National Championships 2016
Although not as successful as the club might have hoped for, the University Polo National Championships in Rugby was a bundle of fun and proved to be a great opportunity for all of the 11 teams (a new club record) to get to know each other better, whether this was on the pitch or off it.
On the pitch, Royal Holloway came away with three Runners up spots. These came in the SAPA (Rosie Ross, Georgia Sweeney and James Mann), Upper Intermediate (James Mann, Ollie Edwards and Laurence Bleggers) and Beginner 1A (Chavez Selvaratnam, Georgina Walsh and Leona Hyslop) sections. Special mention to Georgina Walsh, a former social member of the club who got back on her horse after taking a slight tumble before the chukka had even begun.
Overall, the three MVP’s for their individual section were:
- Beginner: Chavez Selvaratnam
- Novice: Louis Camillieri
- Intermediate: Holly Edwards
Nationals are also a great opportunity to let the dogs out. On the Saturday, we all went to a very fun party at the polo club dressed in ‘Apres Ski’ gear. It was great to see club captain James Mann (also known as the lady killer), but also so many freshers like Danny Burgon get out there and bust some shapes. After the party, we headed back to the hotel, sobered up, and started thinking about some strategies for the games the following day.
All in all, the weekend was full of laughs and has spurred the club onto achieve more wins at Summer Nationals. Special thanks has to go to Bertie Bassett and James Mann for organizing the whole weekend, our horse hirers, Alec Banner-Eve and Tom Merrick for supplying us with outstanding horses and our wonderful coach, Georgia Sweeney, for not only assisting all of our teams at Nationals, but for the preparation and lead up until the competition began.
