A varied few weeks of polo
By Victoria Elsbury-Legg
In the opening weeks of 2015, polo aficionados have truly had their pick of destination, team and type of polo they could choose to watch. For those preferring the sunnier climes, the excitement of the high goal is still currently being played out under the Florida sun in Palm Beach. From January 21st – February 22nd all eyes will be on the players in the Ylvisaker Memorial Cup (20 goal), which is named after the 7 goal player, Bill Ylvisaker and former captain of the Yale polo team, who amongst his many victories won three US Open championships, the Coronation Cup twice and the U.S Polo Association Gold Cup. He also founded the Palm Beach Polo & Country Club and further shared his vision for the future of the game by setting up the Polo Training Foundation to develop and teach younger players.
In the last week some familiar names on English pitches have been winning on the fields of Florida, with Jerome Wirth and his Enigma team (Jeff Hall, Matias MacDonough & Carlucho Arellano) beating Audi 16-10 and Palm Beach Illustrated 14-13. Whilst Casablanca with Mark Tomlinson playing alongside Grant Ganzi, Juan Bollini & Guille Aguerro have also achieved two wins, one against Tonkawa (9-8) and the other, Gateway Merchants (12-10). More matches are to be played this week with the Quarter Finals take place on Sunday 15th February.
If polo combine with snow and stunning mountainous landscapes is more your sport of choice, in January spectators were able to witness team Cartier (Max Charlton, Chris Hyde, Jamie Morrison and Jonathon Munro Ford) beat BMW 10 – 2.5 in the final of the Snow Polo World Cup on the frozen lakes of St Moritz. While also on the snow, but this time with a China cityscape as the backdrop, this weekend Brazil beat the USA 11-5 in the FIP Fortune Heights Snow Polo World Cup 2015 at the Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club in Tianjin, China.
In another worldwide polo destination on Saturday 7th February at International Day in New Zealand both matches results were decided by a goal, with the English ladies team (Fiona Alexander (0), Harriet McKelvie (0), Lottie Lamacraft (0) and Lucy Taylor (1)) beating the New Zealand ladies (Browne (1), Renn Erceg (0), Susie Hamilton (0) and Maddy Rankin (0)) 4-5. Their male counterparts however – England – (James Beim, Max Charlton, James Harper & Tom Morley) came away as runners up at 8-9, against the home side New Zealand (John Paul Clarkin, Simon Keyte and Craig & Tommy Wilson).
Other key tournaments of note in different international polo locations have seen Yevgeny Chichvarkin’s Hedonism Wines (Max Charlton, Roy Prisk and sub Terence Lent) win in the Arena at The Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club (The HPA Club Championships), Ghantoot Polo Team – ADCB (HH Sheikh Falah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Yousef Bin Dismal, Felipe Llorente, Juan Griz Zavaleta and Alexandro Muzzio) retain the McLaren Trophy in Dubai, and King Power (Apichet and Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha, Gonzalo Pieres and Marcos Di Paola) ride away the champions of the Thailand Polo King’s Cup under the floodlights in Bangkok.
With the scent of spring in the air, snow polo may have come to an end, but there’s still plenty of action taking place on the fields and arenas around the world, as the countdown to the start of the English Summer Polo Season really gets underway.
Upcoming tournaments in the next few weeks include:
UK – Arena Gold Cup, Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club
USA – C.V. Whitney Cup, International Polo Club, Palm Beach, Florida (high goal)
USA – Inglehart Cup, International Polo Club, Palm Beach, Florida
Thailand – Ambassadors Cup, VR Sports Club, Bangkok
Dubai Polo Gold Cup – Dubai Polo Gold Cup Series 2015 (Dubai Open) Dubai Polo and Equestrian Club