Carlton House polo club is open for business again

A family-run polo club – which closed when one of its key figures was paralysed – is reopening with a tournament on behalf of the air ambulance that saved his life.

Carlton House was set up by James and Harriet Servaes and their daughters Becky and Alice on their farm in north Suffolk in 2006. They ran a successful polo school until late 2008, when Mr Servaes – now 64 – was injured.

Alice Servaes, 28, told H&H: “He was playing really slow club chukkas with some of the beginners when he fell and landed on his head.”

Mr Servaes was paralysed from the chest down. He spent a year in hospital and rehab.

But four years on and Mr Servaes has recovered to the extent that he is running the farm from his office. And now the club, near Bungay, is starting up again, with its first tournament on the 21-22 April.

“We have a whole load of professionals coming, including [Argentine high-goaler] Fabio Lavinia and [former England player] Mark Holmes,” said Miss Servaes.

Tickets are £5, in aid of the East Anglian Air Ambulance and another local charity, St Elizabeth’s Hospice.

Tickets are available on the gate. For more information contact Alice Servaes, tel: 07901 561113.

This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (12 April 2012)

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