PTMay 2009 p10 - 11 HPA YC MB and news.qxp
24/4/09
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Irish boxing legend and keen polo player Steve Collins has welcomed a dynamic new management to St Albans Polo Club
As Herts folds, St Albans opens A FORMER CHAMPION boxer who plays polo has facilitated the revival of a polo club on his property just outside the M25, granting a two-year lease to a new chairman and management committee. The St Albans Polo Club was initially set up in 2003 by Steve Collins, the former WBO and WBA Middleweight and Super-Middleweight Boxing Champion of the World. Collins, whose “fighting” is now done on the polo field, is also known for his role as a bouncer in British gangster film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. This season’s new management
team includes polo manager Gill Lines, whose son Dean is a three-goal pro, and new chairman Martin Randall, a patron whose company Crystal Direct becomes the club’s major sponsor. The relaunch could fill a void left by the closure of another local club. In late March members of Hertfordshire Polo Club received a memo from its chairman, Rick Aspland-Robinson, saying the club would cease to be a members’ club this season. He thanked members for their support over the years and said ponies could remain at livery until the end of April.
The club, based at the Woolmers Park property once owned by the Lucas family, had been resurrected 15 years ago by keen Pony Clubbers. It was then run in an official capacity for a decade and last season had around 60 playing members registered. Polo Times tried to contact its chairman and polo office without success. Meanwhile, St Albans Polo Club, which is a mile from junction 21a of the M25 and has two boarded grounds and a stick-and-ball field, was due to hold its first tournament over the first weekend in May.
News in brief ◗ IN A SIGN of the times, the Laureus Polo Cup, scheduled for 21 June in Cheshire, has been cancelled. Organisers failed to secure a major sponsor for what would have been the tournament’s second year and have been forced to pull the plug. Guests at last year’s inaugural event included tennis legends Martina Navratilova and Boris Becker, England cricket hero Sir Ian Botham and Hollywood actress Uma Thurman. Adolfo Cambiaso was lined-up to play in this year’s fixture. ◗ OLIVER TWIST POLO, a Gloucestershirebased polo and pony-producing set-up, is selling up so Emma Oliver, its founder, can concentrate on a new career as a writer. Also the home of Emma and her husband Simon, Talland House near Cirencester (originally the home of the Talland School of Equitation), is on the market with Knight Frank for £1.8m. Emma is writing her first novel, which she describes as “a romantic drama set against the background of international finance and high-goal polo”, and predicts
it will be on the shelves in 2011. The couple, who are also keen hunt followers, plan to move to Somerset. ◗ SCOTLAND-BASED novices interested in a fast-track polo programme are once again being sought by David Leyden Dunbar, director of Team Management International (TMI) and the organiser of an annual corporate black tie entertainment evening of indoor polo at Gleneagles Hotel, the Festival Cup. The tournament pits six novices in a pro-am game before a Scottish arena side plays an international match against a visiting nation. This year they welcome Argentina. The selected novice players will need to be prepared for three months of intensive training, and are responsible for covering their own costs, which can be up to £5,000 each. However, organisers are anxious to attract participants from all walks of life and suggest that costs can usually be covered by sponsorship. “Our aim is to immerse new blood into regional clubs,” said Dunbar. “We operate a similar scheme for Midlands-based
players at an outdoor tournament at RLS in September.” ◗ INJURED POLO PLAYER James Servaes has come off a ventilator following complications due to an infection after his transfer to the Sheffield Northern and General Hospital’s spinal unit in early April. He is showing encouraging signs of improvement but looks likely to remain there in rehabilitation for the next four to six months. James, 61, was left paralysed from the chest down following a fall playing polo at the family’s Carlton House Arena Polo Club in East Anglia on 27 December. ◗ STUDENTS FROM England were the victors in the tightly fought SUPA TriNations Cup at Polo Wicklow last month, in which they saw off the challenge of students from Ireland and Scotland. Each side was made up of a girl and two boys, and they played each other in a round-robin format over two days.
www.polotimes.co.uk May 2009 11