hospitality in the tent during the day, which includes a three-course summer lunch with wine, followed by a traditional afternoon tea. Full day hospitality tickets, excluding the after-party, are on sale for an eye-watering £480, with the after-party alone costing £75.

Limited hospitality tickets are available for those who are not Boujis members, while Keith Prowse will also bring its impressive Chukkas Restaurant to Guards, which will be available to all.

For more information see www.boujis.com.

68 Polo Times, June 2013

www.polotimes.co.uk

Gossip

New York, New York The Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic will return to Liberty State Park, New York on 1 June.

Co-hosting the event alongside Argentine sixgoaler and Veuve Clicquot ambassador Nacho Figueras will be actor Matthew McConaughey, famous for his roles in films such as Magic Mike and How to lose a guy in 10 days. The annual Polo Classic already has an impressive string of previous hosts, including Clive Owen in 2012 and Hugh Jackman in 2011.

Figueras will also be hoping to clinch a second consecutive win with his Black Watch team in the event’s exhibition match. Proceeds from the event will go towards helping the overall reconstruction of Liberty State Park, after it suffered considerable damage from Hurricane Sandy last October.

Sidelines

Players secure charity for Atlantic row The four polo players planning on rowing the Atlantic have secured a charity and begun their fundraising. Jamie Le Hardy, Bobby Dundas, James Glasson and Henry Brett will be rowing in aid of Right to Play, a charity that uses sport and play to help improve children’s lives in deprived countries. Le Hardy, Dundas, Glasson and Tim Dobson (replacing Brett who was playing in a match) took part in the Right to Play 5k Challenge in Battersea Park, London, in May and they also met with the team behind the charity.

Also running in the 5k was Sophie Hosking, who won the gold medal for the 2012 Olympic lightweight double skulls and also took part in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge in 2009.

James Glasson, Jamie Le Hardy and Bobby Dundas are pictured with her below.

The 3,000-mile challenge begins in December and will take at least 45 days to complete, rowing from the Canary Islands to Antigua. It will involve each participant rowing two hours on, two hours off for the entirety of the race.

England boys join Twitter

Look-a-likes

Singer James Bourne, of Busted, and James Beim

www.polotimes.co.uk

Fashionable feet For those out there who live, breathe and wear polo, why not get your hands on a pair of these polo monogram platform heels, available through POLO South Africa. Equestrian themed footwear is clearly in – Kourtney Kardashian was spotted wearing polo boots in London in April.

Several top British players have joined the world of Twitter this month, following the Audi international squad day at Coworth Park. Players who will be revealing all in 140 characters include Luke Tomlinson (@luke_tomlinson) Malcolm Borwick (@ mborwickpolo), Jack Richardson (@richardsonjmn1), Tom Morley (@kingmorls), Chris Hyde (@ theprofofpolo), Richard Le Poer (@RichardLePoer) and Nacho Gonzalez (@nachopoloA6).

Polo Times understands that a Twitter battle is underway, with Audi having offered the boys an incentive to achieve the highest number of followers.

So pick your favourite player, or follow them all! And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow @PoloTimes for breaking news, gossip and updates from the polo world.

Polo Times, June 2013 69

Sidelines

Neil Hobday, Howard Hipwood and Urs Schwarzenbach

Clive Reid and Martin Valent

Aurora Eastwood and Leonora de Ferranti

HB Polo team: Sebastian Pailloncy, Pite Merlos, Ignacio Toccalino, Ludovic Pailloncy

The President’s Draw; Cartier, London; 14 May 2013

Quick on the draw Cartier on Bond Street, London, hosted the President’s Draw for the Cartier Queen’s Cup on Tuesday 14 May. Representatives from Guards Polo Club and Cartier attended the evening and drew mini team shirts out of a hat to decide which league each team would play in.

Playing members of Guards also attended the evening, including Oli Hipwood, Jonathan Munro Ford, Alan Morello and Stefan Sund. HPA chairman Brigadier John Wright and HPA chief executive David Woodd were also in attendance.

The 22-goal tournament concludes on 16 June.

