LIFE PLAYING MEMBERS
Members’ benefits
Eddy Arida and Harold Bamberg rack up more than 60 years’ membership of Guards Polo Club between them. Both life playing members, they talk to Diana Butler on what Club membership means to them
H
arold Bamberg and Eddy Arida will not thank me for saying it, but they are stalwarts of Guards Polo Club. They may have retired from the
saddle, but both remain passionate about their sport and their club of choice – Guards Polo Club. Arida retired from the saddle four seasons ago. “I lost
my eye in a shooting accident and had previously broken my neck – after a head-on car crash in Algeria – as a result of which I cannot turn my neck to the right. This means that I cannot see anyone coming to one side of me. But playing up to the age of 73 is more than enough – I don’t bounce any more!” So, although Arida has notched up more than 30 years’ experience of polo from the saddle, he would still love to be in the thick of the action. “I miss not playing like hell, but still love to watch games. I even watch low-goal chukkas. It is the atmosphere of the horses, the players and the bit of excitement,” he explains. Bamberg is several years older than Arida, but retired
about the same time. “I had a heart attack in 1983,”says Bamberg, “but carried on playing as I have never got stressed playing polo. I only stopped playing in 2001”. Bamberg took up the sport in 1965, aged 39. “My GP
told me that I needed to take up more exercise so I went to see Billy Walsh, who had stables at Richmond. He asked me if I could ride, to which I replied, ‘I think I can!’ I had never seen polo at that stage, but had ridden and was breeding racehorses at my farm at Eaglesfield in Hampshire. Walsh showed me how to hit and ball and then said, ‘Come and watch the next match and learn the rules’. So I joined Ham Polo Club with two polo ponies, had the right shirts made by Turners of Aldershot and bought half-a-dozen 52-inch sticks.” After some years of playing at Ham – “which was low-goal because the
players couldn’t afford better ponies” – Bamberg went to Guards. “I arrived at Smith’s Lawn, walked straight into the Clubhouse, met Willie (Loyd) and told him that I had bought a house nearby [Harewood], had 12 ponies and wanted to join. The next person I met was Claude Pert, the Polo Manager, to whom I said, ‘I’m not much good.’ ‘Oh we will soon knock you into shape!’ So I joined.” Playing with his Eaglesfield team, Bamberg has achieved much success
on the field, including winning the Harrison Cup in his first season, playing alongside JJ Alberdi. Arida had a similar introduction to the game – he had ridden, but had
no knowledge of polo. “I started playing polo in 1978/79 at Guards Polo Club and the first trophy I won was at Ham, playing with my
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“There is a certain civility about England – people drive correctly, they don’t waste water and don’t throw rubbish in the street. There is a spirit here that doesn’t exist anywhere else” Eddy Arida
Phoenician team which also featured John and Edward Horswell. I was living in a cottage at Dell Park Stud [adjacent to Windsor Great Park] and the Phoenicians used to play Alex Ebeid’s The Pharaohs team in the Dell Park Open, which was always a lot of fun. I called my team The Phoenicians after Phoenicia, which was the ancient civilization that came from the area that is now The Lebanon,” explained Arida. He continued: “I was a rider and had my own horses at home in The Lebanon, but had not played polo. Jumping was my sport. I only came to England to escape the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, I had never dreamt of coming to live here. Now I don’t think that I can live anywhere else. There is a certain civility about England – people drive correctly, they don’t waste water and don’t throw rubbish in the street. There is a spirit here that doesn’t exist anywhere else.” Arida was never just a player though. He has been a tournament
sponsor at the Club too and was Chairman of the Club’s 50th Anniversary Committee in 2005. This year, Arida will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of his Phoenician Cup Tournament – a 12-goal
GUARDS POLO CLUB OFFICIAL YEARBOOK 2011
Eddy Arida and his grandaughter Diala present the Phoenician Cup to winning patron Maurice Salem of Jada in 2009
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