The British sun managed, for once, to get his hat on and rose bright and early on the morning of the British Polo Day Charity Cup, presented by Land Rover. Held at the Black Bears River Ground near Henley, the polo was the main attraction of the day – but by no means the only one. First up: lifts from the Intercontinental Park Lane to the ground – in shiny Land Rovers. Second: lunch. Specifically a feast for the 400 people by the Intercontinental’s celebrity chef Theo Randall in a tent designed to look like an English country garden, complete with a Horse at Water sculpture by Nic Fiddian-Green and furniture from Belvoir Castle. There was oodles of delicious wine on offer, but the presence of His Highness Gaj Singh II of Marwar-Jodhpur kept things clean. Metaphorically speaking, that is: by the end of the afternoon all the polo players had a rakish splattering of mud. Hum Fleming and Marissa Hermer managed to avoid the mess and sipped champagne prettily on the sidelines, while Lady Chelsea and her daughter The Hon Philippa Chelsea thought that a polo match was the perfect opportunity to take their dog for a stroll while treading in the divots. Everyone went wild for the players – including Guy Schwarzenbach, who received the Hackett Cronan trophy as Captain of the Eton Team, Max Gottschalk and The Hon. Tristan Phillimore – as they left the polo field. In fact, when the voice of British Polo Day, Col. Simon Ledger, asked the crowd if there were any questions, one female voice was heard to pipe up asking if any of the players were single. Then it was back to London, goody bags clutched, where the partying continued to go on late into the night.
Photos by Sam Churchill
For more information about British Polo Day, visit britishpoloday.com
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