Chris Mackenzie, Rachel Barnes and Francisco Elizalde

w Photographs by Tony Ramirez

Oli Hipwood and Bettina Bahlsen

Polito Pieres, Guillermo Terrera, Gonzalito Pieres, Ignacio Toccalino and Rodrigo Rueda

Stefan Sund, Nacho Gonzalez and Miguel Novillo Astrada Charley Larcombe, Louisa Dawnay and Clemmie Rainy-Brown

Michelle Ackermann and Guy Schwarzenbach Lise Hobday, Alan Morello, Jonathan Munro Ford, Lucy Morello and Laurent Feniou, managing director of Cartier London Olga and Tony Ramirez

70

Jonathan and Janette Munro Ford with David Lewis

Sidelines

Nico and Sabrina Talamoni

Nastassia Fray, Freddie Ventura and Kathryn Greenwood

Carolann Patterson and Ben de Rivaz

Dara Williams and Annie Colquhoun-Denvers

Ham Polo Club Pre-Season Cocktail Party; Stratstone Aston Martin Showroom, London; 19 April 2013

Hugo and Benjie Davis have a look at the Aston Martin

David Denyer, Saroj and Dev Chakravarty and Angela Denyer

Ham kicks off season

Alexie Oulay and Celine Genonceau

Members of Ham Polo Club got together to celebrate the start of the polo season at Stratstone Aston Martinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s showroom on Park Lane. Champagne and delicious canapĂŠs were served throughout the evening, where guests were allowed to sit in some of the cars on display.

Afterwards the more energetic partygoers went to Playboy Club and Dover St Arts Club. w Photographs by Gabor Szantai

Katie Lucas, Adriano di Gianvitton, Laura Lynch and Kirsten Lucas

Hugo Davis, Will Healy, Aislinn Price and Olivia Malich

Carolanne Patterson, Mary Ellen Barton and Melissa Rigg

Rebecca Arnold, Omar Mangalji, Andrew Heald and Benjie Davis

Tony and Michelle Lynch with Mr and Mrs Sponer

Rachael Davis and Geoffrey Godbold

Michelle Pollock and friends 71

Harrison Azzaro and Adolfito Cambiaso

Dennis Rodman

John Wash, Antonio Sabato Jr, Cheryl Moana Marie, and Toy Wash

Maserati US Open Polo Championship; IPCPB, USA; 21 April 2013

Victory for Zacara

Horace and Martha Laffaye

Lyndon Lea’s Zacara won the US Open for the second consecutive year, defeating Valiente in the final. Thousands of spectators turned out to watch the game and enjoy the day’s hospitality. Guests included former basketball professional Dennis Rodman. w See pages 34-36 for the full report

Lyndon Lea with Susan and Joe Meyer

w Photos by Gary Hulton and LILA PHOTO

Marc Ganzi and Cristian “Magoo” Laprida

Kris Kampsen and Ali Solimine Nacho Cabrera and Lauren Gridley

Tomas Ezcurra and Nico Pieres

Janice Freeland

Brenda Lynn and George Dupont delivering the US Open trophy to IPCPB president John Wash

Rochi, Megan and Indalecio Laprida

Joy West

Coco Dawn Kempff

Leonard Lauren and Helga Piaget

Sidelines

Francesco Manzari and Platina Tong

Janey Grace and Manthe Penton Harrap

Ellie Etheridge and Louisa Dawnay

Jodie Kidd and Andrea Vianini

Start of the 2013 polo season party; PJ’s Bar & Grill, London; 13 May 2013

Fun in Fulham For the 22nd year, PJ’s Bar & Grill on the Fulham Road hosted a drinks party for the polo fraternity.

Invited guests sipped on champagne and dined on fantastic canapés and there was even a surprise birthday cake for Melissa Stisted, presented by owner Brian Stein during his speech.

Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers and Dr Richard Caleel

Spencer Matthews, Hugo Taylor and Jamie Laing

Brian Stein and Melissa Stisted with her surprise birthday cake

w Photographs by Edward Lloyd Photography

Will Randall-Coath, Georgia Sweeney, Charlotte Sweeney and Alex Alderman

Bettina Bahlsen, Brigadier John Wright and Claire Tomlinson

George Meyrick and Clive Reid

Elena Kivistik, Tatiana Rybakova and Ada Lavne

Oliver Browne and Andrew Blake Thomas

100 years of Toulston Polo Club book launch; Hazelwood Castle, Yorkshire; 25 April 2013

Happy centenary Edwin de Lisle

Seventy-five people attended Toulston’s book launch at Hazlewood Castle. The book costs £15 (paperback) and can be purchased through the club.

