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Stansted Airport, combined with the
surrounding Hertfordshire countryside, has
helped to make it a fast-growing commuter
town for London in recent decades.
The polo club aims and hopes to further
capitalise on this by offering local residents
the chance to enjoy the relaxed green space
at the club – a welcome contrast to an office
or commuting.The whole ethos at Silver Leys
has been to increase audience captivity and
this has grown from players inviting their
families to watch, to crowds of hundreds
of people attending every tournament
weekend.The more people coming through
the door means more people talking and
thinking about polo, and hopefully this
contributes to the breakdown of perceived
barriers for entry into the game.
Polo is always going to be a trickier sport
than many others when you need a horse
rather than just a good pair of trainers and
as a club we try to make it as simple and
enjoyable to get involved as possible.
As many know, the polo school MHF
Polo has exhibited at countless country and
horse shows, paraded through towns and
cities as well as providing matches and talks
to as many local primary and secondary
schools as possible.
Increasingly, with more hours worked
in a week by both parents, and parenting
constantly under scrutiny, spectators and
players alike want to spend more time as
a family. Locally and nationally, fine
restaurants and nightclubs have taken
a decline compared to the ‘family music
festival’ or village fete initiatives, which have
thousands of people attending weekend after
weekend – crowds that would make any UK
polo club’s eyes water. On weekends, we have
everything from animal petting zoos and tug
of wars to live music – we have been really
lucky and found some undiscovered gems.
Polo clubs are more than geared up to cater
for this type of event, after all, one of the
world’s largest and most famous music
festivals Coachella is held at a polo club.
As a club, Silver Leys has an extremely
supportive group of owners, a chairman and
members, many of whom are a part of its
journey and are aligned in wanting to share
the sport and the club with as many people
as possible. Most tournament weekends,
members bend over backwards to create
spaces for guests to leave their horses. But
not only that, they make an effort every other
Left:
The Silver Leys Polo Club has
been running since 1892
.
This page:
Silver Leys Team from left: Tom Leland,
Will Almond, Kate Cook, Jessica Hawes
won the BSG Trophy in 2017
weekend to travel to other clubs and support
them and hope that they will reciprocate.
Any cash surplus has been put right back
into sanding and improving the pitches and
we have been extremely grateful to the club
owners for installing an irrigation system and
constructing a fantastic new polo arena.
We feel we are only scratching the surface
of what is possible for a club of such a unique
and enchanting sport. While we will
undoubtedly make some mistakes, we will
continue to try new things and hope to share
the sport and the club with as many people as
we can along the way.
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