Yesteryears

Great indoors

Popularity of arena polo surges in 1930

Squadron A Armory in Manhattan offered plenty of space for spectators. Games were held on Saturday nights.

Indoor polo enjoys a unique place in American sport. Historically, it is the oldest form of the galloping game in the United States. Practically, indoor polo is a game of such obvious advantages for the lover of polo that it is small wonder it has grown with such tremendous leaps and bounds.

Every student of sport knows that polo was first played indoors in this country. The game was brought here from England by the late James Gordon Bennett, sportsman and publisher par excellence, who introduced the game early in 1876 at Dickels Riding Academy, which once stood at Fifth Avenue and 38th Street, now the site of towering skyscrapers.

Indoor polo, then, is by no means a new game, though it is true that its widespread popularity is rather recent. And yet, it was inevitable that a game so keen, so readily available even for city dwellers, so comparatively inexpensive, so thrilling alike for players and spectators could not long remain in the background.

Indoor polo has many advantages all its own. It is a game that captures enthusiasms and holds them enthralled. It is a game that will ever hold a high place in the heart of a sport-loving nation. How competent it is as polo many be gathered from the fact that half of the International team that played against England at Meadow Brook in 1930 was

composed of players who owe much of their success to the training they received indoors: Mr. Winston Guests and Mr. Earle A.S. Hopping.

Harry Disston observed that more clubs have joined the national governing body—the Indoor Polo Association of the United States—more men are playing and, with the encouragement offered last year, even the preparatory school boys have taken up the game. The pace has increased, handicaps have been raised, more and better ponies have been added to the indoor strings, more outdoor players have turned to the indoor game, and public attendance at the weekly matches during the early season is remarkably large.

Most noteworthy during the 1930 season of play in the indoor game was the increased pace at which high-goal action has gone. It was rather generally agreed that the play in Class A (15 goals and over) during the season of 1929-30 was faster and harder than ever before in the history of the game.

The Metropolitan Polo League was introduced, embracing nine of the high-goal teams and players that had been galloping in the Saturday night matches at Squadron A Armory, New York’s polo center able to cater to a large number of spectators. The games were played with a handicap allowance and a league standing was maintained. Each of the trios played in Class A on the basis of their team handicaps, which averaged 15 goals.

The Saturday evenings at Squadron A customarily had 12 periods played: first a Class D (0 to 4 goals) match, then a Class B (10 to 14 goals) match, and finally, a league match. Previously, the custom had been to play two 10 minute periods in handicap Classes C (5 to 9 goals) and D, however after determining that two periods, even for less experienced players, was hardly enough and two mounts could easily carry one through four periods, the matches were changed to four 7½-minute periods.

As the most notable of the exponents of speed and pace, The Optimist Club of New York played through a very full season without once suffering defeat, one of the most remarkable achievements that polo has seen and a feat that would be outstanding in any sport.

Mr. Winston Guest, playing his first season as the highest-handicapped man the sport has yet seen, a 10-goal player, was the organizer and dominating figure on this Optimist team, but he received magnificent support and aid from Lt. McDonald Jones of the Army and from two different forwards during the course of the season, Mr. Raymond Guest and Mr. Michael Phipps.

The National Championships were noteworthy for

The Optimists’ Michael Phipps, Winston Guest and Lt. McDonald Jones won the Open and the Class A tournaments.

Better ponies were added to the indoor strings. Robert Granniss’ Juan was champion of the 1929 indoor polo pony show.

Visiting teams were usually mounted by the home team. The horses were pooled with each team playing six horses half the game then switching strings.

more than the dominance of the high-goal sections by The Optimists. Most gratifying was the success with which Cleveland, paying its first visit to the championships, met in taking the Class C title back with them as well as making a determined bid for Class B and Class D honors.

Except for larger tournaments, it is not the custom to ship horses. A team invited to play in a neighboring city will be offered six mounts for the game. The practice curtails expenses and in many instances where a distant trip is involved, is the only means of arranging a varied schedule. Riding strange ponies is always a disadvantage, however fairness is achieved by pooling mounts. The home team provides 12 ponies, which are divided into two groups of six. Each team plays one group for the first two periods, then the ponies are exchanged to be used by the opposing side for the last two periods.

The championships were played in two of the playing structures of Greater New York, the large entry list making it necessary to play some of the games in the ring of the 101st Cavalry Armory in Brooklyn in addition to those at the Squadron A arena, scene of the championships for the past several years.

The three-year reign of the Brooklyn Riding and Driving Club team as the Open Champion combination was broken by the remarkable Optimist side and this trio, in winning Class A, was the only champion of 1929 to cling to its laurels in the tournaments so successfully held during the closing days of March and the start of April.

In every other class, new and interesting champions were made. Class B was won by Fort Hamilton (Capt. Kelly Wise, Lt. H.W. Kifer, Capt. D.M. Scott). W.H. Zink, Capt. C. Radcliff and W.H. White brought home the Class C Championship for Cleveland Polo Club, while H.H. McConnell, P.D. Ash and J. P. Graham won the Class D Championship for Ramapo Valley Polo Club. Princeton University (Leonard Firestone, John Lemp, William H. Post III) won the Intercollegiate Championships, while Lawrenceville School (L.B. Ruthrauff, F. B. Joy, William Davery) won the Interscholastic Championships.

A significant development during the season was the growth of play among school teams, resulting in what was a really remarkable exhibition of play in the Nationals with schoolboy teams not only from the eastern seaboard, but with representation from the middle west in the smart team of the Culver Military Academy.

Another most interesting event during the past season was the appearance, for the first time in history, of a team from Argentina in an indoor ring. True, the game was played purely and simply for the fun of it when the team led by Mr. Manual Andrada passed through New York on its way back from California triumphs, but it may well be a fore-runner of more formal meetings between two countries where the game of polo has become so strong a branch of sport.

Alfredo Harrington, Jose Reynal and Mr. Andrada played against Earle W. Hopping, Earle A.S. Hopping and A. Charles Schwartz, the visitors doing remarkably well for their first chance indoors.

With the coming of Earle A.S. Hopping to the indoor game, together with the most welcome return of his father, it is interesting to note that two of the members of the International team which defeated England at Meadow Brook are to be numbered among the prominent figures of the indoor game, Mr. Guest and the younger Mr. Hopping again having been chosen for places in the team during the past summer.