Sally Spilman

The event took place in the Great Hall of Hazelwood Castle

Howard Hall, Robin Gallagher, Jim Haigh, Sarah Lloyd and Ralph Day

73

Polo directory

Dates for your diary

Club contacts UK and Ireland

South East AEPC, Hickstead – 01273 834315 * Ascot Park – 01276 858545 * Ash Farm – 01932 872521 * Belmont, Mill Hill – 020 7318 4490 * Blueys Polo Club – 07930 323263 Binfield Heath – 01491 411969 Barcombe – 07533 213160 Burningfold – 01483 200722 Cowdray Park – 01730 813257 Coworth Park – 01784 470009 Epsom – 07961 232106 * FHM – 07778 436468 * Fifield – 01628 620061 * Guards – 01784 434212 Ham – 020 8334 0000 Hurtwood Park – 01483 272828 Kirtlington Park – 01869 350138 Knepp Castle – 07957 468220 Lacey Green – 07956 525222 Park Lane – 07976 242877* Ranelagh Farm – 01344 885697 RMAS – 07766 924101 Royal County of Berkshire – 01344 890060 * Sussex Polo – 01342 714920 * West Wycombe – 07841 597045 * White Waltham – 07748 670587

East Apsley End – 01462 712444 * Carlton House – 01986 892231 Cambridge County – 01223 812922 Cambridge – 01223 460353 * Hertfordshire – 01707 256023 Little Bentley – 01206 250435 Luton Hoo – 07934 882713 Norfolk – 01508 480400 * Silver Leys – 07535 697854 St Albans – 07438 076644 Suffolk Polo – 07990 576974

South West Asthall Farm – 01367 860207 Beaufort – 01666 880510 Cirencester Park – 01285 653225 Druids Lodge – 01722 782597 * Edgeworth – 01285 821695 Ladyswood – 01666 840880 Longdole – 01452 864544 * Lytchett Heath – 01202 623985 Maywood – 01962 885500 * New Forest – 02380 811818 Taunton – 01823 480460 Tidworth – 01980 846705 * Vaux Park – 07703 524613 * West Somerset – 01884 251632

Midlands Dallas Burston – 01926 812409 Offchurch Bury – 07816 830887 Leadenham – 01400 272885 Ranksboro – 01572 720046* Rugby – 01788 817724 * Rutland – 01572 724568

North Beverley – 01964 544455 * Toulston – 01422 372529 Vale of York – 07788 426968 * White Rose – 01430 875767 * Cheshire – 01270 611100 Chester Racecourse – 01244 304602

Scotland Borders Reivers – 01890 840777 Dundee & Perth – 07879 895780 Edinburgh – 0131 449 6696 * Kinross – 07831 365194 *

Ireland All Ireland – +353 (0) 1 6896732 Bunclody – +353 87 6605917 Curraghmore – +353 51 387102 Limerick – +353 (0) 87 2231690 Moyne – +353 85 1313224 Northern Ireland – 02890 727905 Wicklow – +353 (0) 404 67164 * Waterford – +353 51 595280 * denotes winter arena polo venue hTo contact the HPA, tel: 01367 242828

74 Polo Times, June 2013

What’s on in June UK and Ireland tournament highlights Test Matches Beaufort – Audi International Day (England vs South Africa): 15 June Suffolk – Young England Test Match (Open): 29 June

High Goal

Cowdray Park – Duke of Sutherland’s Cup (15-18): 21 May – 7 June Guards – Cartier Queen’s Cup (17-22): 21 May – 16 June RCBPC – Prince of Wales Trophy (17-22): 8-15 June Cirencester Park – The Apsley Cup (15-18): 18-30 June Cirencester Park – Gloucestershire Cup (26): 18-23 June Cowdray Park – Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup (20-22): 25 June – 21 July

