HAM_Yearbook_2008 DIGITAL:Layout 1 25/6/08 19:02 Page 55
Brian - I'm not the Messiah! Will you please listen? I am not the polo after all...not a Metallica concert! The ceremony went on
Messiah, do you understand? Honestly! forever..NCD gave a fine speech to thank our hosts for their
Girl follower - Only the true Messiah denies His divinity wonderful hospitality and ..er...that’s all I remember, but it was a
Brian - What? Well, what sort of chance does that give me? All right! fine speech. We then celebrated in style...champagne being sprayed
I am the Messiah! everywhere, drinking it from the big trophy we’d just won...being a
Crowd of followers - He is! He is the Messiah! polo star was fun!
Brian - Now, bugger off!
[silence] The rest of the night is a little blurry ...we had a great barbeque in the
Follower - How shall we bugger off, O Lord? pitch-side tent...a crazy girl in an orange dress appropriately called
‘Gigi’ (thanks JD) tried it on with I think every single member of the
England team. Very classy..we then went out for the night – in our
BY THE END OF THE DAY AFTER THE GAME,
AND A FEW DRINKS IN I ACTUALLY BEGAN TO
whites I think. For a proper Rhode Island bar-crawl...
BELIEVE I ACTUALLY WAS A FAMOUS POLO STAR
By the last day of this non-stop weekend we were all pretty
exhausted I think – I haven’t even mentioned the shopping outings
Back to the game...ok might as well get to the point....we won the or the big lobster dinner we had one night (how we fit all of this into
game. - 14-12 I think it was. Led from the front and never looked 3 days I’m not quite sure – a huge thanks to our kind hosts for such
back. Sebastian Dawnay gave a FLAWLESS performance and scored wonderful planning).
most of the goals– didn’t miss a single penalty and controlled the
game from start to finish. We worked hard for each other as a team, To end on a serious note - it is a real honour to be chosen for this
communicated well and all did our best to overcome the obstacles of weekend – you are an ambassador for club and country –
playing away from home – the unfamiliar horses, the hard dry something to be proud of - the hosts are amazing, everything is laid
ground and a field that seemed about half of regulation size – on for your enjoyment and fun...so if NCD ever calls you over and
something our hosts were clearly used to. Oh and a hugely partisan has a quiet word in your ear...do it! The Rhode Island weekend is a
crowd that booed, jeered and whistled any decision that went polo experience you will never forget!
against their home team. It was in some ways more like seeing a
football game than a polo game, as we know it. Only in the USA! At
least they were getting into it..the hardest part of the game was still
to come however..after the final chukka and the elation of victory we
were walking our horses off the field and all ready to chill for a while
over a celebratory beer...when we were told about the high-five
tradition. At the end of each game, the entire audience come to the
boards and the teams have to canter around the inside of the
boards, high-fiving the entire audience. No joke. My poor old horse
was barely alive and was far from impressed with this suggestion, but
canter we did. It was probably worthy of a Guinness Record, I think
we must have each done about 600 high-fives in about 2 minutes –
it was slightly surreal..perhaps a new idea for Ham in 2008?
Fast-forward to the presentation ceremony....my 24 hours as a polo
star were becoming even more surreal – again no joke – a girl
went up to NCD and asked him to ask me to autograph her friend’s
breasts. I politely declined the opportunity, I hasten to add! This is
THE LONDON POLO CLUB 55
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