The weekend of November 22nd to 24th I competed for Edinburgh's Beginner A team in the Edinburgh Annual Polo Tournament hosted at Dalmahoy Estate. The tournament included beginner (anyone who has played for less than one year), novice, intermediate and open classes.
The tournament was configured in a round-robin fashion so that my team ended up playing St. Andrews, Newcastle, Edinburgh B, and Royal College of Surgeons from Dublin, Ireland, over the course of the weekend.
On an unusually crisp and icy Friday morning the fun began, or at least it was supposed to. Upon arrival at the yard we found out that our scheduled match against St. Andrews was to be delayed in order to let the frozen and slick arena deice. In the meantime my teammates and I stayed warm in the viewing room, ran and slide across the frozen ice, talked strategy and practiced our shots on the wooden horse. It's pretty much the same concept as hitting off a tee in baseball. At noon with the sun already becoming low in the sky--the days are short this time of the year-- the tournament and the much anticipated chukkas began. We had two matches on Friday and then two on Sunday.
The weekend was a great success!
I had a wonderful time playing polo with my teammates and hanging out with all of the Edinburgh and other university players that were there over the weekend. The dinner and social organized by our committee members was lots of fun and a great chance to socialize and recap the days events. Who doesn't reveling in the glory of a game well played. My team went 4-0 during the course of the weekend and won our division! There was an award ceremony for the tournament and we received really snazzy Argentinean polo shirts from a sponsor as a prize. I didn't know that there were prizes in polo at the beginning but now that I do I am completely sold--as if I wasn't already. Who doesn't like prizes? At the ceremony at the end of the tournament I was lucky enough to be awarded the Most Improved Player award for my performance during the chukkas. I really appreciate the honor. The recognition was great and would have been enough, but to top it off, the award came with a custom designed and tailored shirt from a company in London. Like I said, who doesn't like prizes? I'll be sure to have help picking out the shirt and taking measurements when I get home. I may have learned to play polo but custom designed shirts seem to be on a whole different level of sophistication to me.
Pictures will be sure to come once I order them from the photographer!
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| My teammates Holly and Hannah accepting our prize. |
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| Accepting my Most Improved Award from the Committee. |
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