Y E S T E RY E A R S
Ten-less No players with top rating the world over Adapted from Polo, February, 1935
Cecil Smith
The crown of polo lies empty. For the first time in 19 years, there is no 10-goal polo player in the world—not from the fastnesses of India where the game was cradled, to the plains of Meadow Brook where it was brought to its highest state of development. There is no King of Polo today, though there are, so to speak, four Crown Princes. There are, in the world, four players rated at 9, which means that they are considered by those generally conceded to know to be extraordinary players but just a shade short of “great,” that descriptive adjective that sums up in one word the ultimate in any form of endeavor. The four are Thomas Hitchcock Jr., for 13 years rated at the top; Cecil Smith, who enjoyed one year of fame; Winston Guest, who is making his way upward in brilliant strides; and the Nawab of Bhopal, India’s great back. Each has one leg on the crown, one might say, and it is a matter of fascinating conjecture which will grasp it firmly as his own. A year ago, following a good deal of controversy, the United States had three players rated at 10: Hitchcock, Smith and Elmer J. Boeseke Jr., the versatile Californian. For the first time in many years, the United States permitted itself the luxury of complimentary ratings, for it was generally admitted that while each of the three players was quite capable of playing 10-goal polo, that is perfect polo, none of the three showed the full season of such play in 1933, which one is entitled to expect from 10-goal players. Hitchcock was not at his best in the famous East-West matches at Chicago, in which he suffered so bad a fall that he could not even play in the Open Championship tournament, while Smith and Boeseke never again played quite so marvelously as they did at Chicago.
62 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N
Tommy Hitchcock Jr.
This year, obviously, the 10-goal ratings of 1934 could hardly be continued. Hitchcock played very little during the year, though he showed clearly that, barring accident, he could still be the greatest player of them all. Smith played well in the second EastWest matches at Meadow Brook, but suffered both defeat and disappointment. Boeseke, after an exceptionally long siege of polo, which included tours of Argentina and of England, was patently played out. So the handicap committee of the United States Polo Association did the right thing at the right time, reduced Hitchcock and Smith to 9, Boeseke to 8, and raised Winston Guest, who was the actual star of the East-West matches, to the 9-goal rating that he so richly deserved. There were other changes of interest, too. As predicted by Polo a month ago, Michael Phipps and
