THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 25, 1994 TAG: 9409230225
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 135 lines
LONDON TRANSPLANTS Clive and Maryann Large had a bit of a dilemma recently.
Who to root for - their homeland or the colonies?
When the Virginia Beach Polo Club played the British Combined Services polo team last week at Alpha Omega Farm in Pungo, the Larges were on hand. The exhibition match between their countrymen and the team from their adopted home was the first polo they had attended since moving here from London three years ago.
``We're enjoying it immensely,'' said Clive, sipping a Rolling Rock beer instead of the more traditional champagne.
Maryann clicked away with her camera as the action passed close by through the split-rail fence.
``We watched in England for years,'' Clive said, adding that even though they live here now, they were rooting for the British.
The Larges and about 75 others visited the farm to watch the players on horseback race at speeds of more than 30 mph on a field nine times the size of a football field.
The players strike a plastic ball slightly larger than a baseball, using a bamboo-cane mallet. Like football players, polo players wear helmets with face masks and numbered uniforms. Instead of quarters, the teams play six chukkers of 7-minute duration.
And, contrary to general opinion, polo wasn't invented in England.
Actually, it's Indian, said Jamie Woodward. ``The military brought polo back from India to England,'' said Woodward, captain of the British Combined Services polo team.
Alpha Omega Farm is the home of the local club's president Bart Frye. He built his polo field when he became an avid player several years ago, he explained on the hot Indian summer afternoon of the British match.
The Beach club has 17 members and has improved over the years. Karen Mullaney, one of eight female members, won most-valuable-player honors at a recent match against the Altamira Club in Charlottesville even though her team lost, 6 to 5.
There are are several teams around Virginia, Frye said. ``Two teams in Charlottesville, one in Fredericksburg, one in Great Meadows and three teams in the Warrenton/Middleburg area,'' Frye said.
Dr. Tom Wood practices veterinary medicine, specializing in horses. He is a member of the Beach polo club and served as announcer for the match against the Brits.
``Thoroughbreds make the best polo ponies,'' said Wood. ``And Argentine horses are the best of the thoroughbreds now.
``A polo pony must be fast, able to stop and start and maneuver quickly,'' he said. On the polo field, the ponies indeed stopped, started and turned quickly. The players yelled to each other while pursuing the ball, and their exertions produced a surprising amount of strain and sweat.
Umpire Jack Ferguson of Richmond cried, ``Goal, Blue,'' 30 seconds after play began, noting a British goal.
Lance Corporal Grenville Waddington of the Royal Marines helped his team to a 4-0 lead at the end of the first chukker.
Bart Frye said later, ``We gave away two goals to start.'' (Because of rating differences, the British team was given 2 points before the match started.)
Players changed mounts after each chukker and continued play, switching ends of the field after each score. The tails of the ponies were bound to keep them from getting caught in the swinging mallets.
The ponies raced up and down the field and riders leaned over their horses, straining with their mallets to move the ball goalward. Action seesawed furiously, as one team, then another slapped the ball down the field only to have the other team send it in the opposite direction seconds later.
At the end of the third chukker, the British team led, 5-2.
Instead of the usual six-chukker match, the exhibition had been truncated to four.
The local four-man lineup of Phil Staples, Jean-Marie Turon, Juan Salinas and Frye mounted a valiant comeback.
Despite their efforts, the rally fell short by one goal. The Brits prevailed, 5-4.
Their blue-and-white jerseys soaked with sweat, their hair tousled, the British servicemen walked their equally fatigued ponies from the field and talked about the match.
Waddington straightened his mallet shafts over his knee (``the bamboo has a tendency to bend during the match,'' he said) and put them away. Polo players carry several mallets to use with different-height horses and in varying conditions.
``The match was hard, hot and fiercely contested,'' said Waddington, a 14-year polo veteran who once played professionally.
``Riding skills are the most difficult aspect of the game to master,'' he said. ``The horse accounts for probably 75 percent of the game.''
According to spectator and avid polo fan Lyn Williams, there's more to the game than ponies. ``I attend the matches religiously,'' said Williams. ``I'm a polo groupie. I support the club every chance I get.
``This match was well-played, but the University of Virginia match will be much more a social occasion. Informal contests for best tail-gate parties. Great fun,'' she said.
Frye agreed, calling the match against the British ``an excellent precursor for the upcoming VBPC match against the U.Va. alumni team.''
That match, which will benefit United Cerebral Palsy of Southeastern Virginia, 4-H Clubs of Virginia Beach and the Shriners' Crippled and Burned Children's Hospital, will be played Oct. 8 at Alpha Omega Farm. MEMO: MORE POLO
The eighth annual rivalry between the Virginia Beach Polo Club and
the University of Virginia Alumni polo team will be Oct. 8 at Alpha
Omega Farm, 2585 W. Landing Road. The afternoon gala, will feature the
match as well as tailgate parties and other traditional polo activities.
The event will benefit United Cerebral Palsy of Southeastern Virginia,
4-H Clubs of Virginia Beach and the Shriners' Crippled and Burned
Children's Hospital. Gates open at 1 p.m. and the match starts at 3.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for children. Children under 6 are free.
Tickets to the patrons' party are $25. To find out more, call Margaret
Flibotte at 627-1980. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover
Brits at the Beach
Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Bart Frye of Virginia Beach, left, chases Lance Corporal Piers
Hankinson of the Combined British Services Polo Association. The
Beach club has 17 members.
``I attend the matches religiously,'' said Lyn Williams, an
enthusiastic spectator for this exhibition. ``I'm a polo groupie. I
support the club every chance I get.''
Wilbur Edwards of Virginia Beach and his 2-year-old daughter,
Melinda, watch the action through the split-rail fence at Alpha
Omega Farm in Pungo.
The match was hard, hot and fiercely contested,'' said Lance
Corporal Grenville Waddington, a 14-year polo veteran who once
played professionally.
by CNB