DESERT POLO


A POLO OASIS IN THE SAUDI


Guards Polo Academy’s Ebe Sievwright reports from the impressive launch of AlUla Desert


Polo in Saudi Arabia, featuring the world’s best players in a breathtaking location


DESERT PICTURES BY SAM CHURCHILL


regulations and deprivation of western comforts that I accepted the role to commentate, alongside Cartier Dubai regular Tom Urquhart, at the first polo event in the Kingdom. It turns out that I couldn't have been more wrong and now find myself eager, at the slightest provocation, to share the many highlights of this trip with all the zeal of a recent convert. Saudi Arabia has got it all going on. The people are engaging and friendly, progressive to a point that I could never have imagined, and the AlUla Valley is, quite literally, one of the most fascinating places on earth. A vast expanse of extraordinary topography and rock formations that conjure up a lunar or even Martian landscape. Recent Star Wars films have favoured desert locations in Abu Dhabi and


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Jordan, but these are visually prosaic compared to the surreal boulders of Elephant Rock and Jabal Al Ahmar. Tombs, temples and functional spaces, such as banks and trade stalls, make up the ancient city of Hegra, all carved into the face of the Hijaz mountain faces by the Nabataeans, the same mysterious tribe that created Petra more than 2,000 years ago. This hitherto unexploited and tourist-free region is now at the centre of the Royal Commission of AlUla’s drive to open up tourism both here and the wider Saudi region. Amr Zedan, a well-known polo player across the world and chairman of


the Saudi Polo Federation, decided that AlUla would be the perfect setting for Saudi’s polo debut. Teaming up with Carrie McNeill, fairy godmother to many Gulf sporting events, they settled on a date in the middle of several cultural festivals, this one being “Winter at Tantora”. So how to make the biggest splash in a pond that is already saturated


with polo shows and exhibitions? Fly in the four greatest players in history of course. Cue La Dolfina, fresh from their latest victory in the Argentine Open. Adolfo Cambiaso, Pelon Sterling, Pablo MacDonough and Juan-Martin Nero enjoyed some time off from competitive high goal polo on this unique


GUARDS POLO CLUB OFFICIAL YEARBOOK 2020 109


hen I first heard mention of desert polo in Saudi Arabia, I was gearing up for some beach polo on an Indonesian island and so the idea didn’t enthuse. Saudi hasn’t yielded many polo players on the international scene and so it was with some anxiety about the strict


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