GROUNDS PROJECT


BUILDING A FUTURE


Colonel Stuart Cowen, Chairman of the Club’s Grounds Committee, discusses Guards Polo Club’s most ambitious grounds project to date and what it will mean for both our players and social members WORDS: DIANA BUTLER PHOTOS: IMAGES OF POLO


“B


ack in 2007/2008, the Board wrote its Vision for the Future strategy, asking the question


‘how do we want to place ourselves in the timeframe 2015 –2025’. The things that we thought were going to be important were the grounds,” recalled Col Stuart Cowen, Chairman of the Guards Polo Club Grounds Committee. “The Board recognised that the quality of grounds would be vital, especially at medium- and high-goal level which were constantly evolving and improving. We also looked at the wider infrastructure of the Club – the Clubhouse and the royal boxes." Part of this strategy was Charlie Stisted's


visionary redevelopment of Flemish Farm, which was successfully delivered by the Club's Chief Executive, Neil Hobday, and completed in 2012. "We started playing on the grounds at Flemish in 2014, of which the Castle Ground is now recognised as one of the best playing grounds in the UK," recalled Stuart. "At that time, we also began looking the final part of the jigsaw, upgrading the grounds


56


at Smith’s Lawn.” Fast forward to today and the Grounds


Committee, which includes Stuart Cowen, Neil Hobday, the Club's Chief Financial Officer James Neighbour, Polo Manager Antony Fanshawe, Grounds Manager Peter Svoboda, Alan Fall, Thilo Sautter,


"We have spent a lot of time trying to work out how to get as many full-size grounds in the remaining area as possible. It was a real jigsaw puzzle"


Vivek Rawal, Simon Mace and Pete Webb are focusing on the final stages of the Board’s original strategy, the development of grounds three to eight. “We have been planning this project since 2012/13,” explained Stuart. “ The aim has always been to have full-size grounds, better surfaces and more efficient and effectively managed agronomy – in other words the quality of


the grass and the subsoil underneath. “The upgrade of the Princes' Ground


[Ground 3] we knew would be relatively simple because of where it is. However, we have spent a lot of time trying to work out how to get as many full-size grounds in the remaining area as possible. It was a real jigsaw puzzle because we were constrained by Prince Consort Drive on one side and Fuzzy Clump (around grounds five to eight pony lines) and the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) area on the other side.” Factors such as health and safety, probably not such hot topics when the Club was founded in 1955, also needed to be addressed. “One of the influences we looked at most carefully was safety because we all have recognised that Princes' Ground was a little bit tight at the Prince Consort Drive end," admitted Stuart. Given that context, the Grounds


Committee and Nick Hallam, who had been brought in as a consultant, looked hard at how they could fit everything in. During a discussion with our President, Windsor


GUARDS POLO CLUB OFFICIAL YEARBOOK 2019


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