Rosie – The Londoner at The Royal Salute Coronation Cup

Rosie – The Londoner at The Royal Salute Coronation Cup

 

By Victoria Elsbury-Legg

 

Sunshine shone across the pitches of Smith’s Lawn and into every nook and exquisite cranny of the Royal Salute secret garden and woodland retreat, created pitch-side for the invited guests of the new sponsors for the inaugural Royal Salute Coronation Cup, to be played out between England and South America on the Queen’s Ground at Guards Polo Club on Saturday 25th July.   

 

If polo is the ‘game of kings’, then the announcement that Royal Salute would be the new sponsors of the Coronation Cup could not have been a more apt pairing, given that Royal Salute was named after the traditional 21-gun salute that marks many royal occasions, and was first launched on 2nd June 1953 to honour Queen Elizabeth II on the day of her Coronation – with the Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire coloured bottles representing the jewels in Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation crown. 

 

Amongst the many familiar polo faces gathered in the middle of Windsor Great Park to watch top international players from England and South America take to the pitch astride their high goal mounts to entertain and thrill the crowds, there was one guest who was able to enjoy more than just the deck chairs, blankets and personalised hampers waiting for her in the very midst of the Royal Salute secret garden.   Rosie – the Londoner (who describes herself as ‘a roaming blogger who’s lucky enough to call London home’) had been invited to swap her stilettos and city life, for a day spent pitch-side and divot stomping at polo. 

 

It did not however just prove to be a day of mere spectator sport for Rosie, as pre-match she found herself whisked off to Coworth Park where she was invited to try her hand at the sport.  First astride a wooden horse, then under the watchful eye of Guards Academy’s, Ebe Siebright and Royal Salute Ambassador, Malcolm Borwick, Rosie (albeit a little underdressed for the occasion) found herself swinging a stick atop a polo pony, gaining at first hand a true appreciation of the game she was later to spectate at International level. 

 

After her impromptu polo lesson, Rosie and her friend were chauffeured in the most elegant and traditional of horsepower of a different kind to enjoy all the delights Royal Salute had laid on pitch-side at Smith’s Lawn.  This was indeed an invitation of the most delightful kind, stepping from their vintage cars into a secret garden that so perfectly reflected the tranquillity and timelessness of a bygone era, as promised by Royal Salute to all their guests invited to enjoy ‘a specially curated open air experience that is an artistic and philosophical reinterpretation of a quintessential British picnic’.

 

To check out Rosie’s blog about The Royal Salute Coronation Cup visit: 

 

http://www.thelondoner.me/2015/07/the-coronation-cup.html#more-29728