IC Polo “wets” appetite

This year’s summer weather wasn’t the greatest for polo and for the first time in a number of years the weather forecast looked extremely grim when we headed off to Royal Leamington Spa for the Schools and Universities Polo Nationals. On the upside the Jubilee weekend fell perfectly to give us a full four days of play and a chance to get through even with the looming rain. We pitched our tents at midnight on Friday under the headlights of the union minibus and started a few relaxing drinks and cigars as the rain began to come down.

Bleary eyed but awake we got down to business, which for the Lower Intermediate (LI) teams primarily meant a hair-of-the-dog as we waited through the two days of lower level play before our matches began. Fortunately, we had a Novice team with team captain Mo and his mixed university team in Novice 1a. We clearly had the best shirts so let the rag tag bunch of friends from across the nation sport our red, white and blue as we introduced them to our pony providers Greenpoint for the first time. Matching polo pony to rider is not just a skill it’s an art form, and with two unknown players and with only a sentence or two regarding their ability it was anybody’s guess what would suit.

Though they took to the field with more enthusiasm than I’ve seen in a long time, only Mo looked settled on his pony and the slightly more expressive gait of one of the other ponies left one player unable to keep his seat and he hit the (fortunately) soft ground with only a muddy patch to show. The first match, or chukka, never really got off the ground for the boys and they came away with a loss and less than sparkling whites.

The rest of us busied ourselves with the usual drinking, merriment and occasionally helping out the organisers until a damp evening came about and the polo concluded to give way to BBQs, even more drinking and general revelry. A much appreciated gazebo was assembled to keep the worst of the weather off. It was at this stage that one player admitted to remembering the BBQ, cricket set, minibus, polo gear, tent and space blanket… but not his sleeping bag. As such he spent his second night shivering under some silver tin foil, beer jacket not quite covering the distressingly un-summery conditions.

With the novices up to play again the next day things looked set for change. For anyone that hasn’t seen polo it’s possibly the fastest, most intense sport out there. For those unbelievers; when you’re going 25mph on the back of a ball of muscle five times your size with a 52 inch wooden mallet it’s hard to name something more intense. Add to that the other players trying to get their stick in the way of yours, and adrenaline isn’t going to be lacking. Periods of play last just 7 minutes, but that’s more than enough to get your blood racing. On their new mounts the novices, who were hurtling around at breakneck speed, had obviously managed to find their feet a bit more and progress was swift, the victories started to come and we began to look forwards to the LI matches to come.

By this stage though the rain was starting to come down, and the pitches were starting to suffer. A football or rugby pitch gets cut up a bit after a wet match, but half a dozen or so ponies charging around can really churn up a wet field so mutterings of cancellations were starting to circulate. Huge thanks go to Offchurch Bury polo club for letting us carry on, in the polo world your fields are your livelihood and they took a huge risk and a great expense in order to let us carry on. The slippery grass took its toll on one member of the team that afternoon; with Jon tearing a ligament before even getting on a horse as he was running to judge a tiebreak while working for the organiser.

This sent us scurrying to find a substitute for our LI team, not only that but it needed to be someone our pony provider knew and could mount. Eventually a suitable alternative was discovered in the form of Nick, even if he was a Cambridge student. Donating him an ICU shirt that instantly made him look better; we mounted up and yelled a few frantic words at each other before the carnage commenced. The big pitch for the higher level matches had seen relatively light play so far and despite a fair number of dodgy bounces and a warning to be careful about turning too fast to avoid slipping, the pace of the matches quickly got up. Communication was an issue to begin with and between trying to find a shape as a team and getting to grips with the ground and the ponies, we unfortunately didn’t fare too well and lost.

The last, rival IC team fared better with their first two matches coming in as victories and putting them into the two chukka final. We struggled our way to a frustrating defeat as the team finally started to coalesce into a functioning unit. The tide of the match turned just too late for us to capitalise and secure a victory, leaving us fighting to avoid the wooden spoon. Meanwhile the novice pitch was forced into switching to the larger inflatable arena polo balls as the pitch had become a quagmire and the small hard ball traditionally used for grass polo simply sunk into the mud on every hit. This wasn’t slowing the novice team down though and their big hits looked fantastic.

It wasn’t all fun and games though; the odious duty of partying the night away was left. Many of the final day matches are decided upon which team does better at avoiding the hangover, or very occasionally, on who ends up with least company. Fortunately, no one that was to be riding in the morning misbehaved too much and after merrily toasting the Jubilee we were all just about safe to get on horses in the morning. A goal from a penalty hit at 60 yards was still not quite enough to save us from the dreaded wooden spoon, though the Novices finished their weekend strong. The final Imperial team fought a close final where at the end of the first half things didn’t look great, but grit and determination set in and they pulled ahead in the dying stages to take the victory.

With the winter season just beginning, our training for the February winter nationals has had a little head start with the wet weather and a few of us are raring to get back in the saddle now. As such there is an exhibition match to top off the summer season on October 20th alongside the Beginner taster session. If you think you’d like to try one of the fastest, most exciting sports around why not come along and have a go… and get a bit of a show thrown into the bargain!