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The knowledge Playing around – Tidworth Our intrepid improver Carlie Trotter (–2) works her way around the UK’s clubs


Attention lads, a chukkette C


antering shoulder-to-shoulder Jess Andrews and I see it happening like a car crash in slow-mo. “He’s going to hit the post,” she says, right before new


polo addict John Szymanski heroically launches himself after the ball at warp speed and directly into a multi-coloured goalpost, forward-flipping over the line.


While Chilean club pony Pelo calmly takes himself back to the grooms, a dazed and winded John asks: “Did I - did it - we scored, right?” “That’s the kind of dedication you’re dealing with!” his team-mate James Wood teases. The passionate red team – who did score to beat us 3-1 - are my opponents in a novice training course ‘chukkette’ at Tidworth Polo Club in Wiltshire.


This historic military club, now two-thirds civilian and boasting the UK’s largest playing membership, sets out to get low-goalers competing whatever their budget or ability (in rather more handsome grounds than one might expect for an amateur hub).


Between giving me tips on my mid-swing posture, assistant polo manager Jess explains: “We’re about relaxed and fun low-goal polo, which is what most people want.” With two tournaments every weekend, minus-twos never have to sit out, though later I make a good


armchair aficionado watching the four-goal against teams from Vaux Park and New Forest. I’m not complaining about joining a bunch of military men on a weekend clinic, and when we start the day atop chairs their boyish enthusiasm reminds me of that first ever polo buzz. Charlie Warren, a former RAF pilot returning to the game after six years, jokes: “Errm teacher, I’m wobbling, I injured my pony!”


Most Tidworth members are non pony owners because the base of 20 hirelings, along with the navy and King’s Royal Hussars’ ponies, and a


I join a bunch of military men on a weekend clinic, and their boyish enthusiasm reminds me of that first polo buzz


last-minute chukka phone line allows players to get the buzz with little commitment. When we mount up to practise ride-offs I see these guys are hooked; Charlie’s pregnant wife could go into labour any minute yet he’s focused on tactics, lawyer Achim Jäehnke has flown from Prague where he is trying to kick-start polo and John Szymanski quit his PR job to devote himself to polo after watching at Tidworth. There’s no KitKat-on-the-go refuelling here. Instead we indulge in coronation chicken salad


and profiteroles at table on the lawn, close enough to hear the curses when resident pro Martin ffrench-Blake (4) comes off the back end as his pony unexpectedly leaps up the bank at one end of the Fisher pitch.


I feel sorry for my ball-chasing mount Laisy when I return (a stone heavier) for stick-and- balling, though my nearside forehand is improved because I’m fully loosened up. After our dramatic chukkette – which like a “matchette” is shorthand for cheaper beginner session – we retire to the TV room for an umpiring class. On the board ever-unpopular umpires are represented by plastic spiders. The club tries to tackle this divide by encouraging umpiring experience as soon as possible and Jess makes the job sound appealing by reminding us: “When you umpire you cannot be questioned, you’re pretty much God.” Polo manager Brigadier John Wright rounds off the course over tea and more cake, making life with a polo passion sound easy: “Give up a couple of dinners in London and that’s a new helmet and kneepads, with or without the girlfriend. F


 Read past editions of Playing Around in our online archive. Subscribers have access to back issues on the internet using a personal login. Contact georgie@polotimes.co.uk if you need your password.


66 July 2010 www.polotimes.co.uk


Photographs by Carlie Trotter


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