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"The sport of Polo is without doubt the oldest ball game in the world."
A game of Central Asian origin, polo was first played in Persia (Iran) at dates given from the 6th century BC to the 1st century AD.
Polo was at first a training game for cavalry units, usually the king's guard or other elite troops. To the warlike tribesmen, who played it with as many as 100 to a side, it was a miniature battle.
In time polo became a Persian national sport played extensively by the nobility. Women as well as men played the game, as indicated by references to the queen and her ladies engaging King Khosrow II Parviz and his courtiers in the 6th century AD.
Valuable for training Cavalry, the game was played from Constantinople to Japan by the Middle Ages. Known in the East as the Game of Kings, Tamer lane's polo grounds can still be seen in Samarkand.
British tea planters in India witnessed the game in the early 1800's but it was not until the 1850's that the British Cavalry drew up the earliest rules and by the 1869's the game was well established in England.
The first club in England, the Monmouthshire, was founded in 1872 and others, including Hurlingham, followed quickly. Handicaps were introduced by the USA in 1888 and by England and India in 1910.
From 1900 to 1939, polo was an Olympic discipline and has now been recognized again by the International Olympic Committee.
After the last war, mechanization of the cavalry - the traditional ‘nursery’ for polo players - and national austerity boded ill for the future of the game. But the enthusiasm of players such as the 3rd Viscount Cowdray, ‘father’ of modern English polo, saw a revival in the late 1940s.
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