live2ride
Well-Known Member
I've never posted much, owing to personal anxieties that people just wont care about what I post, however I have always loved reading everyone else's posts, so thought I'd try my hand at posting a bit more. Sorry this is quite long... hopefully not too boring :/
This post may not be everyone's cup of tea, because the thoughts towards the discipline seem to be a bit like marmite, either love it or hate it.. but I am so proud of my team, and being the new president of my university club, Warwick University Polo Club, thought I'd give a bit of a different competition report!
Around 5 weeks ago the SUPA Summer Nationals were held at my home club Offchurch Bury Polo club.
What is this event? It is a university level polo tournament held twice a year, one is held in February (arena polo) and the 2nd in June (grass polo). Quick breakdown for those who aren't familiar with polo, and specifically university level polo; the tournament is held over 3 long days, where we are all constantly praying for good weather (playing on wet grass gives a little too much adrenaline for me). Over these 3 days each team plays 4 chukkas against other universities in their division, to hopefully come out on top as National Champions. The divisions are Beginner level, Novice level and Intermediate level, each with their own subdivisions, such as Novice 1, novice 2, this way everyone has a chance to play against people of a similiar ability, and be able to have a fun time, after all it isn't that fun to be completely trounced.
I started playing polo 18 months ago, and this year I managed to become captain of our top novice team! An amazing achievement for me tbh, I was always sporty at school, but was never ever considered the best of anything, always good but in the middle ability wise. To finally be considered one of the best players in my club and after only playing a year, honestly makes me very proud.
Onto the first day, usually I would wake up and already have butterflies fluttering, getting more and more nervous as the first chukka approached, wondering am I going to let my team down, a major difference I have found than when I compete in dressage, there you just rely on yourself and if you mess up it's on you but you have only let yourself down. A big change when I first started at polo, relying on a team and wanting to succeed for them.
However, whether this is good or bad I wasn't feeling any nerves, just wanted to go and play some good polo, obviously would be nice to win but at that point it wasn't the be all and end all. Went into the first chukka feeling super confident, on my new favourite pony, Doicy, who'd only been at the club about a month and was suitably quirky - we spent the warm up time, where all we do is walk (the ponies have a few long days ahead of them and temps are starting to hit 20+degrees) crawling away from the pony lines and then jig jogging the way back, acting like she had ants in her pants when asked to stand still and working out if she reverses super slowly she could almost trick her rider that she was behaving and not attempting to go back to the pony lines. We managed to get this team photo though:
Anyways I digress, onto the first chukka, we make our way onto the pitch, my pony is feeling a bit lively and I work to keep a lid on her so we don't get too strong, love this photo of us though:
First line up and we win the ball, my team mates hit it up the pitch towards goal, they mess up as usually occurs, leaving me to cover the back. It is my turn on the ball, tap, tap, tap, go for a semi big hit and miss... luckily my teams are now backing me up and take over hitting the ball. Unfortunately, this became a reoccurence throughout that first chukka and the 2nd that day, so I resorted to tapping the ball, when my teammates messed up and riding off the other team. I did my job, and luckily as my mum said 'someone else could hit the ball', meaning we won our first 2 chukkas, on track to winning the title!
Thursday, saw our team being spectators and helping the rest of our clubs teams win, through strong spectating and support!
Friday comes, their are just 2 7 minute chukkas between us and a national champion title! Nerves are kicking in a little, I spend all morning praying that these next 2 chukkas will see me actally being able to play as I can, i.e. hit the ball. Onto the pitch and phew it seems I have regained co-ordination and can connect the end of my mallet to the small white ball, resulting in our team winning our 3rd chukka.. only 1 more to go now, and it will be our toughest! In previous tournaments their one team member is so powerful that his hit yanked me out my saddle!
Last chukka of the entire tournament, Novice 1 division, everyone is watching... the pressure is on, all I want now is to win for my team mates, this is their final year to win, graduating this summer. First line up we win the ball, storm down to our goal and score, pressure is off a little, always a little relief having that first goal in. The rest of the 7 minutes passes with all 3 of us playing the best polo of the entire tournament.. ending on a score of 5-0! OMG, we are now Novice 1 National Champions! An amazing feeling to finally achieve for us, we could not have done it without each member of our team, but honestly the real winners are the ponies we are so lucky to ride! If I could buy Doicy I honestly would, but unfortunately have no room beside my current 2, maybe one day!
