HORSES, PENNY FARTHINGS AND CROQUET
By Adrian Coles, Hon Secretary, Surbiton Croquet Club
At first sight there is little connection between horses, penny farthing bicycles and croquet. But some readers might have a clue as to what these three things have in common when I say that all were gathered together at Ham Polo Club’s centenary celebration on the late May Bank Holiday Monday. The link, of course, is mallets. On the day penny farthing polo was followed by the more conventional horse polo, with croquet taster sessions, provided by three committee members from Surbiton Croquet Club, running continuously alongside both. We were participating in a “festival of mallet sports,” a central part of Ham Polo Club’s promise to give its guests a “fun-filled Sports Day like no other”. The day kicked off with penny farthing polo (“not a sight you see every day” as the polo club’s advertising put it with pinpoint accuracy). The work rate of the cyclists (jockeys?) was phenomenal. Riding these huge 19th century ungeared bicycles around a grass polo lawn didn’t look easy. But cycling is just the start. Riders need to chase the ball, swing the six-foot-long mallet with accuracy against that ball, and direct it towards a team colleague or the goal. It can be dangerous; a major injury timeout required a mechanic with a spanner to refix a loose pedal after a crash of bikes. That Monday broke the “hottest day in May” record at nearby Kew Gardens (it was broken again the next day), so with the mercury rising above 34°, not a cloud in sight and the sun beating down, my admiration for the participants rose as high as the temperature. Given the heat, each section of the match (there are four “chukkas” in a polo match) was cut down from seven and a half minutes to six minutes, and similar considerations applied to the conventional, horse-based, polo. Concern for the wellbeing of the horses is central to a polo club, and the programme had to be curtailed. Nevertheless, we were treated to two exciting games. So where did the croquet fit in? Ham Polo Club is about a 20- minute drive from Surbiton Croquet Club, and they had written to me in the winter asking if our club might like to take part in their centenary celebrations. They guessed that their membership might enjoy croquet and ours, polo. The club offered discounted tickets to their event for our club members, which a number took advantage of. We had a lawn beautifully positioned just next to the club house, and with the polo commentator mentioning the croquet taster sessions frequently over the PA system, we had a steady stream of visitors. We were able to set up six hoops on, broadly speaking, level ground, and run a
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