The Gentleman Magazine Issue 9 | June 2018 | Page 58

FOUR ENGLISHMEN GOING FOR GOLD IN
THE BRITISH OPEN POLO CHAMPIONSHIP
In July 2017 four English players making up the El Remanso
polo team found themselves in the remarkable position of
finalists in the world famous Gold Cup for the British Open Polo
Championship at Cowdray Park. The British Open is one of
the top three tournaments in the world and is overwhelmingly
dominated by international ‘Patrons’ who recruit the world’s
highest ranked players – predominantly Argentine – to their
teams in the quest to win the fabulous Gold Cup, the most
coveted trophy in polo.
El Remanso was ultimately unsuccessful in that 2017 Final
– much to the disappointment of the Cowdray crowd who
considered them very much the ‘home’ side – so let’s meet up
with the players who in 2018 are making their third bid to lift
that famous golden trophy – Charlie Hanbury (4 goals), Ollie
Cudmore (6 goals), James Beim (6 goals), and James Harper (6
goals), their handicap rankings making up the required tally of
22 for this high goal tournament.
Liz Higgins asks the questions:
How did you all start out?
Charlie, Ollie and the two James’s were all proud to say that
they had started playing polo in the Pony Club, the biggest
equestrian organization in the world - Ollie in the North
Cotswold, Charlie and James Beim in the Cotswold Pony Club,
and James Harper at Goodwood.
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Career highlights?
Ollie Cudmore’s first professional job was at age 16 playing
alongside James Beim for the Zacara team in the Royal
Windsor Cup at Guards. He ranks the 2017 Gold Cup final as
an absolute career highlight alongside winning the Gold Cup
at Ellerstina in Australia and the Coronation Cup at Guards in
2014.
James Harper was also playing professionally at around 16, but
says this was mostly low goal polo at Cowdray Park, his home
territory. In 2002 he played for England in the Polo World
Cup, losing in extra time in the Final. He has since played for
England in the Coronation Cup and overseas, but also rates the
2017 Gold Cup an absolute career highlight.
James Beim, Captain of England, has already tasted success in
the Gold Cup, winning it once, and was over the moon to be in
the 2017 Gold Cup Final. As well as representing his country
on numerous occasions, he has also won the Queen’s Cup. He
says that to be playing alongside his buddies again in the Gold
Cup is in itself a career highlight.
Charlie Hanbury, with his El Remanso side, won the Queens
Cup in 2009 and made it to Gold Cup Finala in both 2012 and
2017.
, Security in Motion”