Polo
player  | | Anyone
for Polo? Yorkshire is catching on to the sport of princes |
It's
fast, it's dangerous, and many people think that it's only for posh southerners...
well, you're wrong. Inside Out is talking about polo, one of the Royal Family's
favourite sports. Although Yorkshire is a very horsey county with racing,
dressage, and show jumping, it's only recently that polo has been added to its
list of equestrian sports. Inside Out follows Johnny Nelson as he learns
to play polo at Beverley Polo Club, near Hull. Pay and go play Beverley
is the first club in the North of England where you can just turn up, pay and
learn to play polo. You don't need to be a member or have your own horse. The
owner's intention is to make polo less elite and make the sport of kings and the
landed gentry available to all. Andrew Foreman, Beverley Polo Club's owner,
is a local self-made millionaire. His mission is simply to bring polo to the people
of Yorkshire.
His polo club is a stone's throw from Hull - and it's
got some of the best facilities in England. So what gave Andrew Foreman
the idea to bring polo here? "I got into business and needed a form
of release - horses are fantastic for this. I got riding then met someone who
introduced me to polo," recalls Andrew. | "I come from the grass roots. I know a lot of mixed people
from down-to-earth to very wealthy. I wanted to bring polo to wide range of people.
People think polo's too elitist and too expensive. In reality, it's no more expensive
than any equestrian sport - you can do it with two horses." | | Andrew Foreman, Beverley Polo Club |
Just over
four years ago he watched first polo match, decided to get into it, and caught
the polo bug. Andrew Foreman got so enthusiastic that he has brought in
riders from Argentina and set up a team. "Polo is very international
but in this country, it's very southern based," he says. "I got
involved at Tadcaster - a very small friendly club. The owner of that suggested
I form a club at Beverley. "I was in the process of developing an equestrian
centre here, and thought let's do it for polo... it became a mission to get polo
going in a big way in Yorkshire." Andrew's passion now takes him and
his polo team all over the world from the UK to Europe, Russia, America, and New
Zealand. Inside the game Polo is a complicated game, and whoever
wins depends not just on who scores the most goals, but on the handicaps of the
players. At Beverley, they play low-goal polo - for less experienced players
- where the game is divided into four rounds, called chukkas. High goal
polo lasts for eight chukkas, and the really serious players change their ponies
every chukka. Every so often you'll see people all over pitch, tramping
in bits of turf that horses have kicked up. It's called divot stomping,
and everyone's expected to do it - it's a chance to put the pitch back together
and socialise at the same time. The good thing is that you don't have to
spend a fortune to enjoy polo. All sorts of people play from builders, butchers
to solicitors, accountants, and landowners. Coach Paul Piddington says,
"polo has a fantastic ability of levelling. It's not about money - it's about
whether you can play or not. All money does is allow you to buy more expensive
ponies". "You can hire a horse - it's not expensive to play here
- a lesson will cost £50 and you can hire a pony for a chukka - just pay
to play... at the end of the match, just walk away and we look after the horses." Picking
up polo So can anyone learn? Inside Out puts boxer Johnny Nelson, a
complete novice, through his paces with Paul Piddington, one of the country's
top polo coaches. "I can teach people who have never been on a horse
before and get them playing after a couple of hours to a level," says Paul. "It's
a fantastic team sport - that's why the universities embrace it with good team
bonding," says Paul who says that you can never start too young.
"I'm
teaching children from about eight - a fantastic age to start," he says. It
is a sport for everyone and it's also very addictive. "It's all about
adrenaline... I've played lots of other sports, but the adrenaline rush you get
is phenomenal, people tackling you... it's a fantastic thrill." Links
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Inside
Out - Yorkshire & Lincolnshire: Monday January 9, 2006
