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hurlinghampolo.com
TA L K
MICHAEL CHEVIS
A V O I C E F O R P O L O
Renowned commentator Terry Hanlon may be retired, but he still has
a lot to say about the sport, as Roger Chatterton-Newman discovers
When Terry Hanlon was at school, little did
he imagine he would be the celebrated voice
of polo. His first job was with the
Liverpool
Echo & Post
, a world away from polo.
Terry’s introduction to polo came when,
after losing his way near Runnymede on an
outing to see the Magna Carta memorial,
he drove into Windsor Great Park and found
a match in progress. ‘I thought,“Trust those
bastards to keep this to themselves”, and
I walked across the ground to tread-in, doing
what everybody else was doing,’ he explains.
‘Something told me that I was going to play
this game, although I hadn’t the slightest
idea at the time how that would happen.’
Four years later he was commentating at
Guards for the International Coronation Cup.
Hanlon joined Cowdray Park as a playing
member in 1975 and on the orders of the
polo manager, Lt Col Philip ‘Bolshie’ Tatham,
he began to commentate. ‘The regular
commentator hadn’t turned up,’ Terry
recalls. ‘So Bolshie turned to me and said,
“You’ve usually got enough to say – pick
up the microphone”.’
Hanlon not only made his name
as commentator nonpareil, but also as
a redoubtable and internationally renowned
coach, who never charged pupils. Former
Cowdray captain Paul Withers described
Hanlon as the ‘finest coach for beginners in
the world’. His first pupil at the Ambersham
Polo Academy back in 1980 was Colin
Emson, who a season later in a team put
together by Hanlon, won the popular
Jersey Lilies Cup. Of the 100 pupils
Hanlon taught, four of them went on to
play at high-goal level.
Terry’s numerous personal victories
include the Royal Windsor and the County
Cup – the second oldest tournament in the
world – with Gordon Roddick’s Bodyshop.
‘Julian Hipwood, captain of England and,
to my mind, the finest player in Europe,
was in the team,’ Hanlon reminisces.
‘I remember playing once on a very slow
horse and asking Julian what I could
do about it. I have never forgotten his
advice:“Don’t get caught up in a race, Tel”.
Although, I am afraid that polo, certainly at
professional level, has now become a race.’
