Cowdray Stables

Midhurst and the surrounding countryside echo with the sound of tannoys and excited cheering. Yes, the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup is back in town. The polo grounds at Cowdray Park host the event with teams from all over the world including Dubai, Argentina and as I understand it, Thailand. We went once to see what the excitement was about, on the cheap charity day when a family car is allowed in for £10, . It is, no doubt about it, exciting and stimulating with horses and lean tanned men. I personally would rather watch Andy Murray at Wimbledon any day.

On our walk today (blessedly cooler temperatures) we passed stables where practice was going on and stables, like these, which were empty, their occupants busy at Cowdray Park. These are painted in the Cowdray colour which I've shown before on Blip, part of the Cowdray estate which covers 16,500 acres of West Sussex.

I don't think polo in Midhurst bears any resemblance to the polo in this (part) Australian poem by A B Banjo Paterson. published in 1893.

The Geebung Polo Club


It was somewhere up the country, in a land of rock and scrub,
That they formed an institution called the Geebung Polo Club.
They were long and wiry natives from the rugged mountain side,
And the horse was never saddled that the Geebungs couldn't ride;
But their style of playing polo was irregular and rash -
They had mighty little science, but a mighty lot of dash:
And they played on mountain ponies that were muscular and strong,
Though their coats were quite unpolished,
and their manes and tails were long.
And they used to train those ponies wheeling cattle in the scrub:
They were demons, were the members of the Geebung Polo Club.


I apologise for lack of comments recently, the heat saps energy and the best of intentions. Will get back to it soon.