Polo in the UK

Polo tournament in Cowdray Park

Polo hasa long tradition in the UK and isone of the most popular team sportsalongside soccer and cricket . Events like the "Cartier International Day" in July attract up to 30,000 spectators.

history

In the 1850s, British tea growers discovered the game of polo in Manipur , in northeastern India . In 1862 the British founded the world's first polo club in Silchar, not far from Manipur. The Calcutta Polo Club, the oldest club in the world still in existence, was also founded in 1862. In British cavalry units in India, the sport quickly became popular as training for everyday work, but merchants and members of the police and colonial administration were also interested in polo.

In 1868 British officers returning from India founded Europe's first polo club in Malta.

In 1869, officer Edward Hartopp read a description of "hockey on horseback" in The Field magazine and organized a match in Hounslow . This lasted 90 minutes with a ten minute break and each team consisted of eight players. There were no rules in this match because "The Field" was very vague about them. Shortly thereafter, Hartopp designed the first set of rules. These read:

• A game should have no more than 12 players, six on each side; a single match of no more than ten players (five per side).
• The gates should be 300 yards apart, if the property allows that size. The width is set to 150 to 200 yards (137 to 183 meters).
• The goal should be eight yards (7.3 meters) wide.
• All balls and mallets are to be approved by a committee.
• When throwing in, the ball is thrown into the middle of the playing field, whereupon a player from each team gallops towards the ball from a predetermined point.
• If the ball is hit out, it should be thrown in by an impartial person.
• No player is allowed to hit an opponent's pony. It is forbidden to hook an opponent's mallet . Under no circumstances may a player hold his mallet over an opponent's pony.
• A player who has lost the ball in the turmoil and finds himself between a group of players and the opponent's ball is prohibited from playing the ball until at least one player (excluding the goalkeeper) is between him and the enemy goal.
• Each team should provide a referee in all games. In the event of an irregularity or a need to interpret the rules, the latter has the power to suspend the game until the matter has been clarified.

Other games in Hounslow and Richmond Park soon followed. In 1872 the first clubs were founded in Monmouthshire (GB) and in County Carlow (Ireland).

In 1876 the officer Thomas St. Quintin brought the game to Australia. That same year, American James Gordon Bennett Jr. introduced polo to the United States after seeing a match at the Hurlingham Club while visiting .

Until 1895, the height of polo ponies was limited to a maximum of 14 hands (142 cm), after which ponies up to 14.2 hands were permitted. This regulation was canceled after the First World War, since then there are no longer any restrictions on the height of the horses.

At the beginning of the 20th century, London was the center of British polo. The main tournaments were held in Hurlingham, Ranelagh and Roehampton. Once 10,000 polo ponies are said to have stood in the London stables.

Handicaps for players were introduced in Great Britain in 1910. Before that, team strengths were balanced by adding good players to a list. No team could have more than two players on this list as members.

Today, Great Britain is the most important nation in European polo and has many well-known players.

player

An estimated 2,000 players (amateurs and professionals) are active in Great Britain today.

The Irish-born John Henry Watson (1851–1908) is considered the father of British polo to this day. He came from a family of riders and hunters and started playing polo in 1870. During his military service in India, he designed a set of rules for the players there. His main contributions to polo were the introduction of the backhand strike and his insistence on playing together as a team. In 1886 he was the captain of the Hurlingham team in the first Westchester Cup. He played mostly on position 4 and was considered the best player on the position at the time.

Two of the most important players in the history of British polo were John Beresford , who won Olympic gold with his team in 1900, and John Wodehouse (Hcp. 10), who won an Olympic silver medal in 1908 and gold in 1920.

One of the most outstanding players of the post-war period was Julian Hipwood (* 1946). He started riding at the age of three and later trained with Hanut Singh, one of the best Indian polo players. Hipwood achieved a handicap of nine in Great Britain and Argentina, was the captain of the English team in the Coronation Cup for 20 years and won the Gold Cup several times along with various other tournament wins. He played twice in the final of the Argentine Open in Buenos Aires . After his time as a player, he worked as a coach.

