TRIBU TE / CL A IRE TOML INSON
TRIBUTE CLAIRE TOMLINSON FEBRUARY 1944 – JANUARY 2022
The highest handicapped lady player who also revolutionised polo coaching
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laire Tomlinson may not have been a playing member of Guards Polo Club but warrants a tribute in our Yearbook thanks to her unparalleled influence on the game of polo for more than half a century. She single-handedly secured the rights of women to compete in high-goal competitions from the Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA) and then went on to practice what she had preached, winning the Queen’s Cup here at Smith’s Lawn in 1979 with her Los Locos team. She also has her name engraved on the 22-goal Warwickshire Cup and the Cowdray Park Challenge Cup when it was played for at that level. At the height of her playing career Claire was registered at five goals. This was long before ladies’ handicaps were introduced and makes her the highest handicapped woman player ever, a record that still stands to this day. It is not surprising that
DESPITE BEING THE BEST PLAYER ON THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY POLO TEAM LADIES WERE NOT ALLOWED TO COMPETE IN THE VARSITY MATCH. SO CLAIRE SET ABOUT GETTING THE RULE CHANGED such a remarkable player added her name to a raft of world-class tournaments. This includes our 15-goal Royal Windsor Cup in 1980, ’81, ’96 and 2010. Other Club victories include two wins in the Archie David Cup. Claire’s battles to get women players recognised started when a student at Oxford. Despite being the best player on the Oxford University polo team ladies were not allowed to compete in the Varsity match. So Claire set about getting the rule changed, although she was listed as “Mr Lucas” in the 1964 event! But two years 64
later, as Claire Lucas, she captained the Oxford team to victory in the 1966 Varsity match, winning the game 7-0, the first time Cambridge registered a zero score. These successes were in addition to her representing the university at fencing, squash and, most surprisingly, ploughing! Claire’s parents, Arthur and Ethel Lucas were both keen players. Her father
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founded Woolmer’s Park Polo Club at the family home in Hertfordshire in 1949 and was a key figure in the resurrection of polo after the Second World War. Claire and her siblings, John and Pat, all inherited their parents’ passion for the game. It was while at Oxford that Claire met her husband, Simon Tomlinson, who had first played polo when serving in the Army.
