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MINT CONDITION Two Trainers,30 Years of Rivalry F and Mere Months to Turn Six Novices into Polo Champions.Meet the Plucky Players Set for a Sporting Spectacular

Posted on: Saturday, 26 March 2005, 15:00 CST

Imagine you are about to be sent out on to the pitch at Hampden Park to play a game in front of a capacity crowd. On the plus side, Old Firm coaches Alex McLeish and Martin O'Neill have given you a crash course in the game. On the minus side, you've barely kicked a ball in your life. A bit of a challenge? Now imagine that it's chukka, not soccer, and you might have some idea of the test facing six novices as they prepare to take part in the Festival Cup, Scotland's most prestigious polo event. As a prelude to the main match . . . Scotland v Wales . . .

the plucky sextet will take part in a pro-am game in front of an audience that is likely to include at least one royal polo fan.

Actually, "challenge" is probably underselling what the six of them face. Riding a donkey at the seaside hardly qualifies as equestrian training, yet that was Gillian Lockhart's closest bloodstock encounter until she received two polo lessons as a birthday present last year.

The other five players . . . one of whom is a 17year-old boy . . . are either totally new to polo or have only minimal experience, but at least they're all used to riding.

The six were whittled down from 52 applicants to take part in the contest, having been screened by, among others, Scotland's leading polo player, Alistair Archibald. Surviving the selection process is only the start of their ordeal.

Having passed basic fitness tests to get this far (and having promised to find 5,000 for the privilege), all six now face three months of conditioning and basic horsemanship. Teams of three will then be chosen to train under top coaches Tom Bell and Jamie Douglas, who will ultimately each captain a side.

Bell and Douglas run professional polo schools at Kinross and Dalmahoy respectively, and the skill they are trying to impart involves hitting a moving ball while riding at up to 40 miles per hour and turning on a sixpence. As one player once described it, polo is "like playing golf in an earthquake . . . on a horse".

All of which is calculated to induce tremors when the novices meet at Dalmahoy, where Jamie . . . aka the Honourable James Douglas . . .

keeps more than 20 polo ponies. Endearingly raffish in a flannel shirt, the Earl of Morton's son is not taking his role lightly. "I think I have to be a responsible coach here, and have all the participants coming off alive, " he says. "The challenge is how competitive you can make it, and keep it safe and enjoyable. Even people who are used to riding are not used to the physicality of being bumped and chased."

Many novices will have no concept of how fast the game is. "As soon as the horse starts trotting, they are struggling, and you have to slow things down. That can be frustrating for everyone else. At the other extreme, young boys [who] tear around and take an almighty swipe will almost take the pony's leg off. But you learn to slow them down. It can be like sitting beside a learner driver."

The analogy appeals to Tom Bell, who, when he's not at the polo school, runs a haulage company. "There are completely different styles of driving, and polo is a different style of riding, " he says. "You are more of an athlete on horseback than if you're riding for pleasure. You need a sense of the animal. Riding in polo is not like hunting. It's more about driving the horse with your backside, turning with toes and knees."

There's a healthy rivalry between the two coaches. Bell is already talking boot-camp:

bringing players in for extra training. "Jamie and I have been rivals for 30 years. It's a question of how many my team is going to win by, " he says, tempering his words with a grin. "You play to win, but if you don't win as a gentleman you haven't won at all."

For their part, the six newcomers will be treating the game . . . and their training for it . . .

very seriously. "This is not a champagnefuelled jolly. It's not Faking It, " warns David Leyden Dunbar of Team Management International, the company organising the event.

"They'll need to become very fit and proficient players. We're not letting a group of people mess about on horses to make fools of themselves for the amusement of a 4,000 crowd."

You know the rules. Now meet the players f The Festival Cup is at Perth Racecourse, Scone Palace, on August 20. For more information visit www. teammanagement. org. uk

NAME: MAX CHASSELS AGE: 21 OCCUPATION: STUDENT

Women and money. When asked why he was trying out to be a polo player, that's what Max Chassels, a final-year finance student at Strathclyde University, told the selection panel for the Festival Cup match.

The money? Well, he rather likes the idea of becoming a professional player. "This might lay the foundations, " he says. At the very least it's a networking opportunity. And as for the women: he jokes that polo's an easy sport in which to pull girls, because of the numbers of gay men involved.

The only fly in the ointment might be the fact that Chassels hasn't ridden much since he was 16. "Perhaps just three times a year, but it's like riding a bike, " he says. "I want back into horses."

His family keep horses near Stewarton in Ayrshire, and his sister is a competitive showjumper. Chassels himself has broken in horses, but admits he has never played polo.

"I used to go to the gym five times a week, but not in the past year, " he says. "I'm not as fit as I should be, but I'm not apprehensive about the training."

