10-Goal Tommy!
By Alex
Webbe
At 6’ 3” and
230 pounds Tommy Biddle looks more like a professional football player than one
of polo’s elite, but on January 1, 2012 he will become only the fourth player
in the history of this age-old sport to be rated at the ultimate 10-goals in
arena polo.
Although
Biddle cut his teeth on the outdoor game, achieving an 8-goal handicap and
numbering a US Open Championship among the many trophies to his credit over the
years, his introduction to the arena game came a bit later in his polo career.
“I was a
freshman at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, Florida),” said Biddle,
“and we were attempting to organize a polo program at the college. A. P. Alexander, J. D. Ducanes and I traveled
to Culver, Indiana where we played an arena game (all collegiate and
interscholastic polo was played in the arena) against the military academy
team, and I was hooked.”
FAU’s
efforts to establish a polo program fell through, but the experience opened the
door for Biddle to the arena game.
“I was
already playing as a professional at the Gulfstream Polo Club (Lake Worth,
Florida), and my access to an arena was limited, but I managed to keep a hand
in the arena game over the years.”
Constant
practice and competitive competition saw his outdoor handicap jump from 1-goal
to 5-goals in just three years while the hard-hitting Biddle’s arena handicap
rang in at 6-goals in 1988, the same year he was named Young Player of the
Year. At the age of twenty Biddle
carried a 7-goal arena handicap and reached the 8-goal mark on the field and
the arena by the time he was twenty-four.
It wasn’t
until a couple of years ago that I decided to focus on my arena game,” said
Biddle. “I figured that I might have
missed the opportunity to reach the 10-goal mark on the field, but felt that if
I concentrated on it I could still reach the summit in arena play.”
While
playing in Bridgehampton and Greenwich in the summer, Biddle found himself
spending more and more time at Bobby Ceparano’s Country Farms Polo Club in Medford,
New York. Following his teams win in the
USPA National Arena Handicap in 2010 his handicap was raised to 9-goals in the
arena.
The National
Handicap Committee was finally convinced that he had reached the pinnacle of
his arena play after he led the US team to its convincing 15-9 win over England
in the storied John R. Townsend International Challenge Cup
When asked
about Biddle’s play, teammate John Gobin said “It’s always better to have
Biddle on your team than against you, especially where you’re walled in and
there’s no place to hide.”
Biddle
captained the USA team to a resounding trouncing of the English in the
international series played in March of 2011 at the Empire Polo Club, taking
MVP honors along the way.
“He
certainly stood out above all of the others in the competition,” said arena
polo veteran and alternate Billy Sheldon.
“Tommy didn’t arrive in time to get a practice in before the match and
just asked that his teammates (Shane Rice and John Gobin) be mounted
properly. All he asked for was –something that goes, said Sheldon. “He said that he didn’t care if his horses
could stop, he just wanted them to go.”
With Shane
Rice and Tommy Biddle tearing into the English lineup and Gobin “supervising”
their play from a “Back” position (never mind the Number 1 jersey he wore), the
United States reminded their English counterparts that the game of arena
(indoor) polo originated in New York in 1876, and that the Townsend Cup was
destined to remain here.
The US team
used speed, quickness and power in overpowering England, and the intimidating
presence of Biddle played no small role in it.
“Tommy’s the
quickest big man to ever play the sport,” added Gobin. “He can ride down the field switching his
mallet from the off-side to the nearside as if it were a whip. He’s incredibly athletic,” said Gobin, “and
very hard to stop.”
International
play is nothing new to Biddle, who led a team against Mexico in March of 2009.
As the
captain of the USA’s Camacho Cup team (USA vs. Mexico) Biddle scored the first
goal of the game in the opening minute of play on a 170 yard run, and had the
US up 7-2 after the second chukker of play.
Biddle scored six times in a heart-breaking 16-15 loss to Mexico on a
goal from polo legend Memo Gracida with 48 seconds on the clock.
“You have no
idea how much I wanted us to win that game,” Biddle reflected.
His passion
for the competition hasn’t abated as he works with the USPA to prepare a team
to travel to England for another go.
“March is a
tough time for us (American players),” he offered. “We’re right in the middle of our winter
season in Florida, and most of the top players aren’t going to be
available. I really don’t know what the
makeup of the team is going to be.”
On January
1, 2012 Tommy Biddle, Jr. will become just the fourth player in the history of
arena polo to attain the coveted 10-goal handicap, and at 42, the oldest of the
quartet.
A
twenty-three-year-old Winston F. C. Guest was the first to be awarded a 10-goal
indoor (arena) handicap in 1929, a rating he held for seven years. In a time when the indoor (arena) game was
quite active Guest played on four Arena Open Championship teams, five Class A
Championship teams; an Intercollegiate Championship Yale team as well as a member
of the winning East-West indoor team in 1934.
It wasn’t
until 1951 that the Indoor Polo Association deemed a player worthy of the
10-goal rating. It was in that year that
C. C. “Buddy” Combs was elevated to the highest handicap in the game. A member of seven winning Senior Championship
teams from 1934 to 1953, the New Jersey-based veterinarian was also credited
with an Intercollegiate Championship at Cornell (1937); and East-West title in
1951; the 1939 Junior Championship and the National Arena Championship in 1951
and 1953.
“Smokin” Joe
Henderson, a native South African was the next arena player to catch the eye of
arena polo aficionados. Rated at
10-goals in 1989, a full 38 years after Combs was named, his hard-riding, physical
presence was a boon to the arena game.
Henderson rolled onto the scene when big-time, high-goal polo was being
offered on a regular basis at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, and where the
presence of twenty-five goal teams were the norm. Playing most of his arena polo in the pro
league, Henderson managed only a single US Arena Championship in 1990 and a US
Arena Handicap title in 1986.
Twenty-three
years later the United States Polo Association would see fit to add one more
player to the elite 10-goal roster with Tommy Biddle, Jr.
“I’m
extremely honored, “said Biddle, but it’s a bit unsettling to reach the 10-goal
plateau at a time when there is limited high-goal arena play in this country.”
Biddle has
already started working with Palm Beach Polo and Country Club to change that
with a proposed “Friday Night Arena Polo” in the club’s recently constructed
facility.
“I love the
game,” said Biddle, “and I think it’s a great way to sell the game to the
general public. I’ve already contacted a
number of high-goal players who will be competing here (Wellington, Florida)
during the winter season and feel comfortable that we’ll be able to produce
some entertaining and competitive high goal play.”
The winter
arena seasonal Palm Beach Polo and country club is scheduled to begin in
January and is expected to attract top players from the international ranks for
weekly matches.
“I plan on
working every bit as hard to keep my handicap as I did to earn it,” said
Biddle, and am hopeful that the winter competition will help prepare the US team
for our March trip to England for a Townsend Cup rematch.
“Practice
and preparation,” said Biddle. I feel
it’s going to be tougher defending the title than it was winning it earlier
this year.”