Polo Club Hoping for Best Season in a Decade

The Harvard Polo Club is thundering towards its best season since the horsemen revitalized the ancient sport in Cambridge eight years ago. Led by senior captain Garrick Steele and starting teammates junior Jay Romfh and senior Don Weinberg, the club posts a strong 2-1 record.

Suffering its only defeat to league-leading University of Connecticut by a close score of 9-8, the equestrians have since trampled the University of Virginia 11-9 two weeks ago and the Yale team by a 15-9 score last Saturday night at New Haven.

Coach Mike Andrew, a professor of Education at the University of New Hampshire, said Monday that this is the best Crimson polo team since he began coaching the club eight years ago while a graduate student at Harvard.

Andrew said the team has a "very good shot" at the inter-collegiate championships, which are the finale of their season and will be held in mid-March in Darien, Connecticut.

Harvard's toughest competition will come from U Conn, which has won the intercollegiates for the last two years in a row, and whose players have an average of seven years experience in a sport where experience is important. Coach Andrew said only one member of his squad played polo before they came to Harvard--a disadvantage considering the length of time it takes to learn the complex game.

Andrew is already preparing for the gap in his front line caused by the graduation of Steele, and he has begun training sophomores William Griffen and Kevin Stone, although they won't be ready for at least two years even if they practice all year long.

Andrew said, however, that he "doesn't get overly concerned over the team's record because the club is a good chance to learn how to play the game and have fun."

Polo Grounds

The club practices every Monday and Wednesday night and holds its home games on Saturday nights at the Rock Meadow Stables in Rowley, Mass., about a 45 minute drive from Cambridge. They have 12 polo "ponies," an assortment of thoroughbreds, quarter horses, and mixed breed western horses, which have an average age of 14 or 15 years.

As a club sport, it receives no financial support from Harvard and relies upon $300 per year dues from the players and generous donations from alumni to maintain the ponies and pay for the rental of the rink.

Polo was invented in India, with hundreds of horsemen playing on each side.

The British colonial cavalry adopted the game for recreation, refined the rules, and brought it back to Europe. The modern game uses two teams of three players each on a 100 yard-long outdoor grass field or a 225 ft. indoor unheated dirt rink with eight foot wide goals in each end.

The game is started by a mounted referee who throws a softball-sized leather-covered rubber ball between the opposing players in a sort of face-off style. The play then proceeds for four seven and one half minute running time periods called "chukkars" indoors, and six periods outdoors.

Horse Deals

Visiting teams use the home teams' horses to minimize transportation costs, and to eliminate advantages the teams swamp horses after the first period. Six fresh horses are brought in after the half and swapped again after the third period.

The play continues uninterrupted during each period unless there is a goal or with only one defenseman guarding. a foul is called by the referee. Fouls are called on manuevers which endanger the players or the horses, and the opposing team is allowed a free penalty shot on goal

The three-man team uses a flexible formation with a #1 player primarily on offense, a #2 player who is a type of roving halfback, and a #3 player whose role is primarily defensive.

The Harvard club is looking forward to its second match against the University of Virginia this Saturday night at 7:00, and its February 8 contest against Cornell, which has one of the strongest teams in the Ivies.