O

n a summer’s afternoon in 1960 Her Majesty The Queen presented her Queen’s Cup for the first time. She handed a small silver trophy to Sir Evelyn

de Rothschild, patron of the Centaurs team and his team-mates – the six-goaler Dr Jorge Marin Moreno, one of the first Argentines to come to Britain to play after the Second World War; John Lucas, father of Will and James; and “Chino” Gracida, the Mexican international. Since that auspicious day many renowned teams and players have had the honour of being presented to HM The Queen as a member of a winning Queen’s Cup team. Not least among them is her eldest son, HRH Prince Charles, a member of the 1986 winning team – Les Diables Bleus. His team-mates were patron Guy Wildenstein, Memo Gracida and Rodrigo Vial and they defeated

the highly rated Tramontana team featuring patron Anthony Embiricos, “Chuey” Baez, Carlos Gracida and Martin Brown, 9-8. The high standard of play on that day made this a match to remember and William Loyd, the polo correspondent for The Daily Telegraph and Horse & Hound wrote in the latter: “The most exciting finals day in the history of the high-goal tournament”. The Cup’s impressive list of winners could easily be turned into a Who’s Who of polo as all the leading names are there. The Packer family’s Ellerston squad are the most successful team in the history of the competition, winning it six times – 1991, ’92, ’96, ’98, ’99 and 2008.

The most successful player is Adolfo Cambiaso who has been on the winning side six times too. Two of those victories were with Kerry Packer and Ellerston – 1998 and 1999. He has also won the cup wearing the shirts of Rick Stowe’s Geebung (2000) and Ali Albwardy’s Dubai (2003, ‘05 and ‘06). Cambiaso is another who may well add to his tally in this competition as he returns to the Dubai polo team and the UK high-goal season next month with a record sixth victory in the Argentine Open already on his polo CV.

Thanks to Alfred Dunhill, the sponsors of The Queen’s Cup for some 20 years (1980 – 2000) the event rivalled International Day for its glamour and VIP guests for many years too. Well-known names such as Darcy Bussell, Lord and Lady Mountbatten,

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