WELCOME TO ROYAL NAVY POLO

WELCOME to Royal Navy Polo. Polo is very much alive and well in the Senior Service with several active players across all ranks. The Royal Navy and Royal Marines are actively recruiting now, so why not consider an interesting career with a difference and enjoy opportunities to play polo at discounted rates and take part in team tours around the globe – details are available at any Armed Forces Careers Office!

The Royal Navy Polo Association (RNPA) is based at Tidworth Polo Club in Wiltshire, where it keeps its string of eight ponies for members’ use.

The association aims to promote polo for all ranks throughout the Royal Navy and Royal Marines by making it fun and affordable. To do this, massive financial subsidies are available for pony hire, introductory courses and foreign tours, with the highest rates available to junior officers and other ranks; making playing Navy polo the cheapest in the country.

All regular and reserve personnel are eligible and details are available from the RN Polo Secretary.

The Royal Navy’s connection with polo has been long and very distinguished. Polo was played by naval teams in a number of foreign stations as early as the 1860s and in 1874 the staff of Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet helped to start the Malta Polo Club.

The Royal Navy Polo Association was subsequently founded in 1929 by Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes and continues to this day under the umbrella of Royal Navy and Royal Marines Equestrian Association, which was formed in 1957. Malta became the epicentre of Naval polo, with Admiral of the Fleet Lord Louis Mountbatten being a regular player and central influence.

In the changing world of the 1960s, the Royal Navy withdrew from Malta and with it the RNPA and its ponies returned to the UK in 1962. Taunton Vale Polo Club in Somerset offered the RNPA a new home and Naval polo flourished there until moving to its current base at Tidworth Polo Club when it became the centre for Combined Services Polo in 1994.