Historic victory for all-girl polo team

For the first time ever an all-female team has won the Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA) 8-goal Gerald Balding Cup at Cirencester Park.

The plucky foursome, who represented Coombe Farm Wines, achieved the historic victory last Sunday (3 June) despite having been 6 – 1 down at half time.

Tamara Vestey – a member of the winning team – told H&H: “I’m really amazed. We’re just starting to realise what we did. As a team we only had one practice game together.We didn’t think we could win it – we just wanted to show everyone that we’re not a bunch of muppets.”

It was originally planned to have a male member on the team but he sustained a broken foot so Tamara’s sister Nina was drafted in.

Ms Vestey and her teammates — Lucy Taylor, Emma Tomlinson and Nina Clarkin (pictured) — are all amateurs from the Gloucestershire area. Two of their four male opponents in the final match were professionals.

Ms Vestey added: “Nina and Emma had an amazing last chukka and we scored right at the end to put us 7-6 up. Those last minutes felt like an eternity.”

A spokeswoman for Cirencester Park Polo Club told H&H: “It’s a truly amazing achievement. It’s a very physically demanding sport in which men with strength and power are much better off. The competition has been running since 1960 and this was the first time that an all-girl team had even entered an HPA tournament.”

Twenty four teams entered the tournament this year. The girls had to win four games to reach the final.

• www.hpa-polo.co.uk
• www.cirencesterpolo.co.uk

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