Medium Goal

Beaufort – Arthur Lucas Cup (12-15): 14 May – 1 June RCBPC – John Prestwich Trophy (8-12): 28 May – 9 June Guards – Royal Windsor Cup (12-15): 1-23 June Cirencester Park – Queen Mother Centenary (8-12): 18 June – 7 July Ranelagh – LifeBook 12 Goal Trophy (10-12): 24-30 June RCBPC – Eduardo Moore (12-15): 25 June – 6 July

Low Goal

Cirencester Park – Gerald Balding (4-8): 14 May – 2 June Lacey Green – London Business Championships (-2-4): 1-2 June West Wycombe Park – Hell Fire Trophy (0-4): 1-2 June Beaufort – The Eduardo Rojas Lanusse Cup (2-6): 3-16 June Cheshire – Wirral Ladies Cup (4-6): 5-9 June Guards – Archie David Cup (4-8): 7-30 June White Rose – Summit Cup (0-4): 8-9 June Sussex – June Cup (-4-0): 15-16 June Hurtwood Park – Codys Challenge (0-2): 25-30 June Kirtlington Park – Secretary’s Cup (4-8): 2530 June Rugby – The Warwickshire 8 Goal (4-8): 25-30 June

Rutland – Assam Cup (2-6): 25-30 June Tidworth – 10th Hussars Cup (0-4): 27-30 June Vaux Park – Sponsors Tournament (-2-2): 29-30 June

Open

Kirtlington Park – Rupert Thorneloe Memorial Trophy (Open): 8 June White Rose – Castle Howard Polo Cup (Open): 29-30 June Suffolk – Newmarket Festival Polo Match (Open): 30 June Youth

Offchurch Bury – SUPA National Universities Tournament (Open): 7-9 June Guards – Jack Wills Varsity Tournament (Open): 8 June Dallas Burston – National Girls Tournament (Open): 9 June Dallas Burston – National Schools Tournament (intermediate, combined and U16): 16 June Beaufort – England 21 vs England Ladies (TBC): 22 June Dallas Burston – National Senior Schools (Open): 23 June Ladies

Fifield – Mann Financial Ladies Tournament (-4-0): 1-2 June Blueys – Ladies Sugar Bowl (-4-0): 15-16 June Vale of York – Granger Appleyard Ladies Tournament (-6 – -2): 22-23 June Combined services

RMAS – RMAS Heritage Open Day (Open): 16 June

Special events

Hurlingham Park, London – MINT Polo in the Park (16): 7-9 June Celtic Manor, Wales – Polo at the Manor (Open): 15 June Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire – British Polo Day (Open): 29 June St Albans – Polo for Heroes (Open): 29 June For a full list of all the tournaments see www.polotimes.co.uk www.polotimes.co.uk

Dates for your diary

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The Royal Cavalry of Oman provided a colourful display after the final of the Cartier Queen’s Cup last year. This year, the 22-goal tournament concludes at Guards Polo Club on Sunday 16 June

Main overseas tournament highlights Denmark

France

Copenhagen – Copenhagen Polo Open (Open): 22-23 June

Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly – Charity Cup (10-12): 25 May – 8 June Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly – Coupe Laversine Challenge Elie de Rothschild (10-12): 15-29 June

Jamaica Kingston – Dennis Lalor Cup (Open): 16 June Kingston – Players Championships (Open): 23 June

For more see www.polotimes.co.uk

Other dates Brightwells, Ascot – Ascot Derby Sale: 4 June Goffs, Ireland – Land Rover Sale: 12-13 June

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RCBPC – RoR Racing to Polo Challenge: 17 June

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None. There is no change to the score. Section 5, Rule 2e (Substitution, Handicap of substitute) in the HPA Blue Book reads: “If the substitute is of the same handicap as the player he has replaced, or lower, then the score will not be altered”

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Polo Times, June 2013 77

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Polo directory

Classifieds

Ponies EASY IN EVERYWAY 15.1hh mare, comfortable, quiet perfect pony, would suit a child beginner to a 0-goal man, lovely hitting platform, good legs, knows and loves her job, takes you to the ball, complete with all tack £4,250. Quiet, fast and very handy 15.2hh TB mare, will do anything you ask her to. She has very fast turn and very great stop. I have taught complete beginners to play on her and then played her in the 15 goal.

