Warwick Polo takes national title

Warwick Polo Club took eight teams to SUPA’s annual winter national tournament last weekend, and for the second tournament running returned with a team of national champions. Jamie-Rose Larkin (capt.) Will Blair and Chris Noble, all new to the sport in October, stormed to an impressive victory in the Beginner 1 division, confirming Warwick’s polo freshers as the best university-level beginner players in the UK.

Following three strong wins against teams from Harper Adams, Regents College and Oxford Brookes, victory hinged on a tense penalty shoot-out when the final against a strong UWE side finished 1-1. With the penalties neck-and-neck and the Warwick supporters on the brink of nervous meltdown, Chris Noble kept his head to score the winner with a beautiful shot straight into the goal, leaving the team worthy champions of the highest beginner division.

The team collected individual rosettes and a shield at the prize giving on Sunday evening, returning the award to the Warwick Polo trophy cabinet, where its absence has been felt since 2008’s Beginner 1’s brought it home.

It is unsurprising that our beginners are now officially the best in the country: Not only were the 1s unstoppable, but Warwick’s other beginner teams also showed immense promise and skill. Captains Marcus Williams, Kent Horio and Sophie Hardy lead their teams to impressive debut performances for the club at a national level, and for some players it was their first competitive polo tournament ever. With such a strong start from them all, more victories in the future seem inevitable.

The beginners were not the only ones displaying Warwick’s traditional dominance on the pitch. Novice 1’s Alex Boardman (capt.) Caitlin Macnamara and Oli Rintoul-Hoad finished in an impressive third place in their division, narrowly missing out on a spot in the final after an unlucky 1-0 defeat to Bristol’s first team. Their performance was an encouraging follow-up to last year’s victory at summer nationals, where Alex and Caitlin played together to bring home the trophy in the Novice 2 division. The weekend’s result shows the girls to be fully set to dominate the higher division they find themselves in this year, and promises good things for SUPA’s summer nationals in June, where this tournament’s Novice 2s, captained by Daisy Kemp, will have a point to prove after an administrative error from the organisers led to their missing out on the semi-finals, despite a 3-match unbeaten record. With Warwick pride at stake, the battle to retain last summer’s Novice 2 title will be a hard-fought one! Strong performances were also charted by Novice 3 and 4, captained by Emily Serraillier and Kathryn McPherson respectively. The 3s and 4s found themselves facing each other twice over the course of the tournament, and diplomatically took a victory each, to keep the Warwick dominance evenly spread.

The tournament was undoubtedly a hugely encouraging one, and stands the club in brilliant stead for the summer. Throughout long days, dodgy weather and a few frustrating decisions, the club’s sportsmanship and enthusiasm remained at its usual incredible level, with all of our players doing us proud both on and off the pitch (to say nothing of some of the performances at the Players’ Party on Saturday night…).

Another team of national champions, plenty of great chukkas and a ton of mud later; the future is undoubtedly bright for Warwick Polo Club.