Keeping polo in MINT CONDITION
Former Greenkeeper, Mark Neale, has his work cut out maintaining over 50 hectares of grass at Beaufort Polo Club with just a staff of three
LAURENCE GALE MSc reports
POLO is experiencing massive growth at present with a 47% increase in membership in the last five years at clubs across the country. Attendance at polo events has also increased and, with more matches televised in 2007 than ever before, the sport is rapidly becoming more accessible both to play and watch. The sports governing body, the Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA), has over 3000 members registered and handicapped to participate in the sport. The HPA are responsible for the regulations and rules under which the game is played. This includes the handicapping of anyone playing in the UK or Ireland and the fixtures list. The HPA is currently made up of the following clubs and associations:
encourage young British players
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two clear objectives: to provide good quality polo at all levels and to
The Beaufort Club has
• 56 outdoor clubs in the UK • 11 outdoor clubs in Ireland • 25 arena clubs in the UK and Ireland • 6 associations in the UK and Ireland • 27 overseas clubs and associations A recent trip to the Beaufort Polo Club,
regarded as one of the top five club venues in the UK, enabled me to see the sheer size and scale of operations required to run a polo club Polo is the oldest ball sport in the
world dating back to 600 BC. The word is derived from ‘pulu’, the willow root from which the polo balls were crafted in Tibet over 2000 years ago. The sport gradually spread through Asia to India, where it was introduced to tea planters and British soldiers, who brought the game to England.
The first match was played in the UK in 1869 between the 9th Lancers and 10th Hussars. One of the players in this match was Captain Frank Henry who started the Beaufort Polo Club in 1872. However, the Beaufort Polo Club in its
present form is only fourteen years old and is a revival of a hunt polo club which may have been one of the first, if not the first, of the country’s polo clubs. The old club was inaugurated in 1872. The heyday of the Club was between 1929 and 1939 after it was reformed during the winter of 1928-1929 by a few members of the Beaufort Hunt under the presidency of the Duke of Beaufort. An ideal site was found in the Big Field at Norton, between Malmesbury and Hullavington on the Pinkney Estate. The present day Beaufort Polo Club is small and friendly, and set alongside the Westonbirt Arboretum in one of the most beautiful parts of England. The serenity and tranquillity of the surrounding Cotswold countryside are in complete contrast to the speed and energy of the sport.
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