Brothers Mark and Luke Tomlinson are among the best players today . Mark has a handicap of six in both England and Argentina, Luke has a seven at home and an eight in Argentina, both of which are among the best internationally. Other well-known players are James Beim (Hcp. 7), Malcom Borwick (6), the former captain of the national team Henry Brett (6), James Harper (6) and Tom Morley (5). The player with the highest handicap (as of 2009) is Eduardo Novillo Astrada (handicap 9) , who comes from an Argentine family but was born in London and only has a British passport .

Polo is also popular with the English royal family: since polo was introduced in Great Britain, many male members of the royal family have played the sport, including King George V and King George VI. Lord Louis Mountbatten, great-uncle of Prince Charles, wrote in 1931 under the pseudonym “Marco” the long standard textbook “An Introduction to Polo” and three years later “An Introduction to Umpiring”. He also held a patent for a club head. Prince Philip has been co-founder and president of the Guards Polo Club since it was founded in 1955. Prince Charles played for over 40 years, including in high-goal tournaments, and as an amateur achieved a handicap of four. His sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, also play regularly. Queen Elizabeth II is also involved in polo. She breeds polo ponies herself and regularly gives awards at the Queen's Cup and the Coronation Cup.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was an avid amateur polo player who was considered the top player in his regiment during his time in India. In a letter to his mother he wrote: “The best game in the world. Could imagine letting go of everyone else's ambition just to play it often and well. "

Well-known players are Claire Tomlinson , the mother of Mark and Luke, who is the only woman so far to have achieved a handicap of five, who taught Princes William and Harry and was the coach of the British team for the last World Polo Championship, her daughter Emma Tomlinson, Tamara Vestey and her sister Nina Clarkin . Clarkin has a handicap of three in Great Britain and four in New Zealand and is currently considered the best player in the world. In 2003 she won the Gold Cup. A prominent polo player in England is the actress Stefanie Powers , who has been playing since she was 18.

For the younger generation of players, polo is offered in the sports program of many private schools and some universities, including the universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford and St. Andrews. The widespread pony clubs (riding schools) also mostly offer polo training.

Teams

In Great Britain, so-called patron polo is played at official tournaments, which means that a team consists of a wealthy polo amateur (the patron), who pays the professional players, and three professionals. In high goal polo, two of them are usually Argentine “polistas” with a high handicap (7 to 10), supplemented by a British player with a lower handicap.

If the patron wants to play tournaments in different classes, he will adapt his team based on the different handicap requirements. A successful season also regularly leads to handicap increases for individual players, which is why the team often has to be reassembled in the following year in order not to exceed the permitted team handicap.

For these reasons, no “legendary” teams like in Argentina have been able to form in British polo, which dominate the sport for a long time with the same line-up. However, there are more successful teams in the UK too. One of these teams in the recent past is “Dubai” by Ali Albwardy, owner of the Desert Palm Polo Club in Dubai, with the Argentinean Adolfo Cambiaso as captain. So far, Dubai has won the Queen's Cup three times and the Gold Cup twice. Ellerston, founded in 1991 by Australian businessman Kerry Packer and Argentinian player Gonzalo Pieres sen. was founded, has since won the Queen's Cup six times, most recently in 2008. Another successful team is “Loro Piana”, which is financed by Alfio Marchini , one of the best polo amateurs at the moment and who won the 2008 Gold Cup.

Another difference to polo in Argentina is the independence of the polo teams from the clubs. The British polo clubs are only the organizers of the tournaments and do not provide any teams themselves.

The English national polo team is the most successful in Europe. At the polo world championship , which has been held eight times since 1987, England is the only European country that has so far achieved a place. The English team came second and third twice. At the European polo championship , England won a total of five out of seven championships, most recently in Germany in 2008.

In 1900 , 1908 , 1920 , 1924 and 1936 polo was an Olympic discipline. Great Britain won a total of three gold, four silver and two bronze medals, ahead of Argentina and the United States. However, the teams involved were not national teams in the current sense, but could also consist of participants from different countries. B. 1900, when the winning team was made up of British and US players. In 1908 all three medals went to British teams. It was not until 1920 that national Olympic polo teams competed according to today's understanding.

