Ex Nearside Dragoon 2011



Ex Nearside Dragoon - EFG International Scholarship With a busy training year looming, following one tour to Afghanistan and staring down the barrel at another, the Light Dragoons were fortunate enough to be able to find time in January to send four players to South America to form the nucleus of the Regimental team. With a good spread of ability and experience (-2 to 0 goals) we set off to San Antonio de Areco, a small rural town and happily, the Gaucho capital of Argentina. What lay in store was an intensive two week training camp, focussing on personal skills and team play, culminating in a nail-biting series of matches against native teams, keen to give us a bloody nose. This training exercise was planned to re-invigorate a formerly competitive regimental polo team for future tournaments, an aim that was easily achieved despite having missed a good deal of Army polo due to operational commitments over the past few years. Under our coach and owner of Los Laureles Polo Club, the fabled Argentine 3 goaler Patricio Taddeo, we were worked hard on developing our personal polo skills and combined these to good effect in practice chukkas and matches as a formed team. Los Laureles Polo club is well established for such a venture. We were accommodated in a comfortable guest house, stables and polo fields were nearby with an extensive selection of well trained ponies. Beginning with stick and ball practice sessions early in the morning, Patricio worked to improve both our technique and style in order to ensure we were striking the ball with greater consistency and accuracy at all points around the pony. After an exhausting siesta, the evenings were occupied with practise chukkas and matches to ensure team tactics were identified and practised to their full extent. Patricio and his head groom, German Muzzi, were fantastic hosts and incredibly welcoming to the team. Despite Las Malvinas being the hot-topic of conversation with visiting guests and polo teams, we managed to prevent Lt Freddy Paske agreeing to settle the issue by playing for them in a series of matches. This was fortunate as after the aforementioned matches against various visiting club teams we drew even, giving rise to an Argentine conclusion that would apparently have resulted in us handing the British territory over to them. We are still in the dark as to how this conclusion came about, nonetheless we were all treated as family and were welcomed into the local community in typical friendly Argentinean style! When not playing, a good deal of time was spent nursing bodies that had not been in the saddle for some time and learning the argentine way of relaxing such as drinking matte and riding in the pampas which included a night ride to a local ‘Gaucho Bar’, followed by a race home somewhat later! As his first British Army unit, Patricio was keen to learn about us and form relationships upon which to build when he travels to the UK during the English summer time to coach at Haggis Farm Polo Club near Cambridge. This will be an excellent link for The Light Dragoons to capitalise on and also for the wider Army Polo community who we would encourage to make use of the same benefits. Similarly, the Defence Attaché in Buenos Aires, Col Mike Page, RM was very accommodating and his deputy, Maj Mike Lynch, RIFLES is keen to help visiting teams wherever possible. They came within a hair’s breadth of setting up a Light Dragoons versus Argentinean Army Polo match which sadly wasn’t possible at the last minute, however we hope that such a venture might be possible in the future if given a little more time to plan. Back at home enthusiasm for the sport within The Regiment has boomed and we are looking forward to a busy polo season in 2011 whilst also hoping to offer more to Army Polo in the future with our improved players.

Ex Nearside Dragoon - EFG International Scholarship

With a busy training year looming, following one tour to Afghanistan and staring down the barrel at another, the Light Dragoons were fortunate enough to be able to find time in January to send four players to South America to form the nucleus of the Regimental team.

With a good spread of ability and experience (-2 to 0 goals) we set off to San Antonio de Areco, a small rural town and happily, the Gaucho capital of Argentina. What lay in store was an intensive two week training camp, focussing on personal skills and team play, culminating in a nail-biting series of matches against native teams, keen to give us a bloody nose.

This training exercise was planned to re-invigorate a formerly competitive regimental polo team for future tournaments, an aim that was easily achieved despite having missed a good deal of Army polo due to operational commitments over the past few years. Under our coach and owner of Los Laureles Polo Club, the fabled Argentine 3 goaler Patricio Taddeo, we were worked hard on developing our personal polo skills and combined these to good effect in practice chukkas and matches as a formed team.

Los Laureles Polo club is well established for such a venture. We were accommodated in a comfortable guest house, stables and polo fields were nearby with an extensive selection of well trained ponies. Beginning with stick and ball practice sessions early in the morning, Patricio worked to improve both our technique and style in order to ensure we were striking the ball with greater consistency and accuracy at all points around the pony. After an exhausting siesta, the evenings were occupied with practise chukkas and matches to ensure team tactics were identified and practised to their full extent.

Patricio and his head groom, German Muzzi, were fantastic hosts and incredibly welcoming to the team. Despite Las Malvinas being the hot-topic of conversation with visiting guests and polo teams, we managed to prevent Lt Freddy Paske agreeing to settle the issue by playing for them in a series of matches. This was fortunate as after the aforementioned matches against various visiting club teams we drew even, giving rise to an Argentine conclusion that would apparently have resulted in us handing the British territory over to them. We are still in the dark as to how this conclusion came about, nonetheless we were all treated as family and were welcomed into the local community in typical friendly Argentinean style!

When not playing, a good deal of time was spent nursing bodies that had not been in the saddle for some time and learning the argentine way of relaxing such as drinking matte and riding in the pampas which included a night ride to a local ‘Gaucho Bar’, followed by a race home somewhat later!

As his first British Army unit, Patricio was keen to learn about us and form relationships upon which to build when he travels to the UK during the English summer time to coach at Haggis Farm Polo Club near Cambridge. This will be an excellent link for The Light Dragoons to capitalise on and also for the wider Army Polo community who we would encourage to make use of the same benefits.

Similarly, the Defence Attaché in Buenos Aires, Col Mike Page, RM was very accommodating and his deputy, Maj Mike Lynch, RIFLES is keen to help visiting teams wherever possible. They came within a hair’s breadth of setting up a Light Dragoons versus Argentinean Army Polo match which sadly wasn’t possible at the last minute, however we hope that such a venture might be possible in the future if given a little more time to plan.

Back at home enthusiasm for the sport within The Regiment has boomed and we are looking forward to a busy polo season in 2011 whilst also hoping to offer more to Army Polo in the future with our improved players.