June 2021 Polo Players' Edition - Still Champions

Old Westbury Proves Too Powerful for Five Other Open Teams

By Peter Vischer

The Open final drew a large crowd to Meadow Brook Polo Club’s International Field in Westbury, Long Island.

If the Open Championship tournament of 1938 had an especial interest, it was rather to be found in the performance of the stars through whom Britain hopes to achieve victory in the international matches of 1939 than in the emphatic triumph of the defending champions, Old Westbury.

The story of the actual tournament may be told in few words: Old Westbury simply had too much power for the opposition. There never was a moment when Old Westbury was in the slightest danger and there never was a moment, while the ball was in play, when the outcome of any match involving Old Westbury was in the slightest doubt.

Michael Phipps, despite injuries to his shoulder that kept him on the ground for one game, was a magnificent No. 1. Beautifully mounted, he was in great form and proved himself an eager and an accurate forward.

The Old Westbury team of C.V. Whitney, Stewart Iglehart, Cecil Smith and Michael Phipps receive the trophy from Mrs. C.V. Whitney.

Cecil Smith, at No. 2, was every inch the 10-goal star. He dominated the Old Westbury attack in every one of its three games. In 24 chukkers of the best polo we have, he failed to take a shot at the enemy goal in only four; indeed, in those 24 chukkers he failed to score in only five! He scored 24 goals in all, an average of a goal a chukker, out of 47 chances created for him by his teammates and himself, or an accuracy of just under 50%. Who could in his wildest dreams, imagine a solider No. 2 than this?

Of Stewart Iglehart, the No. 3, little more need be said than he completely overshadowed the great Tommy Hitchcock in the final match. Up to then Hitchcock had been the outstanding personality of the tournament, so you can judge for yourself what great polo Iglehart played. Incidentally, he was the only Old Westbury player to get through the series without being hurt. Iglehart likes it best when the going is tough.

C. V. Whitney, organizer of the side, played brilliantly at Back. The newspaper paid him a compliment for the manner in which he assembled the side. They said that, with Hitchcock at Back, he had put on the field next year’s international team. We might go a step further and say that Old Westbury is an international team as it stands, tribute enough to the game he personally played.

Yes, Old Westbury simply had too much power for its opposition. They demoralized a very promising Aknusti side to win, 13-6. With Mike Phipps on the sidelines and Ivor Balding at No. 1, they teased an ambitious Aurora side before they put on the pressure to win by 14-8. And in their big match, against Greentree in the final, they didn’t fool a moment and ran up the biggest victory of all, 16-7.

The principal interest in this tournament wasn’t in Old Westbury but in the team Winston Guest put together called the Jaguars, which had Gerald Balding and Eric H. Tyrrell-Martin, captains of British international teams and Britain’s main reliance for 1939, at No. 3 and Back.

Originally the side had another British internationalist at No. 1, Hesketh Hughes, but he couldn’t ride the Guest ponies and none of his fellow countrymen would lend him any others. So Hughes, having given this foretaste of what a job the British will have to obtain a real string of horses for 1939, retired in favor of James P. Mills. That made the Jaguars (Mills, Guest, Balding, Tyrrell-Martin), according to English standards, a 33-goal team.

Greentree drew the Jaguars in the opening match of the tournament and there was great interest among polo followers to see how the proposed British international defense would do against a team led by Thomas Hitchcock Jr., likely to be the captain of our next international team. Hitchcock was a No. 3 for Greentree, with Pete Bostwick at No. 1, Roberto Cavanagh from Argentina at No. 2, and John Hay Whitney at Back.

Greentree’s No. 1 Pete Bostwick handles the ball despite pressure from Jaguars’ Eric Tyrrell-Martin.

The conflict made by far the best match of the tournament, until it broke up as described in some detail elsewhere in these pages. It might easily have been anybody’s game, even after Tyrrell-Martin elected to take the big chance to win on the theory that “we might as well get licked by six goals as by one.” The cold fact of the matter is that TyrrellMartin’s gamble did not come off and Hitchcock, seizing the opportunities so generously opened up to him, led his team to a 15-9 victory.