I hope people enjoyed reading/seeing about a different discipline
This post may not be everyone's cup of tea, because the thoughts towards the discipline seem to be a bit like marmite, either love it or hate it.. but I am so proud of my team, and being the new president of my university club, Warwick University Polo Club, thought I'd give a bit of a different competition report!
Around 5 weeks ago the SUPA Summer Nationals were held at my home club Offchurch Bury Polo club.
What is this event? It is a university level polo tournament held twice a year, one is held in February (arena polo) and the 2nd in June (grass polo). Quick breakdown for those who aren't familiar with polo, and specifically university level polo; the tournament is held over 3 long days, where we are all constantly praying for good weather (playing on wet grass gives a little too much adrenaline for me). Over these 3 days each team plays 4 chukkas against other universities in their division, to hopefully come out on top as National Champions. The divisions are Beginner level, Novice level and Intermediate level, each with their own subdivisions, such as Novice 1, novice 2, this way everyone has a chance to play against people of a similiar ability, and be able to have a fun time, after all it isn't that fun to be completely trounced.
I started playing polo 18 months ago, and this year I managed to become captain of our top novice team! An amazing achievement for me tbh, I was always sporty at school, but was never ever considered the best of anything, always good but in the middle ability wise. To finally be considered one of the best players in my club and after only playing a year, honestly makes me very proud.
Onto the first day, usually I would wake up and already have butterflies fluttering, getting more and more nervous as the first chukka approached, wondering am I going to let my team down, a major difference I have found than when I compete in dressage, there you just rely on yourself and if you mess up it's on you but you have only let yourself down. A big change when I first started at polo, relying on a team and wanting to succeed for them.
However, whether this is good or bad I wasn't feeling any nerves, just wanted to go and play some good polo, obviously would be nice to win but at that point it wasn't the be all and end all. Went into the first chukka feeling super confident, on my new favourite pony, Doicy, who'd only been at the club about a month and was suitably quirky - we spent the warm up time, where all we do is walk (the ponies have a few long days ahead of them and temps are starting to hit 20+degrees) crawling away from the pony lines and then jig jogging the way back, acting like she had ants in her pants when asked to stand still and working out if she reverses super slowly she could almost trick her rider that she was behaving and not attempting to go back to the pony lines. We managed to get this team photo though:
Anyways I digress, onto the first chukka, we make our way onto the pitch, my pony is feeling a bit lively and I work to keep a lid on her so we don't get too strong, love this photo of us though:
First line up and we win the ball, my team mates hit it up the pitch towards goal, they mess up as usually occurs, leaving me to cover the back. It is my turn on the ball, tap, tap, tap, go for a semi big hit and miss... luckily my teams are now backing me up and take over hitting the ball. Unfortunately, this became a reoccurence throughout that first chukka and the 2nd that day, so I resorted to tapping the ball, when my teammates messed up and riding off the other team. I did my job, and luckily as my mum said 'someone else could hit the ball', meaning we won our first 2 chukkas, on track to winning the title!
Thursday, saw our team being spectators and helping the rest of our clubs teams win, through strong spectating and support!
Friday comes, their are just 2 7 minute chukkas between us and a national champion title! Nerves are kicking in a little, I spend all morning praying that these next 2 chukkas will see me actally being able to play as I can, i.e. hit the ball. Onto the pitch and phew it seems I have regained co-ordination and can connect the end of my mallet to the small white ball, resulting in our team winning our 3rd chukka.. only 1 more to go now, and it will be our toughest! In previous tournaments their one team member is so powerful that his hit yanked me out my saddle!
Last chukka of the entire tournament, Novice 1 division, everyone is watching... the pressure is on, all I want now is to win for my team mates, this is their final year to win, graduating this summer. First line up we win the ball, storm down to our goal and score, pressure is off a little, always a little relief having that first goal in. The rest of the 7 minutes passes with all 3 of us playing the best polo of the entire tournament.. ending on a score of 5-0! OMG, we are now Novice 1 National Champions! An amazing feeling to finally achieve for us, we could not have done it without each member of our team, but honestly the real winners are the ponies we are so lucky to ride! If I could buy Doicy I honestly would, but unfortunately have no room beside my current 2, maybe one day!
I hope people enjoyed reading/seeing about a different discipline
. I don't think it was any great loss to the sport as I'm quite sure I would have been rubbish.
