Polo - Queen's Cup Final

On Sunday 12 June, we visited Guards Polo Club, near Windsor, west of London, to see the final of the Queen's Cup polo tournament. We had always wanted to see a polo match while we were in England and this was our chance! The weather had been brilliant all through April and May, so we were hopeful of a nice, sunny day. But sure enough, like clockwork, once June (and proper summer) arrives, the dark clouds roll in and it rains pretty much all month, wrecking cricket matches, the Wimbledon tennis, the Ascot races, music festivals and all of those other English summer favourites. So, it rained on Sunday!

We met Dave, Kiri and Olly at Waterloo station and caught the train to Sunningdale and then got a cab to the polo grounds. We had our jackets and umbrellas, but it was still miserable. There was not a lot of cover at the polo grounds, as they had set up assuming it would be good weather. We watched the second half of the preliminary match between Les Lions and La Bamba de Areco, which was a good way of learning a bit about the rules of polo and how the game works.

The game is split into six periods, called chukkas. After three chukkas, which is half time, all of the crowd has to walk out on to the field and stamp down all of the divots to make the field smooth again - pretty fun! We found it amusing that when a goal is scored, the two umpires standing behind the goal each wave a round white marker back and forth from their side to above their head, much like a runway controller directing an aeroplane.

After the preliminary match, which La Bamba won 11-10, we sought shelter in a marquee in the next field, which had been used earlier in the week for some sort of festival. It was cold and windy, with occasional showers - not ideal. And certainly not summer. Luckily we had a brilliant picnic (and some alcohol) so we ate and drank that while we sheltered from the weather. The red wine and champagne definitely warmed us up and improved our spirits. Next to the marquee was a mechanical bull (or maybe mechanical horse) hiding under a green canvas cover that must have been used during the festival. Tim mounted it with aplomb (photo below), but had a little more trouble getting down again, falling into a puddle in the process. Still, fun times.

The rain cleared, so we wandered to the far end of the polo grounds to check out the merchandise stalls and get some refreshments. Most of the crew had a coffee with a shot of whiskey in it - which was not only delicious, but warming too. Kate and Jono arrived shortly before the main event to join us, and they came with supplies - more red wine!

The main match started at 3.00pm, after a fine rendition of the National Anthem from a very royal-looking marching band. There was no sign of the Queen, however - who can blame her with weather like that! But the first half of the match was played in pretty good conditions.

Enigma took a large early lead over Talandracas (great names), but by half time the gap had closed to 5-3. Half time brought with it more rain and cold wind, so Tim, Megan, Kiri and Kate decided to call it a day and retreated to a pub in Sunningdale, while the hardy souls Dave, Olly and Jono stuck it out to watch the end of the match, which, to their delight, went into a sudden death seventh chukka, when the scores were tied at 8-8 at the end of normal time. Talandracas took it out 9-8 to win the Queen's Cup final!

Despite the bad weather, we really enjoyed seeing polo for the first time. The skill of the players was incredible, galloping full speed down the field and not only making contact with the ball, but picking out perfect passes to their team-mates, hitting the ball back-hand behind them, and even juggling the ball at one point! We were also intrigued that the players frequently change ponies during the match - kind of like a substitute in football in guess!






A "Les
Lions"
player












Les Lions
v La
Bamba











Nice shot
old chap











Time to
stamp
divots











Good
technique
from
Megan












Giddy up!

















Coffee
and
whiskey
time










The
marching
band











And some
fancy
horses










The
main
event












Get in
there












Kate and
Megs
keeping
warm









Kiri and
Dave

Greenwich

Saturday was a reasonably nice, sunny day, so we decided to visit Greenwich. Unfortunately, we had not been able to go last weekend with Dave and Kiri, and we definitely wanted to have another poke around out there before leaving London, in just over a month's time. We got going fairly early and made the lengthy journey out to Greenwich, in south-east London.

It was just as well we did, as it was pretty quiet when got there at about 11am - by 1pm, it was rammed! We started off by grabbing a tasty snack and a milkshake at an old-school milkshake place, and then we wandered through the pretty streets of Greenwich village. We walked through the Old Royal Naval College, Sir Christopher Wren's domed masterpiece. Within the complex is the former college dining room, now known as the Painted Hall, and also the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul.

From there, we walked through the pretty Greenwich Park, part of which has been fenced off in preparation for equestrian events later this summer. The site will be used for the equestrian events of the London Olympics in 2012. We climbed up the hill in Greenwich Park to see Greenwich's main attraction, the Royal Observatory, the home of Greenwich Mean Time.

As the United Kingdom grew into an advanced maritime nation, British mariners kept at least one chronometer on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in order to calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian, which was by convention taken to have a longitude of 0 degrees. This practice eventually led to GMT being used worldwide as a reference time independent of location.

At the top of the hill is the Royal Observatory building where, naturally enough, there is a rather impressive observatory, and also a miniature museum of time-keeping devices throughout history. On top of the roof of the building is the large red Time Ball, which drops at a predetermined time to allow sailors to check their marine chronometers from their boats offshore. In the courtyard outside the building is a line marked in the ground showing the Prime meridian, or Greenwich Meridian, where longitude is 0 degrees.

There is also a pretty awesome 24-hour clock on the wall surrounding the Royal Observatory, which shows Greenwich Mean Time all year round (meaning it actually shows the "wrong" time when the clocks change for British Summer Time (or daylight savings)) - see photos below. We got some brilliant views from the top of the hill too - east to the distinctive looking O2 Arena on the banks of the Thames, and right back to the city centre landmarks of the Gherkin and St Paul's Cathedral.

After lying in the sun in Greenwich Park for a while, we had a wander through the Greenwich Market, where we bought some delicious fudge, and checked out the interesting variety of foods on offer as well the arts and crafts. It was pretty hot by now and Greenwich had been over-run by visitors. We had a quick look through the National Maritime Museum, which was well worth a look. Highlights included a miniature replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour and Lord Nelson's navy uniform that he wore during the Battle of Trafalgar. Then we rounded off our Greenwich visit at a local brewery, where we had a cold beer and some french fries. Delicious.







The
market











Old
Royal
Navy
College












Megs at the
Old Royal
Navy College















The Greenwich
Clock
















Royal
Obser-
vatory with
Time Ball











Views -
the O2
Arena










Equestrian
course -
Greenwich
Park













Tim by
the clock















Tim at
National
Maritime
Museum











Megs
at the
brewery