When I initially agreed to go to a polo match with the girls, I was picturing a similar experience to what I had at ascot. Drunk girls, sometimes trashy dresses and a rambunctious crowd.
That all went out the window the minute we arrived in Windsor and at the Royal Park. It was an interesting bus ride to begin with, with our bus Driver turning off the GPS because it was annoying, getting lost, driving down a narrow one day street and narrowly avoiding running down some of the people on the path, (his theory, there are too many posh people in the world so one less one wouldnt be a crime) he was downright hilarious. A wrinkley old fellow with a penchant for the drink and so many character lines upon his face that you couldnt help peering at him wondering how many stories those lines would tell you if they could talk.
So when we arrived the thing I first noticed was picnics in the carpark. Everyone was parked and had set up picnics with shade sails and etc for drinks and nibbles. The only problem was the carpark was dusty and dirty and cars were constantly driving around. So with every sip of champers they were taking a mouthful of dirt with it. But they seemed to be in in their element so who were we to complain? We retired to a grassy, less dusty area and had a champers before heading into the grounds. Luckily we had grandstand tickets so we had a birds eye view of the game, allbeit it being in the nosebleed section.
Plied with umbrellas out of fear of it raining, we ended up using them to beat the heat. The temps reached 30 degrees celsius that day and we felt every degree. I realised with fear I had done the unthinkable. I had become acclimatised. I was really feeling it, thankfully, by sitting in the last row in the unshaded grandstand we were in direct line for the wafting breeze that provided some relief, however small.
I actually sat with a program on my head for much of the day, it was rather effective in blocking out some of the sun.. but i didnt escape some small amounts of sunburn.
We brought some nibbles and drinks, some nuts and hummous to sample throughout the day and to be honest it was so hot we couldnt eat much at all. In between matches, we spread out in the shade underneath the grandstand and just relaxed, chatted and enjoyed the atmosphere and indulged in one of my much loved sports - people watching..
The theme of the day was floral.. boys were blue striped shirts. Im not kidding here, every second man wore a blue and white striped shirt the girls wore flowing floral summery dresses, complemented with flat pretty thongs or sandals, there were the foolish with heels and glitterati, but the majority were casual and natural.
It was like being dipped in the elegant crisp pool which is that of the british upperclass. About 85% of the people there were english and the rest tourists. It was a big british affair. There was none of the ugliness which raised its head at ascot. This was a primarily civilised day, with picnics and champagne and decorum. It was so authentic, so very british and so very fun. It had an air of class about it without being overwhelmingly pretenious.. i loved it. I actually felt I had finally sneaked a glance into some of englands true culture, something which is hard to find in a place as multicultural as london.
The day started off well with a local match followed by the pomp and circumstance of english ceremony. A marching band, a team of junior and intermediate polo players and a group of calvary with an accompaniment of a group of begals and hounds. One of the beagles ran away from the main pack and went and took a dump on the middle of the pitch it was hilarious.. right in front of prince charles. I loved that puppy for that hehehe.
Then the australia vs england match began. And it was exciting, edge of your seat exciting, they had a scrum, which was the same as rugby but with men on horses, scary and brutal, one polo player and horse fell, and u can imagine hte bruises an injuries they would have later. The horses were changed every four minutes to keep the players playing on the fastest horses. It was a close match, but australia succumbed at 9-10.. the damn english won.. but before englad could claim victory three streakers decided to show the aussie spirit. It was hilarious and a real highlight seeing the antics of them, three in all, so funny watching them jump the fence then get told off later... they werent too far away from us, and suddenly there were naked men in the crowd and running onto the pitch, one after the other.
In half time we went out and pushed down the divots in true polo tradition and went and checked out the goal posts, score board and the aussie team tent. Also scoped out the trophy and tried to grab some glimpses of celebrities, unfortunately no I didnt get to meet any :(
It turns out later that prince charles was pushing divots the same time we were, so we could have in actual fact been pushing down divots near him. unfortunately i did burp a number of times, the champagne and softdrink disagreed with me, so he could of in actual fact have heard one of my burps.. who knows?
At the end of the day I was relaxed and had such a lovely day. it was the ultimate english day out and I would do it again in a secon. It was ten times better than ascot. It was everything it wasnt. It was class, it was casual, it was fun and it was a delight to watch. There is real talent in playing this game and it was amazing to watch.. especially when I can only manage to ride a horse let along hit a ball with a stick while riding.
English culture at its best, laugh if you will but polo is something that u really need to see live to really appreciate it. The atmosphere is what makes it a true english experience and I am already begining to feel like more of a lady...that is til my next adventure
xx
jess
ps. my next trip is glasgow this coming weekend :)
