Winston Churchill famously made the observation that a polo handicap is a passport to the world. And many people who have been involved with the sport would be inclined to agree with him. But they would also observe that, whilst a passport is necessary, you still need money to buy the ticket! So, with the generous support of an EFG Private Bank Army Polo Scholarship, Major Ben Marshall travelled to Jurassic Park Polo Club, South Africa, to spend 10 days taking advantage of a headstart to the English season. Here's his report:

A key element of deciding where to go for pre-season training is finding good weather in April. Traditionally the UK is wet - ‘April showers’ are so-called for a reason, they happen in April - so people look overseas. Thus, I left England basking in 20-plus degrees of glorious spring sunshine and arrived in Durban to rain, thick fog and temperatures struggling to make it into double figures; clearly passports do not guarantee good weather!
Fortunately, the sun had followed me out there and, for the duration of my trip, glorious sunshine and clear blue skies were the order of the day.

The change in the weather enabled us to get straight on with the task – playing polo. The quick-draining grounds at the adjacent Swartberg Polo Club meant that we were able to play chukkas from the off, whilst waiting for the home pitch at Jurassic to dry out. The depth of talent in South Africa is such that their ‘farm chukkas’ normally start at the 4-goal level and, at Jurassic, are facilitated by having some of South Africa’s best home-grown talent on call in the area.

Selby Williamson (5 goals), playing captain and team selector of the national side, was a great influence and one quickly realised you were in the wrong place for a pass when it went sailing past you into space – where one should have been! Jean du Plessis (4 goals), who plays for Urs Schwarzenbach’s ‘Black Bears’, is also local and he welcomed the chance to cruise around on his youngsters, educating me as to how much closer I would have to be if I stood any chance of hooking him. I would like to say that I did manage to steal the ball off him once, but I think it was more the exception proving the rule!

Sessions on the wooden (more metal actually) horse with Selby served to highlight the full range of shots and angles that could be achieved, proving how comfortable I had become with the classic four shots with only marginal variation in angle.

This was all the more apparent when Selby would pull off the most outrageous nearside tailed-backhand whilst galloping towards the backline, sending the ball travelling parallel along the backline towards the goal – I still
maintain there was witchcraft involved.

But, with practice and perseverance, and no small amount of colourful language, the angles started to come and with them an enhanced appreciation of an opponent’s options. This was all then put together during chukkas which increased in style, speed and quality as the days ticked by.

By the end of the 10 days, I was playing with a higher level of consistency and accomplishment than I had achieved by the end of last summer, setting me up well for my return to England and the start of our season.
None of this would have been possible without the very generous financial support, nor would it have been as rewarding and productive without Selby’s patience and tutelage – a big thank you to all involved.