Pony Club

Pony Club Polo Championships 2007

Report from Di Woolley

Glass, Gas, Murders, Plague, Floods and even some Polo
... the interesting Summer of 2007

Wanting to be organized, efficient, cool calm and collected and to give our children the best possible opportunity to win the Pony Club polo competition, the parents started meeting in March and by May had our routes planned and the transport booked. We were ready. Then disaster struck when a player dropped out of our team. Things teetered in the balance and no other player could be found. Annabelle missed lunch at The Caprice to avert the disaster but to no avail. Jack Woolley hadn’t actually been on a horse for a year and had to be located in Abersoch and persuaded to join in the family fun. Having re-formed our team in the nick of time we heard that our Gloucester venues were flooded out and we were sent to the Cambridge Ground. The polo manager was amazing and the waterproof coats were useful tents. We arrived at the same time as the Irish team who had travelled from the west coast of Northern Ireland. They were 3 big strong boys with lots of beautiful, fit, glossy ponies. We were quaking in our boots! However, we put up an extremely creditable performance by finishing third.

We spent a wild night dancing an Irish jig under the stars with our new friends before heading west to Kirtlington to meet up with old Cheshire polo and hunting friends John and Heather Tyler. On the next glorious morning poor Annabelle was kicked in the face, which was a bad start to our proudest day. We had two tough matches and finally beat the unbeaten RA team in a run down to win the day and some Roxton tokens. We were walking on air until we got to the motorway that was closed because of a spill of gas canisters, which meant a long, slow trip to our respective homes (for a bath) and we returned to Tidworth army camp where Peter Heywood had an interesting night in a tent

We qualified for Cowdray 2007 but being only just outside the foot and mouth zone it was nearly cancelled. The ponies are in luxury in a tented stable block for 300! The view from our caravan over the throngs of children to the verdant green of the pristine grounds culminating in the castle was breathtaking. Our camp included Peter in his last ever night in a camper van, our team with our adviser Charlie Bulmer and the RA (girl) team who were very interested in talking tactics with our boys (that’s what they told me anyway). No idea how it took all night! Jack left his handbrake off his car and it ran into Richard’s tent during the camp barbeque for 800 people. Peter and Richard left at the end of the chukkas to get a good start home only to be caught in the closure of the M40 when the motor biker was murdered. It took them 9 hours to get off the motorway. We were disappointed to be fourth in Rendell 1 but the Irish team was a shocking 9th. The disappointment was made up when Dom was selected to play for the Under 16 English team.

Despite all the problems there will be many happy memories of the week and the friendships created and continued at the polo making it not only worthwhile but a compulsory part of next years summer. I hope a younger group of children (and indeed parents) will take part in the PC polo next year and I am delighted that we have an exciting Jorrocks and Loriner team in the making. Already the Pony Club has planned a training/assessment day on Thursday 29th May 2008 in Cheshire.

ABOUT PONY CLUB AND JUNIOR HPA POLO

The aim of Pony Club Polo is to provide members with an introduction to polo and to train children to understand the basic principles, rules, riding, tactics and striking the ball for polo and also how to care for and look after the welfare of their ponies. Polo provides high standards of conduct with a competitive spirit in a team sport and provides a bridge to the adult game.

There are six sections based on age groups: Jorrocks, Handley Cross, Surtees, Loriner, Ledner and Rendell. As of 2008, Junior HPA polo is being incorporated with Pony Club polo. The HPA will be running the Hipwood, Langford and Gannon sections in conjunction with the Pony Club.

For some years polo has been one of the fastest growing activities in the Pony Club. Pony Club Polo is played by over 500 Members, from 6 to 21 years of age in a season of competitions played over the summer.

POLO AREA TRAINING COURSE AT CHESHIRE POLO CLUB

Courses are priced at £45 per Pony Club member. Date: Thursday 29th May. Coach: TBA
Please find details and application form on the Pony Club Training Link.