NAME: CATH WILSON AGE: 42 OCCUPATION: VET

Having built up her own veterinary practice in Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, from scratch over the past 18 years, Cath Wilson has nothing to learn about determination. The mother of two young daughters, Wilson is the oldest of the six competitors, but that shouldn't be a hindrance. She says she's "very competitive".

Her CV backs that up. She won point-to point races when she was a student at Glasgow Vet School, and raced more than 20 times at such renowned venues as Boghead and New Lanark.

Her interest in polo began as a child when she saw it being played at Phoenix Park when on holiday in Ireland. She has never played, she admits, "however a client has started up a polo school in Ayrshire, and I'm looking for another sport. Point-to-point's a bit risky with two kids to consider."

At least she is well used to horses, and has bred at home from the mare on which she began point-to-point racing. But maybe we shouldn't read much into that. "I've not been on a horse much at all in the past year, and only twice in the last six months, " she admits.

NAME: GILLIAN LOCKHART AGE: 33 OCCUPATION: MANAGER

Until she was given polo lessons as a birthday present last year, Gillian Lockhart hadn't been on a horse since a childhood holiday. And even then, it wasn't a real horse, "just a donkey on the beach when I was a wee girl".

Still, Lockhart's athletic past can't be faulted. "I sprinted and did the long jump at school in Kilbarchan, " she says. "I used to be very competitive. I remember we finished fourth three times at the Scottish Schools relay championships." But that past is, well, long past. "I played hockey, but stopped when I left university. I did a sport in the community' degree at Jordanhill, because I loved sports, but I've never used it."

These days Lockhart, who lives in Paisley, manages Flyaway Parking at Glasgow Airport, which seems suitable for someone who admits to being largely stationary. "I've had no exercise for ten years, other than walking the dog. No proper training. I'll have to get fit again, and I'm a wee bit nervous."

The one thing you can't fault her on is her commitment. She plans to fund her training herself if she can't find a sponsor. "If I have to, I'll sell my wee Mini."

NAME: JANE CAMERON AGE: 40 OCCUPATION: SURVEYOR

I'm quite sporty, " admits Jane Cameron, proving herself adept at understatement.

"I do cross-country and downhill skiing, and snowboarding. I played hockey with Edinburgh Ladies, and I'm trying to train for a triathlon just now."

Frankly, the surveyor from Fintry seems game for anything. She once bought a day's rally driving for her boyfriend, had a go herself and ended up being crowned driver of the day. "I laughed all the way home."

She grew up on a farm in Kintyre, with horses. "I'd no formal riding lessons, " she explains. "You just did it, and took it for granted until you moved away, and then you realised you didn't have the opportunity to ride any more.

"To learn a new sport, with the added dimension that I love horses, will be fantastic. My biggest problem is that I'm left- handed, and you have to hit right-handed in polo. That might be difficult, but I play golf right-handed."

NAME: ALINE NIVEN-SMITH AGE: 33 OCCUPATION: SALES CONSULTANT

As a self-confessed "20-a-day smoker and a lover of chocolate", Aline Niven-Smith knows the next few months of training won't be easy, let alone the match itself. "Yes, I'm very unfit, and there will be a lot of pain, " she admits. "It will be bloody hard, and I'm nervous about the fitness programme, but I think I have the mindset for it. I'm under no illusions."

Given that she keeps five horses at her home at Madderty in Perthshire, at least the riding shouldn't be a problem. "But I haven't been on a horse for two months. I just ride for fun, and I've never competed at anything.

I'm not in the least bit sporty."

Niven-Smith, who works part-time as a sales consultant for Dunhill at Gleneagles, was prompted to take part after a visit to last year's event at Scone. "I got to drink out of the Festival Cup, and thought, I want to do this.'" In August she will get her wish.

"I can't imagine, " she says, looking ahead to the big day, "what the adrenalin will be like, playing for real. Probably I'm doing it now . . . oh shit'. Or words to that effect."

NAME: DOUGLAS MUNRO AGE: 17 OCCUPATION: SCHOOLBOY

For Douglas Munro, this is all about revenge. Since his sisters are huge riding enthusiasts, he explains, "horses are a constant topic in our house, so in a way it's an attempt to get even." And yet the fifth-year pupil at Edinburgh's Stewart's Melville College is not exactly reticent on equine topics himself.

There are six horses at his family's farm at Auchengray, and Munro began riding at three. The youngest of the six aspiring players, he is also the most experienced. "I tried polo three times with Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Pony Club and got the bug, so I had 12 lessons last year, " he says. "I'm interested in a career with horses, and it might be a step towards professional polo."

Since he plays rugby, sails, and goes to the gym at least once a week, Munro shouldn't lack fitness. Yet he reckons the physical demands will still be "pretty challenging".

"I found it really hard to begin with, " he says of his polo experience so far. "I was in pain for two days, with muscles I'd never used.

It's going to be very hard for people to learn from scratch in a few months."

Source: Herald, The; Glasgow (UK)

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