polo manager’ s report
SILVER LININGS
Thanks to the recent visa saga with the Home Office, our Polo Manager could be forgiven for being pessimistic when asked for his thoughts on the upcoming season. Surprisingly, the very opposite is true. Antony Fanshawe thinks any downturn in play in 2017 is the perfect excuse for Guards Polo Club to start work on improving the grounds at Smith’ s Lawn
Antony Fanshawe was in an upbeat mood in his office at Smith’ s Lawn, despite the ongoing visa situation with the Hurlingham Polo Association( HPA) and the Home Office. A passionate advocate of the game, who is rarely afraid of voicing his opinions, Antony believes that the Club should use the current situation, which may well result in a reduced number of games, to its advantage.
“ What worries me most with the visa situation is that we might take our eye off the ball,” he said.“ It’ s a bit like Brexit – focus on that one thing and everything else goes to pot. The simple fact is that more people play polo than ever before and so we need to improve grounds 4-6 here at Smith’ s Lawn to attract more players. For me it’ s the only way forward as you need to continually improve its grounds.
“ If you want to be the greatest you have to maintain the highest standards across all aspects of the club. In polo terms, that means the quality of your polo fields. We have secured permission from the Crown Estate for the work on grounds 3- 6 and are now in the process of obtaining planning permission, as well as financing. Once in place we aim to start the work as soon as possible. The high-goal players will never return to playing on ground 4! If we lose the use of the private grounds – so Guards becomes the hub again – but fail to improve our grounds, then that is a recipe for disaster.
“ This year, for the first time, I think I will have five high-goal fields here that I can use – The Queen’ s and Duke’ s Grounds at Smith’ s Lawn, the two at Coworth Park and, for the first time, the Castle Ground at Flemish Farm. We will also get a couple of games at our usual private grounds thanks to the generosity of our patrons.”
Not surprisingly, Antony’ s optimism is slightly tempered by caution due to the current situation.“ Of course, I am not saying that the visa issue will not affect us here. It will cause some problems, but will only be difficult at the start of the season. Once we know the teams and their crews and have checked their paperwork, it shouldn’ t be a problem. It is likely that the Home Office will make spot checks during the season, but I would stress that it is the responsibility of the teams to make sure that they are compliant and for the HPA to police it. This is not the role of the Polo Manager.
“ That said, I think that polo people always try and pull together until we get onto the field of play. We need to acknowledge that there has been a problem with the visas previously and we must address, sensibly, what the Home Office is asking us to do. We all play because we love it and many of us have already leapt some pretty large obstacles to get to do what we love. However, I would add that, if by the end of this season the HPA has not addressed a few key Home
Office points, then I think polo may be in much more trouble. At the moment, we are just trying to roll into this season and make it work.”
So what about the upcoming season?“ It is sad to see that some big names will not be playing in the Cartier Queen’ s Cup this year – such as Zacara, HB and Dubai,” said Antony.“ It’ s going to be interesting to see who can match King Power. Although, after their 2015 / 16 football season, it might have seemed as if King Power’ s British Open win at Cowdray was just‘ normal service’. So the pressure is back on the Pieres brothers [ Gonzalo and Facundo ] after the football team’ s awful year [ although at the time of writing the Foxes were still in with a shout in the Champions League ].
“ The good news is that we will have some new high-goal patrons this season, bringing a fresh dimension to the 22- goal. It will also be interesting to see how Adolfo Cambiaso adjusts to his new shirt.
72 guards polo club official yearbook 2017