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plus-goal tournaments in England or Ireland.
5. All amateur tournaments next year, in Scotland or elsewhere. If interested in any or all of the above, please get in touch! We will aim to entertain you regally in house parties! If there is just you (rather than a whole team), no matter: we will slot you in with other like-minded souls! Players required. Answer the call – contact me at
will@wills-art.com.
Will Ramsay Border Reivers Polo Club
Umpiring – tap dance We’re having an argument here in Zimbabwe about tapping the ball. As far as I read it, if you slow down to a walk you have one tap, after which you must get rid of the ball. Some are arguing that you cannot tap the ball at all, or not unless you are accelerating with it. Also, the same crew say you cannot take the ball in a large circle, tapping it as you go around. We would be grateful for Arthur Douglas-Nugent’s opinion. Our problem here is that we have about 30 players in two clubs, so everyone has to have his say, whereas if you have 300 players, you can tell them what to do! Many thanks.
Gary Hensman Chinhoyi,Zimbabwe
Arthur Douglas-Nugent responds: A player with the ball is allowed one tap while at walking pace; he must then leave it, hit it away or run (at faster than walking pace) with it. Should he leave it, a team- mate following behind at walking pace cannot tap but must run with
20 July 2010
www.polotimes.co.uk
We love this picture, sent to PT HQ by Sandhurst Polo Club’s manager Barbara Zingg and taken by Peter Meade Photography. The handsome athlete collecting a stray polo ball is Mambo, belonging to 0-goal player Heloise Lorentzen
it or hit it away. You can tap the ball round in a circle providing you do not do so at walking pace. This is an artificial rule designed solely to speed up the game. We have found this year that being tougher on the “turn across” rule has been much more effective and has done much to encourage the players to play the backhand shot.
Why I loved Polo in the Park 2010
To my mind, last year’s Polo In The Park was a good gig – the polo was entertaining and the set-up good, but it was clear that much was to be learnt. As with every large event staged for the first time, creases need to be ironed and cogs oiled. This year the event came back
strong, and the faithless who snorted at the notion of bringing polo to the big smoke are now eating large slices of humble pie. With kind weather and
incredible new grandstand seating, the view of the game played to
Daniel Fox-Davies’s new rules was fantastic. The even smaller ground this year created an intimate enclosed space and eliminated the need for binoculars.
Not changing ends after each goal helped the champagne- guzzling blondes keep track, as did not riding back to centre after each score, which is normally enough to lose the attention of the city slickers. The two-goal rule from outside the “D” is clever. All in all, every change helped make this version of polo more spectator-friendly to the untrained eye. Other additions were the waving of an oversized flag emblazoned “goal” and the loud music that accompanied it emphatically. The result was a fun day at polo for everyone to enjoy. The action was genuinely competitive. Commentator Glen Gilmore told me all the players were taking it seriously and really wanted to win. As polo weekends
go, I think it was one of the best. There is definitely a place for this kind of event within polo and, with support from players, sponsors and fans, I hope Polo in the Park goes from strength to strength. Catriona Christie Windsor
Scale back the backhands
I play low-goal polo and enjoy it. I am not terribly aggressive and generally play with friends or others in club chukkas. I have noticed this year with the new rules that a lot more backhands are being played and that more people and ponies are getting hit by the ball. The HPA needs to remember that polo is played by all levels and not only high-goal teams. In my view, the association should consider all levels of the game before making rule changes so fundamental that they cause unnecessary danger in low-goal for the sake of aiming to speed up the high-goal game. Surely it would not be beyond the wisdom of the rule-makers to allow a high/low goal differentiation?
Gary Withey London
Newsletter keeps me up to date
Maybe I shouldn’t say thank you every single time for the PT weekly email newsletter, but it is such good stuff. I didn’t realise how well La Bamba was doing in the UK, for example.
Thanks a lot: you are supplying a good service to the polo communities far-flung out there, such as me in Buenos Aires!
Christopher Carpenter Argentico Real Estate,Buenos Aires
Thank you Polo Times I want to say a quick thank you to Polo Times for supporting the SUPA Uni Nationals.
Having now played my last SUPA tournament last month, and having luckily enjoyed five national championships and two runners-up spots, I am now looking forward to getting involved with SAPA and playing some club polo once I graduate this July.
Rebecca Griffiths University of Warwick
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