She would suit a novice up to a 4-goal pro, a must try!! No vices £5,000. Tel: 07816 257532 15HH 7 YEAR OLD ARGENTINE MARE Quick, sharp mare.

Easy and fun to play.

Clean limbed with no vices. Compact with great confirmation. Oxfordshire. £9k. Tel: 07979 494553. www.pharmapoloponies.com for more details and ponies.

VICTORIA 15.2HH 11 YEARS OLD. Chestnut. Argentine.

Bought for beginner to ride who moved to overseas, she is safe and comfortably plays low through to medium goal. An angel in the stable, no vices, 100% safe in every way. Superb horse for a -2 / -1 looking to improve their polo to the next level because she is stable and easy - perfect polo manners in every way, never pulls, enjoys her polo. Lincolnshire. £4,500. Contact Carlito: 07440 157588 PLAYING STRING FOR SALE Pro giving up a selection of horses from fantastic machines to quiet easy school masters.

Contact for info and photos £2,000 to £15,000.

Tel: 07816 257532 FOUR POLO PONIES FOR SALE Four excellent polo ponies for sale only to good homes. Two suited for beginners and happily play up to 6 goal.

80 Polo Times, June 2013

One suited to progressing player and one more suited to amateur pro. All clean and will be ready to try early May, for more info contact 07867 552130. Somerset. £3,000 - £8,000.

15HH ARGENTINE 15 YEAR OLD GELDING - GREAT STARTER PONY Fanta has great temperament and has been part of a large string of polo ponies and has not been hard used. An absolute dream to ride very easy and will keep you safe. Fantastic starter pony. Buyer more than welcome to come and ride as seller has nothing to hide. Cheshire. £2,995. Please call Ben Holland on 07776 231023

A SELECTION OF POLO PONIES FOR SALE 6 to 12 years old, fit and ready to play. Would suit both amateur and professional players, please call for more information 07778 917209 or visit burleylodgestud.co.uk LOVING HOME ONLY WANTED The most amazing 2 boys you could ever wish to play. We have owned both Ciolitto (14 years old) and Payito (13 years old) for 8 years and it is a hard decision to let them go. 15.2hh. Neither horse has had a days sickness or lameness in 8 years and can play all kinds of polo. Please try them!! Bucks. £3,500 and £4,500. Call Nicola 07977 046686

PONIES TO HIRE Why not rent? Two, top ponies; won Rendell Cowdray, August 2012.

Available July/August. Suitability: Club Polo, PC tournaments Langford - Surtees. Ring 01271 373466 or 07766 700904. carolinewrey@gmail. com. Millfield School, Somerset.

15.3HH 12 YEARS OLD ARGENTINE APPALOOSA weight carrying mare. Very easy, double chukkas. Real confidence giver.

Hertfordshire. £6,000. Tel: 07990 823203

14.3HH ARGENTINE GELDING 16 year old level hitting platform, easy and fun to play and do.

Ideal PC/Uni/low goal, hack, pleasure rides. Low mileage. Good home essential for this much loved chap. Cornwall. £2,250. Tel: 07968 690594

X REG DAF HORSEBOX 2000 DAF, non-HGV lorry. Partitioned for five horses plus separate tack/living area. Taxed through September, MOT in February and good tyres and batteries. Herts. £5,500. Contact 07834 844809.

15.2HH BAY MARE 7 year old bay mare. Has been playing chukkas regularly and up to 8 goal.

Going very nicely and just needs finishing off.

Very fast, soft mouth with plenty of ability. Easy to do in all ways. Would suit confident rider.

Hampshire. £5,000. Tel: 07712 189740/ 01794 367415

FOR SALE 14T RENAULT (1997) HORSEBOX POLO LORRY (partitioned for 9 horses). Very reliable and clean, serviced on regular basis, TAXED till 31/01/2014, 12 months GVT/MOT. West Sussex. £11,000 OVNO. Tel: +44 (0) 7860 245336

Transport

Equipment £1,000 ARGENTINE MARE 15.3HH 11 YEARS OLD played up to 10 goal polo, now needing easier life due to old injury that only irritates after excessive play. Suit hacking light stick and ball/ slow chukkas. Herts. Tel: 07785 465885 TWO ARGENTINE POLO PONIES FOR SALE Two Fantastic ponies for sale, played pony club to 12 goal. Easy as, fit, fast and very handy. Rising 9 and 13 years. Same home for last 3 years, sadly outgrown. Jabs, teeth, shod and wormed to date.

