Daily Independent Online.
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Thursday, July 08, 2004.
The game polo, and all
The 2500 year-old game of polo is one of
the fastest, roughest, and most dangerous sports played today. It is gaining
increasing popularity as a premier spectator sport and can be an easy game for
the first-time spectator to enjoy. Imagine the excitement of seeing players on
thoroughbred horses bumping and jostling with each other as hockey on
horseback, racing at top speeds down the field while striking a small ball with
the precision of an experienced golfer.
Polo is played on a 10 acre grass field,
300 yards in length by 160 yards, which is the approximate area of ten football
fields. Goal posts are set eight yards apart on either end of the field. The
object of the game is to move the ball down-field, hitting the ball through the
goal for a score. The team with the most scores at the end of the match is
deemed the winner. Teams then change direction after each goal. Two teams, made
up of four players each, are designated by shirt color. The players wear high
boots, knee guards, and a helmet of their own selection. By tradition, players
wear white pants in tournaments. The mallet made of a bamboo shaft with a
hardwood head is the instrument used to hit the polo ball, formerly wood, now
plastic, about 3 to 3 Ω inches in diameter and 3 Ω to 4 Ω
ounces in weight. In fact, the English word POLO is derived from the Tibetan
word, "pulu" meaning ball.
The surface of a polo field requires
careful and constant grounds maintenance to keep the surface in good playing
condition. During half-time of a match, spectators are invited to go onto the
field to participate in a polo tradition called "divot stomping",
which has developed to not only help replace the mounds of earth (divots) that
are torn up by the horses's hooves, but to afford spectators the opportunity to
walk about and socialise.
There are six periods or
"chukkers" in a match, each is seven minutes long. Play begins with a
throw-in of the ball by the umpire at the opening of each chukker and after
each goal; only penalties or injuries may stop play as there are no time-outs
or substitutions allowed, except for tack repair.
The four basic shots in polo are
distinguished by the side of the pony on which strokes or shots are made. That
is "near-side", left side of the mount, and "off-side"
right side of the mount. This creates the near-side forward and back shot, and
the off-side forward and back shot.
