Memore by Bobbie Vincent-Emery
My first memory of Ham Polo Club was in July of 1976. Roger White was leading me back to the stable yard from Ham Common when I dismounted between his pony’s ears and split my jeans from knee to knee, to the amusement of the grooms. I remember it because it was the last time I ever rode a horse.
At the time, polo was still being run by Billy Walsh with an iron hand. Peggy Healy ran the office from an empty stable at the Equestrian Club by Ham Gate with help from Pam Bannister, and David Healy who was frequently seen watering the field, because no one else would do it. Geoffrey Godbold ran working bees, when maintenance was needed.
Back in those days we had a small hut with a hatch in the wall that occasionally issued some sandwiches, hotdogs and hamburgers. The scoreboard was also a bit dodgy. The polo shop was the back of Lindy Beasley’s car, and most everybody did pot-luck picnics. Annie would bring the meat, Onoria Beckley the salad, Obi Duona-Hammond would bring the pudding, and the children played bicycle polo.
Ham was “the kindergarten of polo,” a name I liked. As people graduated from us to Guards, Cowdray, Cirencester and Berkshire, we always had ambassadors at every level of the sport with a soft spot in their heart for Ham. People came to watch the polo not to watch each other.
Skip forward a few years, as Nicholas Colquhoun- Denvers took over from Geoffrey Godbold and planned to see how he could get the club to grow. First, we purchased another ground in 1995 with some
46 HPC • THE LONDON POLO CLUB
creative financing from members, and a loan from an understanding bank. Nick, being a true Aussie, started planting eucalyptus trees.
The Out of Africa Summer ball in 1993 set the standard for many to follow. I remember sitting on the boards on the far side of the field while Ginger Baker beat hell out of his drums at the clubhouse. When the Argentinean grooms arrived and introduced us to the asado we finally got to understand what a proper BBQ was.
In 1997 along came Hunt-Kendall with a plan to redo the club-house with a proper kitchen. We have all seen the benefits that improvement brought us. Next was an exercise track in 1999, putting in paved roads, a state of the art sound system, then redoing the club house again with a new commentary box, then a deck. In short, the transformation of our polo club has been extraordinary, and it is mostly thanks to Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers.
Chis Graham became the `golden voice of polo’, Lawrence Powers tried to get an audio system that Chris could speak through, and the food from Hunt- Kendall kept getting better and better. (Except for the lamb burgers, one year).
Every match is watched over by our timekeeper Anne De’ath. People think she is so kind to take pictures of the winning teams after every match; not realising the only way we can get the silver cups back for next year is a picture to prove who made off with them this year.
My husband, James Lange, had a hole talked into his head in 2002, when he was persuaded to manage the
OF HAM
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