Tournaments

The sport of polo knows no leagues such as B. football or handball. The tournaments in all countries are divided into low, medium or high goal classes: In Great Britain, low goal tournaments have a team handicap limit of 10 (sum of the handicaps of the players in a team) and are over 4 chukkas (= 7.5 minutes of play) are played, medium goal tournaments range from 12 to 15 and last 4 or 5 chukka, high goal tournaments range from 17 to 22 and are 5 or 6 chukka long. Apart from the handicaps, there are no further requirements or qualifications to e.g. B. compete in a high goal tournament.

On the other hand, the tournaments are also classified into different categories, e.g. B. "Grand Slam", "World Polo Tour Cup (WPT Cup)" or "Challenge Cup". The players' personal ranking is calculated over the course of the year from the various high scores that the players can achieve for participation, participation in the semi-finals, finals or victory. There is no official ranking for teams.

The UK outdoor polo season runs from April to September. The highlights of the season are the high goal tournaments “ Queen's Cup ” and “Gold Cup” (officially known as the “British Open Polo Championship”) as well as the “Coronation Cup”.

The Queen's Cup (in the Guards Polo Club) and the Gold Cup (in the Cowdray Park Polo Club) are played with a team handicap of up to 22 and up to 20 teams take part each year. The Coronation Cup has existed since 1911 and is a two-nation tournament in which England plays against a different country. It takes place together with the "Golden Jubilee Trophy" on "Cartier International Day". In 2008 they played against Australia, with the English team winning. In 2009 the opponent was Argentina. England lost 5:12.

The " Westchester Cup " is a traditional tournament between Great Britain and the USA that has been held at irregular intervals since 1886, most recently in February 2009 for the first time in 12 years. It ended with the sixth win for the British team, consisting of Luke Tomlinson, Mark Tomlinson, Henry Beim and Eduardo Novillo Astrada. The Westchester Cup is usually held alternately in Great Britain and the USA.

Other important tournaments are the “Queen's Mother Centenary Cup”, the “Prince Of Wales Trophy”, the “Royal Windsor Cup”, the “Warwickshire Cup” and the “Duke of Wellington Cup”. In addition, tournaments in arena polo and beach polo have also been established in recent years.

In June 2009 another polo tournament took place in Hurlingham Park in London, the location of the "Hurlingham Polo Club" and the Hurlingham Polo Association until World War II . The tournament called "Polo in the Park" made headlines because it has special rules and the playing field is smaller than usual. The innovations are intended to make the sport more attractive for viewers and create a higher level of media usability. Also in June 2009, a polo tournament, the “Westminster Polo Trophy”, took place on the “Horse Guards Parade” in front of Buckingham Palace. Participants were four teams from England, South Africa, Dubai and the Commonwealth.

Clubs and associations

The umbrella organization for British polo clubs is the Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA) . The professional players are united in the British Association of Professional Polo Players . The Schools and Universities Polo Association is responsible for the next generation .

There are 55 outdoor clubs in the UK (as of early 2009), most of them in the Greater London area. The main polo clubs are the Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park, the Cowdray Park Polo Club at Midhurst , the Beaufort Polo Club, the Cirencester Club and the Coworth Park Polo Club. Universities also maintain polo clubs for their students such as B. Oxford University Polo Club .

See also

• Polo in Argentina

literature

• Horace A. Laffaye (Ed.): Profiles in polo. The players who changed the game. McFarland & Co., Jefferson NC et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-7864-3131-1 .

Web links

Commons : Polo in the United Kingdom  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hurlingham Polo Association
• Cowdray Park Polo Club
• Guards Polo Club

Individual evidence

1. ^ Profiles in polo; Page 14
2. ^ Profiles in polo; Page 181
3. ↑ History of Polo ( Memento of the original from April 27, 2006) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ The Guardian, March 6, 2004
5. ^ Profiles in polo; Page 23ff.
6. ↑ PQInternational 02/09
7. ↑ Telegraph of July 25, 2003
8. ^ Profiles in polo; Page 219.
9. ↑ PACE magazine 03/08; Page 7.
10. ↑ Profile T. Vestey ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ^ Portrait of N. Clarkin, accessed May 26, 2009
12. ^ Polo clubs in Great Britain
13. ↑ Winner of the Gold Cup ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
14. ↑ Player ranking on World Polo Tour ( Memento from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ PACE magazine 02/09; Page 42ff.
16. ↑ PACE magazine 02/09; Page 53
17. ↑ Homepage SUPA