Dan's Papers - August 8, 2008

The sport of polo, surging in popularity here in Bridgehampton, is the oldest ball game on earth. Polo is played in more than 60 countries, but professionally only in a few. It's biggest now in the U.S., England and Argentina.

It began way on the other side of the world in the Middle East 2,000 years ago. They didn't get around to recording results until 600 BC, when it was the Turkomans vs. the Persians (in case you misplaced that year's sports sections-the Turkomans won). The Mogul conquerors of India played the game, and the stables at Agra, India, built in the 16th century, are still there.

No one needs to be told that the Brits love the game. When the British army and tea planters came to India in the 19th century, the world's oldest active club, the Calcutta Polo Club, came into being. They added all sorts of rules to the sport, and the first polo match in England didn't get around to being played until 1869. But it quickly became the rage in Britain. In 1876, it caught on in the U.S, when publisher James Gordon Bennett introduced polo to New York City. Close your eyes and picture galloping horses, mallets swinging and balls being whacked down Fifth Avenue at 39th Street.

Like everything else, polo has evolved since ancient times. The polo field was traditionally a training ground for cavalry units in the Persian Empire of the first century. Instead of four riders and horses on each side, as the game is played today, their games could get crowded, with as many as 100 on each side. It took a while for it to grow into the gentlemanly sport that prevailed in Britain in the 19th century and then into the super-competitive game it is today. It broke away from being a leisurely English pursuit involving short passes, to become the high-speed sport it is now, using the fast break, where riders send long passes to team mates, under Harry Payne Whitney's leadership.

Polo became an Olympic sport in 1900, but was dropped 1936. It made a comeback, though, regaining Olympic recognition at the South East Asian Games in 2007.

Around the world, polo is a men's sport, but in the U.S. women play, too. Rules allow male and female players on the same team, but women have their own professional polo league in the U. S., as well - the United States Women's Polo Federation. That league, along with the United States Men's Polo Federation, were founded in 2000.

While the rules and techniques of polo have changed over the years, the game never was too complicated for novice spectators to follow along with longtime fans. The object is to get the ball through the other team's goalposts, which are spread eight yards apart at each end of a 300-yard-long field. The mallets are more than four feet long, and, like baseball bats, vary in weight and other qualities. The game is divided into six chukkers, or time periods of seven minutes. The action stops only for penalties, broken tack, or injury to either the horse or player. Riders catch their breath between chukkers and change horses. Players have a ranking system, with a 10-goaler being the highest ranked.

Each team has four riders, and, of course, four horses at a time. The Number Three player is the equivalent of the quarterback in football, and is the player with the highest handicap. Number Two has the toughest job, though, playing both offensive and defensive. One is the most offensive player, and four is the primary defense player and is sometimes the team's patron, who is out there for the fun of playing with these other world-class athletes.

This system eliminates wind, sun and other advantages, and also it gives each team the opportunity to start off with the ball on their right side. This matters a lot because everyone has to play right-handed. In fact, few top players are born lefties.

Also at each game, you'll see two riders out chasing the ball who aren't on either team-the umpires.

Thrilling to play, polo can also be a rough sport for players and their horses. A talented and reliable horse is essential, since 75 percent of the player's skill comes from his teamwork with the four-legged athlete under him or her. Pony training can last up to two years. Their temperaments must be passive enough to take orders - by rein or by leg pressure - from their rider, yet aggressive enough to go flying after a ball without fear of swinging mallets and other ponies' hooves. They get hit by the ball frequently, which doesn't hurt them, the ball weighing only four ounces, but it can be scary because horses are animals whose instincts tell them run when something big or small seems to be attacking.

Players are super-aggressive. Rules allow them to "hook" an opponent's mallet, meaning when a player has his arm drawn back ready to swing the mallet, his opponent can take his own mallet and hook it on the raised mallet, preventing him from taking his swing. Players can push opponents off the line. The line of the ball is a basic concept in the sport. The line of the ball is an imaginary line that is created each time the ball is struck. This line traces the ball's path and extends past the ball along that shot. A player has the right of way if he made the last shot and has the line of the ball to his right. But it's fair play to push him off the line. A player can also bump another with his horse, and steal the ball from him. The primary concept, though, is safety for players and horses.

Polo is played in covered arenas as well, with a smaller field and somewhat different rules. College teams play indoors, and matches seem more exciting in the confined, smaller space.

But outdoor polo is thrilling and at the same time, graceful and elegant, and, on a warm summer day, about as good as it gets in summer sports.