Never sick or sorry, open to vet. Reigate, Surrey. £4,000 - £9,000. Please call 07816 174051 for more info.

STUNNING 9 YEAR OLD TB GREY GELDING 15.2HH Fit and ready. No vices. Easy to do. Fast, stops and turns really well. £4,500. Lincolnshire.

Tel: 07739 569491

SCOREBOARDS AND CLOCKS ESPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR POLO Outdoor and arena sizes. Fully electronic, displaying the time counting down, both scores and chukka number.

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Visit www.SportingDesigns.co.uk or call +44 (0)7860 303217 WOODEN PRACTISE POLO HORSE SET FOR A 52 STICK. £550 + Delivery. Call: 07977 970537 SIX ARGENTINE POLO SADDLES FOR SALE Dark brown suede Argentine polo saddles 18\ made in the factory La Martina but without the stamp. Very good quality and light saddles.

Taunton, Somerset. £400 each plus P&P £15.

Please call or text 07989 316122

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Photo of the month

Send us your best images and we will select one for publication each month. Send them to georgie@polotimes.co.uk

Designed by www.nickiaverilldesign.co.uk Printed by The Manson Group Contact details Holbrook Farm, East End, 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 2013 and Database Right 2013 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

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Contributors – June 2013 Chris Ashton, Adam Caller, Gavin Chaplin, Lorna Edgar, Mark Emerson, Lucy Gibson, Theresa Hodges, Olly Hughes, Rege Ludwig, Clare Milford Haven, Jamie Peel, Herbert Spencer, Sarah Styler

Polo directory Brenda Lynn du Pont, the wife of George du Pont (executive director of the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame), with the International Polo Club Palm Beach mascot at this year’s US Open

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Call Sarah Foster on +44 (0)1993 886885 Subscribe online: www.polotimes.co.uk Polo Times, June 2013 81

Final bell

In association with Aprés Polo

Passions Matt Perry’s...

Polly Bryan talks to three-goaler Matt Perry about his introduction to polo, passion for football and table tennis and his thoughts on playing for Zacara in this year’s high-goal Who taught you to play polo and where did you first play?

I have ridden since I was two, but first played polo at a Suffolk Hunt Pony Club rally at Cambridge and Newmarket Polo Club when I was about 12. I was taught by Jeremy Allen and Alison Schwabe who have both supported me ever since.

What is your favourite polo memory?

Wining the Indian Empire Shield with Black Bears in 2010 when I was 18, as it was my first major tournament.

Best teammate?

I don’t really have a favourite, but playing with friends is always much easier.

Hardest opponent?

Anyone that has better horses than your own.

Favourite polo venue and why?

Les Lions field one. It is an amazing field in a nice setting.

What would you do if you were not a polo player?

I would play football for West Ham United.

Favourite pastime outside polo?

Chilling with friends from home who have nothing to do with horses or polo.

What other sporting team do you support?

West Ham United.

Person you would most like to meet?

Keith Lemon – he just seems like a lad!

“I enjoy chilling with friends who have nothing to do with horses or polo” Who was your biggest crush growing up?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

Favourite film?

Lord of the Rings.

First car?

A bright green Peugeot 106.

Who has had the biggest influence on your life?

My mum, simply due to the amount of support she has given me ever since I started in polo. It’s hard to admit that to her, though.

Last time you fell off?

During the first chukkas I played at Zacara.

New car or new horse?

New horse.

Bottle of wine or bottle of beer?

A bottle of Corona.

What has been your biggest achievement to date?

Playing the high-goal.

What is your biggest ambition?

To win either the Queen’s Cup or the Gold Cup. What are your thoughts on playing for Zacara in this year’s high-goal?

I think we have a good chance of doing well.

Zacara has a very good organisation and some amazing horses, which play a vital part.

What is your most surprising feature?

I’m a table tennis machine.

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Official Timekeeper of Cowdray Park Polo Club