How Polo came to Cowdray Cowdray Park Polo Club, Midhurst, West Sussex, May 19
P
olo is the oldest recorded team game in the world. It was brought to the UK in the 1850s by military personnel serving in India and by the 1870s had arrived in the USA. It was brought to Cowdray Park by Harold Pearson (later 2nd Viscount Cowdray) in 1910. Friends and family were encouraged to take part and teams were formed which also competed at Hurlingham and Ranelagh in London. By the 1930s, a firm fixture in the English social calendar was Goodwood Week polo at Cowdray which coincided with the nearby annual horseracing festival. The Second World War saw polo face extinction with the demise of the cavalry regiments which had been the source of most players. Grounds were ploughed up to support the war effort and the majority of ponies turned to other uses. After the war the 3rd Viscount Cowdray was almost singlehandedly responsible for the revival of polo in the UK, encouraging army friends to Cowdray at the weekends and starting a breeding programme of ponies. In 1949, Lord Cowdray was invited to take a team to Buenos Aires and in 1951 a reciprocal visit was made. International polo was back on the UK sporting calendar. Cowdray Park is now a mecca for international visitors during the four weeks of the British Open Polo Championship played for the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup. Cowdray’s annual international fixture has been sponsored for the past five years by St. Regis Hotels and Resorts whose iconic St. Regis in New York was fittingly the scene of many parties during polo’s earliest days in America. For more information, visit www.cowdraypolo.co.uk
International
polo
ENGLAND v USA in The St. Regis International Cup
(preceded by Young England v Young South Africa in the John Cowdray trophy)
Saturday 19th May 2012 Cowdray Park Polo Club Midhurst, West Sussex, GU29 0AQ (30 mins south of Guildford) Tickets £15 (under 12s free). Free car parking. Pitchside picnic spots @ £150 each include 8 tickets and 2 car spaces. Shopping village with bars and food. Gates open 10.30 am. Book online at www.cowdraypolo.co.uk or tel: 01730 813257