Actually, up to the moment of the big gamble, the Jaguars deserved to win. They had created 15 scoring opportunities for themselves in the first five chukkers, suffered some very bad luck, yet scored six goals. Greentree had managed to work out only 10 shots at the Jaguar goal during the same time, yet had scored six goals themselves, two on shots by Cavanagh and Hitchcock that must have traveled over 75 yards squarely between the posts.

The final match was held up for some time when Jock Whitney laid his cousin low.

This supremacy of the Jaguars made their overanxiety to win, their reckless attempt of a possibly unnecessary gamble, all the more difficult to understand. Be that as it may, they provided—from the psychological as well as the physical point of view—the best match of the tournament.

There were other features worth commenting on.

Foremost was Capt. C T. I. Roark’s valiant play for Aknusti, on which he found himself at No. 3 with two Gerry brothers in front of him and the dashing Raymond Guest at Back. Roark played beautiful polo against Old Westbury when his teammates failed him dismally—and repeated with a greater performance in the Monty Waterbury tournament that followed the Open when, with this teammates in full support, he defeated the Jaguars (with the Hon. Keith Rous at No. 1 in place of Mills) by 16-9.

It must have been some pardonable satisfaction for Roark, who was left off England’s 1939 squad, so easily to have found the chinks in the armor of the men chosen in his place!

Another feature that must not be overlooked was the sportsmanship with which Aurora and the Ramblers entered the tournament. Neither team imagined it had a snowball’s chance but went out to do its best just the same, to keep the event from being a walk-over for Old Westbury.

Hitchcock was at his brilliant best against the Jaguars when Greentree won, 15-9.

As a matter of fact, both teams had something very interesting to show. For three periods, Aurora had Old Westbury on the run; Seymour Knox was in eagle-eyed form at No. 1, young Skiddy von Stade was an energetic No. 2 and Ricardo Santamarina from Argentina a brave Back. And in young Lewis Smith at No. 3, Aurora had a player who may well make his mark in the game.

The Ramblers (W.G. Reynolds, G.S. Smith, R. E. Strawbridge Jr., J. C. Rathborne) never looked like winning their match against Greentree, the final score reading 20-7, but in Reynolds and Gerry Smith they introduced two good players to the top tournament of the country who should be welcome for many years to come.

The same Open teams then participated in the Monty Waterbury Cup tournament, competing under handicap. Preliminary matches were postponed after a deluge of rain put an end to the wonderful weather the Open had been enjoying.

Once the skies cleared, for the second year in a row, this produced exciting polo with a final round match that was, in many respects, the best played game of the year. This tournament found the Aknusti team of Elbridge T. and Robert L. Gerry Jr., captain C.T.I. Roark and Raymond Guest reaching the peak of its form.

Aknusti’s Robert Gerry Jr., Elbridge Gerry, C.T.I. Roark and Raymond Guest, shown with Mrs. Raymond Guest. They won the Monty Waterbury that was played with handicaps by the Open teams.

Aknusti started the tournament by defeating the Jaguars, 16-9, on Sept. 10. Two days later, Ramblers edged Aurora, 12-11. Soon after, more rain arrived. When play could finally be resumed on Sept. 24, Old Westbury met a Roslyn side (J.H.A. Phipps, the two Earl Hoppings, John M. Schiff), which had not appeared in the Open. Old Westbury, with Ivor Balding substituting, this time for Cecil Smith who had chipped his elbow in the Open final but finished the match, took a few periods to find itself and then romped onward to a 16-13 victory.

Greentree’s Roberto Cavanagh reaches for the ball along the sideboards just behind Cecil Smith.

The next day, Aknusti surprisingly eliminated Greentree in a well-played semifinal match, 13-9. Once more was Capt. Roark in magnificent form and in receipt of first-rate support. The second semifinal had Old Westbury defeat Ramblers, 19-11. That set up a very closely-fought final round with Aknusti defeating Old Westbury, 11-8. •