The Polo

Polo - A Guide

Two underlying concepts govern the game of polo.

The first is that polo is a tactical team sport with either 3 (indoor or enclosed arena) or 4 (full size ground) players a side.

• Like all tactical team sports, each player fills a specific role and supporting the team effort on both offence and defence.
• The objective of the game is for a team to score the most goals by hitting the ball through their goal posts at the end of the ground.
• Like other high contact team sports such as Rugby or Football, defensive plays, such as "riding off" and "hooking" are important defence tactics and can result in fouls which incur penalties.
• Normally, polo is played on an outdoor polo field which is 300 yards long and 160 yards across, the area of 10 football fields

The second is "the line of the ball". This is the imaginary line the ball creates as it travels from point A to point B.

• This "line" determines the strict rules about how players can approach and attack the ball and each other, ensuring that the players and horses, travelling at 35mph when at top speed, do not collide resulting in serious injury to either horse or rider.
• When two players ride to the ball, both hoping to hit it, they must ride on either side of the "line" so that both will have access to the ball. They must remain on opposite sides of the line, thus minimizing the risk of collision.
• The line remains set until the ball is struck by a player, changes direction, and a new line is formed.
• A player may cross the line only when it does not create a hazardous situation such as a collision with another rider. This may result in a foul and consequent penalty being awarded.

Team Positions and Tactics

• Team members are numbered 1 to 4 with No 1 being the attacking or offensive player and No 4 being the back or defensive player.
• In Indoor or Arena polo, the pivotal player on the team is the No 3, as he must stem the opponent's offence, turn the play to the attack, and pass the ball up field to his No 2 and No 1 player, as they turn to press the penetration toward the enemy goal.
• The No 1 player concentrates on opportunities for scoring, but also has the defensive responsibility for the opposing No 3 player. The No 2 team member supports No 3 on the pivotal plays, turns quickly to follow the No 1 player on attack, and harasses the opposing No 2 player.
• Outdoors the No 4 player is primarily responsible for defending the team's goal. These assignments are not rigid, and each player must be prepared to make any play that will benefit his team, temporarily changing position as the pattern indicates.

Scoring and Rules

• There are general rules covering everything from the size of the ball to the colours of the team shirts, and field rules setting regulations for actual playing situations. When a foul occurs the umpires can award anything from a free goal to a free hit from a distance determined by the severity of the foul. Scoring is accomplished by putting the ball across the goal line between two goal posts 24 feet apart.
• Three umpires, two on horseback and one on the side of the field, oversee the game and enforce the rules. Infractions generally involve hazardous riding and dangerous use of the mallet. Umpires can be recognised by their shirts which have vertical black and white stripes.

Chukkas

• The full game is 8 periods, but often in club matches 4 or 6 periods are played.
• They are 7 minutes each in length, plus a 30-second overtime. Each period is called a "chukka". The brief periods are necessary due to the stress placed on polo ponies who will spend a great deal of that time galloping up and down a 300 metre ground.
• Each player in high goal (top level professional) tournaments uses a fresh pony for each chukka because the game is played at a very fast pace, with the horses galloping much of the time. In club games, ponies may play 2 chukkas in a match.
• Should overtime be required, a seventh mount may be called upon, or a player may go back to his best mount of the day. Three minutes are generally allowed between chukkas to change horses.

A Short History of Polo

Polo is thought to have originated in China and Persia around 2,000 years ago. The name of the game may well come from the word "pholo" meaning 'ball' or 'ballgame' in the Balti language of Tibet.

The first recorded game took place in 600BC between the Turkomans and Persians (the Turkomans won). In the fourth century AD, King Sapoor II of Persia learned to play, aged seven. In the 16th century, a polo ground (300 yards long and with goalposts eight yards apart) was built at Ispahan, then the capital, by Shah Abbas the Great.

The Moguls were largely responsible for taking the game from Persia to the east and, by the 16th century, the Emperor Babur had established it in India. (It had already long been played in China and Japan, but had died out by the time the West came in contact with those countries). In the 1850s, British tea planters discovered the game in Manipur (Munipoor) on the Burmese border with India. They founded the world's first polo club at Silchar, west of Manipur. Other clubs followed and today the oldest in the world is the Calcutta Club which founded in 1862.

Malta followed in 1868 because soldiers and naval officers stopped off there on their way home from India. In 1869, Edward "Chicken" Hartopp, of the 10th Hussars, read an account of the game in The Field magazine while stationed at Aldershot and, with fellow officers, organised the first game. Then known as "hockey on horseback," it was played on a hastily-rolled Hounslow Heath where a shortlist of about 10 rules was also hastily assembled.

But, it was John Watson (1856-1908), of the 13th Hussars, who formulated the first real rules of the game in India in the 1870s. He later formed the celebrated Freebooters team who won the first Westchester Cup match in 1886. He was a key player at the All Ireland Polo Club which was founded in 1872 by Horace Rochfort of Clogrenane, County Carlow.

The first polo club in England was Monmouthshire, founded in 1872 by Captain Francis "Tip" Herbert (1845- 1922), of the 7th Lancers, at his brother's estate at Clytha Park, near Abergavenny. Others, including Hurlingham, followed quickly.

Handicaps were introduced by the USA in 1888 and by England and India in 1910.

The first official match in Argentina took place on 3rd September 1875. The game had been taken there by English and Irish engineers and ranchers.

In 1876, Lt Col Thomas St.Quintin, of the 10th Hussars, introduced the game to Australia. He is credited with being the Father of Australian Polo. Two of his brothers stayed on there as ranchers and helped the game to develop. In the same year, polo was introduced to the USA by James Gordon Bennett Junior who had seen the game at Hurlingham during a visit to England.

Today, more than 77 countries play polo. It was an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1939 and has now been recognised again by the International Olympic Committee