YES TER YEARS
POLO: THE KING OF GAMES
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ext to the polo ground in Gilgit, Pakistan is a stone tablet with the following words
Princess Anne and Queen Elizabeth attend a polo match at Smith’s Lawn in 1955. By Nigel à Brassard
inscribed on it: Let others play at other things. The king of games is still the game of Kings. These lines come from a poem written in the late 19th century
by James Stephen, an Englishman, but in fact were written about his love of real (court) tennis, which he had learned to play while at Cambridge University. Nevertheless, the modern game of polo can accurately be
described as a truly royal game as many members of royal families across the world have taken an active part, including King Alfonso XIII of Spain, the German Crown Prince, the Crown Prince of Jordan, the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Jahore and the Sultan of Pahang. One of the characteristics of polo is that there are some families
who have played polo over successive generations. The names of Gracida, Heguy, Pieres, Lucas, Beresford, Pearson, Orthwein and Snow are just a few. The British Royal Family’s contribution to the game cannot be
62 POLO PLAYERS EDITION
overestimated, as their involvement as players and spectators has done so much to popularize polo.
Polo was introduced into Britain in 1869 and on June 6, 1874 the first polo match was played at the Hurlingham Club in London, between the Royal Horse Guards and the 1st Life Guards. A magazine reported, “Popular as the game of polo has become, on no previous occasion had such an immense number of the fashionable world assembled for the ostensible purpose of witnessing a game.” Much of the excitement was as a consequence of the then Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and a Royal party amongst the spectators. One aspect of the marriage of Princess Elizabeth (later Queen
Elizabeth II) and Prince Philip was that it brought together two families that had been playing polo since the late 19th century. Princess Elizabeth’s father, George VI, and her uncles Edward,
The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII); Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester; and Prince George, Duke of Kent were all keen polo players. It was their uncle Prince Albert, Duke of Clarence and Avondale who was the first member of the British Royal Family to
COURTESY OF NIGEL A BRASSARD
