YEAR BOOK 2020

Hurlingham Association Manor Farm, Little Coxwell Faringdon, OXON, SN7 7LW

Chief Executive: D J B Woodd Esq

TEL: 01367 242 828 FAX: 01367 242 829 EMAIL: [email protected] WEB: www.hpa-polo.co.uk

Office Hours: 9.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. Monday - Friday

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GAME OF POLO AND THE HURLINGHAM POLO ASSOCIATION

The first game is believed to have originated in Persia in the first millennium BC or earlier. The Moguls were largely responsible for taking the game from Persia to the east, and by the 16th century it was established in India. In the 1850s, British tea planters discovered the game in Manipur (Munipoor) on the Burmese border with India and formed the first polo at Silchar, west of Manipur. Other clubs followed and, today, the oldest in the world is the Calcutta Club, founded in 1862.

The start of polo in goes back to 1869, when Edward “Chicken” Hartopp, 10th Hussars, read an account of the game in The Field, and organised the first game - known then as “ on horseback” - on Hounslow Heath against the 9th Lancers. The 1st Life Guards and the Royal Guards were quick to follow suit at Hounslow and in ; and then on a small ground near Earls Court known as Lillie Bridge.

The first match in took place on 3rd September 1875, where the game had been taken by English and Irish engineers and ranchers. In 1876 Lt Col Thomas St Quintin, 10th Hussars, introduced the game to Australia. In the same year, polo was introduced to the USA by James Gordon Bennett Jr who had seen the game at Hurlingham whilst on a visit to England.

The first polo match at , was played in 1874. The Champion Cup was inaugurated there in 1876, the Inter-Regimental and the annual Oxford v. Cambridge University Match in 1878, and the County Cup in 1885. Hurlingham became the headquarters of polo and in 1875 the Hurlingham Polo Committee drew up the first English rules and remained in control of the game for about thirty years. Handicaps were introduced by the USA in 1888 and by England and India in 1910. The height of polo ponies was first fixed at 14 hands but was raised in 1895 to 14.2 where it stayed until measurement was abolished after the first war.

In 1903, the Hurlingham Club Polo Committee was expanded to include representatives from the Services, the County Polo Association (formed in 1898 to look after the interests of the country clubs and to run the County Cup Tournaments), the three London polo clubs, Hurlingham, Ranelagh and Roehampton, and from all associations within the Empire. In 1925, this Committee was redesignated as the Hurlingham Polo Association.

The Champion Cup was played at Hurlingham until 1939 but, with the Second World War came the end of the London season and in 1949 the County Polo Association was amalgamated with the Hurlingham Polo Association. The Roehampton Open and the County Cup continued to be played at Roehampton until 1955 but Ham is the only surviving London club. However, there are now over seventy outdoor and areana clubs and associations in the UK and Ireland, and most Commonwealth countries and many overseas clubs are affiliated to the HPA.

The principal high goal tournaments are played at Cowdray Park, Cirencester Park, Guards (Windsor Park), and The Royal County of Berkshire.

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CONTENTS

A Brief History of the Game of Polo and The Hurlingham Polo Association ...... 2 Council ...... 6 Affiliated Associations and Council Members ...... 8 Elected Members of the Counci