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Opposite page:
Jade de Vere-
Drummond and Alec Banner-Eve
team up at Silver Leys Polo Club.
This page:
Alec Banner-Eve teaching
at his home arena, MHF Polo Club
been done on a shoestring and with the
added pressure of needing return.
The risk has been all Alec and Ed’s and
without this faith, there would have been no
progression. None of it is rocket science. It’s
just knowing what you are, what you want to
achieve and deciding the best way of doing it.
When I joined the team, we looked at all
the avenues the club makes money from
and how we could promote polo to a wider
audience. There’s a lot of frog-kissing in
sports marketing in my experience,
particularly when you’re looking to obtain
the most well suited commercial partners,
which I feel are integral to the business.
We’ve really had to work hard at dealing
with rejection and disappointment at times.
Some key partners walked away when it felt
like the perfect fit. Often, it’s been a long road
to get to that final hurdle and it can be a real
blow when things don’t go your way.
It’s a challenge to always be determined
and focus on the next target, but we’ve
learned to be better at it. At grassroots level,
we contacted every pony club, school and
university within a 20-mile radius of the MHF
venues – these are every polo club’s bread
and butter, in my opinion. To get partners,
including sponsors, suppliers and cross-
promotional organisations, we marched
through towns and cities, visited offices, and
emailed ridiculous amounts of data. Work
with people who can grow your business while
you help grow theirs – never underestimate
how important constant contact is.
We also aim to get horsey people to try
polo, ensure local people know we’re here and
come to our events, and let corporates know
there’s a better option than a round of golf for
their next team-building exercise. We sold
more than 300 lessons at one event last year!
Everyone is so big on getting fit and
being healthy, so we try to make life easy for
people. We contacted all our local councils to
offer assemblies for their schools and venue
usage for their events, and we get involved
with charities such as the Ebony Horse Club
– a story that was picked up by the national
press – welcoming them to play. There are
hundreds of organisations out there who will
help, and we also approached governing
bodies such as the Independent Schools
Council (ISC) and Sport England.
But it’s not just about getting new people
in.The service provided and the welcome
newcomers experience is integral to retaining
and integrating people and businesses into the
sport. From guiding someone from their first
lesson to their first tournament, to nurturing
a sponsor and ensuring their expectations are
not only met but exceeded,managing what you
have from grassroots to brand partnerships,
it’s all a very big piece of the puzzle.
Looking to the future, we would like to
grow to a stage where we have a full-time
marketing team and a polo business
that’s fully-booked for months in advance.
However, most importantly, we would like
to have reached and touched as many
people as possible to give them the
opportunity to witness and be part of
our wonderful sport.
We would like to thank the clubs and
people we work with (Julia Luke and Phil
Baker in particular), Silver Leys Polo Club
owners Martin Roat, Nick Gerard and the
chairman Andy Cork, the HPA, members
and all our followers for their valued
support, and we know we are one of many
like-minded clubs and professionals in the
sport, many of which are enjoying similar
success, and hope there’s future opportunity
to work in a more collective manner.
It feels as if we are very much still
scratching the surface of what’s possible,
so it’s a very exciting time.
D A N K I T W O O D - G E T T Y I M A G E S
