PROFILE


as a young lieutenant, playing with his own beloved ponies, Blackthorn and Real Jam. Playing as The Bluejackets, with


HRH The Duke of York, later HM King George VI presents the Royal Navy/Royal Air Force Cup to Mountbatten at Ranelagh, 1933


Mountbatten. As he rose through the ranks, “Dickie” became famous for his ability to create a happy wardroom. Before he assumed his first command, the destroyer Daring in 1932, he studied the personnel files on every crew member, so when the ship’s company mustered on their first Sunday parade, he was able to speak to each man personally, knowing their names. He brought the same style to polo, insisting


that his team members should call and shout for passes to each other by their Christian names or nicknames, at a time when military etiquette preferred the brusque and solitary use of the surname. He devised a special team code by which his players would change the inflections of their voices to convey their intentions on the field and he would assemble them before each game for tactics sessions round a billiards table, shifting dummy horses across the green baize. “He was the perfect captain, both on and


off the field,” remembered his lifetime polo colleague and friend Robert Neville. “He inspired his team-mates . . . On the field he never got rattled or bad-tempered. And no matter how silly one was, he was always forgiving and encouraging." Playing off a handicap that soon rose to


six goals in Malta, and eventually to eight (Hurlingham rated Mountbatten at five goals in 1936 and would have raised him to six in 1940 if war had not intervened), Dickie excelled in local island tournaments with a group of friends who called themselves The Shrimps, after a small yacht owned by Mountbatten. In 1929, The Shrimps became


16


HRH Prince Philip and Lord Louis Mounbatten, relaxing post-match


MOUNTBATTEN DEVISED A SPECIAL TEAM CODE BY WHICH HIS PLAYERS WOULD CHANGE THE INFLECTIONS OF THEIR VOICES TO CONVEY THEIR INTENTIONS ON THE POLO FIELD


the core of a team representing the entire navy in British inter-regimental tournaments, playing as the Royal Naval Polo Association (RNPA), whose Honorary Secretary and Treasurer Mountbatten became. He managed to persuade his cousin, King George V, no less, to become patron of the RNPA with a donation of £25 in memory of the great pleasure the King had enjoyed in the 1880s


Mountbatten captaining at number three, the 15-handicap RNPA teams enjoyed remarkable success through the 1930s, winning 10 of their 13 face-to-face showdowns with the Army. The Bluejackets’ titanic battles with home- based cavalry regiments like the Queen’s Bays (2nd Dragoon Guards) and the 12th Lancers, superbly mounted and considered the world’s ultimate in polo teams, provided some of the most epic polo encounters of the 1930s. One reason why the Malta-based


Bluejackets could measure up so well to all the horses and resources of the cavalry regiments was thanks to a secret weapon devised by their ever-ingenious captain. When polo first came to England in the 19th century it was


usually played with rectangular, square-section mallets, which hit low and flat and were soon abandoned in favour of round, circular-section heads, as players sought greater length and height. Mountbatten’s hours in the polo-pit inspired him to experiment further, developing a less circular, more oval-shaped head which could strike deeper under the ball, thus imparting additional “loft”, height and distance to a shot. He went public with his better polo stick in 1931, lodging a patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Office in 1931, and donating the royalties to the RNPA. So when any player today looks at the modified cigar-shaped heads of their latest polo mallets, they are looking at the debt that they owe to Dickie Mountbatten. Another debt is the ever-fresh Introduction


to Polo by Marco, the 188-page instruction manual – also published in 1931 with royalties donated to the RNPA – which still provides both beginners and experienced players around the world with the finest written guide to the rules and technique of polo. “Marco” Polo was, of course, Mountbatten himself, who wanted to set down a “progressive introduction to the game from first principles”, complete with diagrams, drawings and photographs, working hard over the years to keep the book updated with the latest rule revisions through six editions. The Introduction’s first principle is that the


skilled polo player must play the game with two separate bodies – one, from the waist down, which controls and guides the horse, and the other from the waist up, which is concerned with the very different task of hitting the ball. The secret of polo success, according to


GUARDS POLO CLUB OFFICIAL YEARBOOK 2019


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