Archive for June, 2010

…and plenty of it! Unlike other baser sports where they tend to spray it in all directions we pour it carefully into the Cup and DRINK IT. Whether it is because they like the respect that we polo players show for their product or the image is right but polo and champagne walk hand in hand and Thirstyboy for one has never had a problem with it.
At its most obvious, here in the UK, Veuve Cliquot have sponsored the Cowdray Park Gold Cup for many years and made it one of their events of the season. Having enjoyed their hospitality on several occasions I have to say that there is something about good polo and a great setting that after a really good lunch makes Veuve Cliquot the only drink that matters.
Pommery won the Gold Cup and being involved with the team I was able to sample their product on a pleasingly regular basis and can tell you that in the moment of victory nothing could have tasted finer.
In fact after a hard fought match preferably played under a hot sun I do not care where you are or whether it is vintage or not, properly chilled it is the only victor’s tipple. Shot myself in the eye once in my rush to get it open. Blind for a few minutes but the champagne bought back my eyesight in due course, so its restorative powers are sans pareil.
Alexandre Ebeid always used to celebrate his Gold Cup wins in Deauville with Lalou. Starting at the stables the victory procession wound its way through the town and ended up at Chez Mioque. Far too much of it was spilt and sprayed for my liking but there was always enough of it to quench even my thirst so no complaints from me. I even discovered a case of it one memorable evening when after supper at the swank local hostelry we ventured out to the Good Knight club in Haslemere and of course delighted at my discovery Alex insisted we drank it all. Staying locally would have been a blessing that night but with one eyed closed I had to return to Berkshire to deliver a young lady home well after curfew. Clandestine visits thereafter I am sad to recount .
On a polo trip to Japan I met my denoument in a cascade of Dom Perignon. The company had most kindly stood on as main sponsor and a fair proportion of that was in product. Torrential rain had turned the pitch into two small pitches joined by an small causeway around the half way line but the show went on and the assembled thousands of guests had a fantastic day. Some serious consumption of the sponsor’s product ensued and the bus ride home amongst other horrors included a well known player jumping out of the window onto a neighbouring car and whipping it furiously to try and clear the traffic jam. It was a sad end to an epoch really and even I with my legendary thirst have not been able to enjoy one of the finest Marques in the same way from that day forwards.

In Ellerstina, at Bauti’s, in Dubai, Hong Kong and all points east they gathered around computer screens and watched the Queens Cup final LIVE. Sure there were some teething problems particularly dropping the signal a few times and with the sound early on however all in all it was an amazing success and must be the way forward. Imagine in the days leading up to Christmas being able to watch polo live from Argentina, what a treat. Hopefully the boys from Pololine will be able to develope their skills and see their amazing initiative through to its logical conclusion. Polo on TV is fine but what all true aficionados want to see is the whole game and preferably live, this way they can.
(I will try and get the Tech Wizard to tell you how to hook the computer up to the TV in layman’s terms as it is even better like that)

It started off as a cracking match but whilst it maintained tension on the scoreboard the quality of play dropped and it became scrappy and slow. I did not share many people’s view of the semi-finals of the semi-finals which despite the fact that the outcomes became clear quite early on did include some great passages of play and some great individual performances. Young Mackenzie was outstanding against Lechuza just ask Miguel Novillo. The chukka where the 4 “10@s” each scored a length of the ground goal of immense skill in the Dubai/La Bamba game was unbelievable. I do not thin that anything we saw in the final matched that and Cambiaso got it done. I did not stay for the Press Conference but I do hope someone asked him what went through his head when they went a goal down in the last chukka. If they did the answer was that he was not worried and that he felt he would just have to score two! Which he did the first finding a seem that no one else would have found through the massed ranks in front of him that were trying to block his progress and the second straight from the subsequent lineout. The only slight worry if I was backing Dubai to do the double is that he was on two borrowed ponies in that chukka (one of which won champion pony) and that neither are available in the Gold Cup as their owners are playing it as well.

Far fewer teams than the Gold Cup but people want to call it a failure? I think not. It has always been regarded as less important than the Gold Cup this is nothing new. The Vestey’s in their pomp as Stowell Park used to play it under an alias (Foxcote) and use it to get the ponies fit ,a bit like the Open Teams in Argentina still use Tortugas and Hurlingham. They however do have their traditions and place in the order of things as does the Queens Cup. They have the pomp and ceremony, location, the Queen and many other things beside. What they do not have are the grounds. This however could be fixed in the next year or two and their reliance on private grounds could be reduced to a position where it becomes an option as opposed to a necessity. Whichever way you look at it the “visiting team” on a private ground always feels at a disadvantage, whether they are or not.

Okay so it is NOT a new rule as Paul Withers was at pains to point out yesterday but a stricter interpretation of existing ones. He also said that when we played together for England I never turned for his backhands. I was too busy ducking!!

So far so good I think is my analysis of developments so far. I have conducted an exhaustive survey of at least 4 people and they are all in agreement that it has opened up play. Kim Richardson from Knepp Castle told me that the first Club 2 Goal was like lightning and that he was lucky his ponies were fitter than him. The old lags whom have played a good level of polo, including High Goal and have been around polo collectively for nearly a century (only 3 of them!) say the same. Everyone expressed their concerns about consistency of interpretation but as I pointed out, there has to be time allowed for the median to be reached.

From my own point of view I have two things to say. Firstly I love watching some of the pros in the Low Goal to whom turning the ball has almost become a reflex. Will he, won’t he? He does go and do it again and lets off a wail of despair, brilliant entertainment! Even when they do not turn, they get in such a muddle that they end up missing a lot. Hard to be in two minds, when the only one you have got does not function brilliantly? Anyway they cannot help it and I think in a funny way do not realise they are doing it half the time. As someone far less couth than me said it is a bit the same with some of their other habits, appealing, stabbing people in the back, scratching their privates, cheating etc.

On a more serious note the contact between players and the blocking of players seems to have increased. At times it has become quite forceful and at times even a bit desperate. Now, however, instead of it happening to the trailing player trying to join up when a team is attacking, it is happening to attacking players who are possibly in a position to ride the line on a player in defence, who may wish to turn the ball. As usual the umpires focus is naturally more drawn to the play of the ball area and some of these trailing fouls or unnecessary roughness penalties are being missed. It is an age old problem but for a different reason and officials need to be vigilant.