Trip to the Polo - 10th July 2011

Today a group of us went to West Sussex to watch the Argentine Ambassadors Cup at Cowdray Park Polo Club.  It was quite an experience, as most of us had never been to a polo event before.
 
Driving down there, we got lost of course ending up in another estate, far beyond the Polo Club.. It had not helped that the police were behind us for ages, which made me suggest to Caroline to better keep on driving  in order not to draw attention to us (my own speed penalty record was obviously speaking there).  We carried on for miles so that even the Sat Nav managed to loose its way and got suspiciously silent...
 

Eventually Caroline was brave and decided to turn into an estate where we asked a very nice man in his four wheel drive for directions. He offered us to follow him, as he was going to the Polo too.  Imagine our excitement following this handsome Argentinian Polo player heading to his match!
 
On arrival, we discovered of course that the Argentinian polo player was actually a Polish car park attendant, but at least we had arrived in time and were ready for lunch!
 
As we were guests of tennis member Caesar Campoy, who works for the Argentinian Embassy, we had the priviledge of being hosted under a private marquee and treated to Argentinian culinary specialities such as very, very tender slices of beef, sausages, canapes, as well as Argentinian wine, before we headed onto the stands to watch the actual 'matches'/'chukkas'/'games'....(please forgive my complete ignorance, as I never quite got it)...well, basically  'a set of very handsome ponies with amazing muscles'...(not ignoring the 'set of very handsome MEN with amazing muscles' too....- and that's besides Gavin, Martyn, and Kjell!)
 
We never quite understood the rules of the game of course (except Judy, who seemed to get it, explaining that it had similarities with football), but did eventually figure out that the men galopping alongside the 'court' were linesmen, and not 'warming up horses', as we were first made to think.
 
Thanks to Caesar, we certainly had a most fabulous day out and would happily repeat the experience!
 
Alex Rooney

View all the photos from the day in the Photo Gallery