The Brookwood Medical Center Polo Team won the Birmingham Polo Classic Finals.

The 2nd annual Birmingham Polo Classic raised $125,000 for the Children’s Hospital Intervention and Prevention Services Clinic (CHIPS).

The teams . . .

Adamson Ford

#1 Dr. Jay D. Addison is a life-long resident of southeast Louisiana where he and his wife, Ellen, own and operate Pine Knoll Farm. An equine veterinarian by trade, specializing in racing Thoroughbreds, Dr. Addison works race tracks in Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky and New York. Jay rodeoed in high school and started playing polo in 1977. He now carries a one-goal rating.

#2 George Erb, a student at Ole Miss, is the youngest of this year’s participants and has just seen his USPA rating deservedly go up from zero to one goal. George lives in Rossville, Tennessee where the Memphis Polo Club is located. His dad, Jack and uncles, Farguson and Bayard Erb, all play polo. George has been riding since he could walk.

#3 Nick Cifuni is rated at three goals and is one of the southeast’s up-and-coming polo pros. He presently co-manages Memphis Polo with fellow pro, Hamish Bray, and plays winters in Sarasota, Florida at the Sarasota Polo Club. Watch out young ladies, this Colorado State graduate is good looking, single and he and George are loose!

#4 Steve Tipler, a Birmingham trial lawyer, played ball sports through high school and football in college. He was introduced to this ball sport by Ed Robbins at Blue Water Creek Polo Club near Florence, Alabama, and soon brought (or returned) the sport to the Birmingham area. Tipler plays at one-goal.

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#1 Ed Robbins, rated at zero goals, is the owner and CEO of ES Robbins Corp. in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and the designer and manufacturer of Centaur Fencing which surrounds Birmingham Polo Grounds. Ed owns Bluewater Creek Polo Club in Florence and, at 75, lives by the Satchel Paige quote of “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?!” Ed is married to the lovely Mary Lou and has four beautiful daughters (none of whom have taken up the game of polo!).

#2 Carlos Martinez, lives in Athens, Alabama but originally hails from the Dominican Republic. Carlos loves and trains fine polo ponies when not hard at work for the Alabama State Highway Department. Brother Eddy Martinez, who now lives in Columbus, Georgia, played in the Classic last year. We’re glad to have Carlos, wife Alma and daughter, Maria, with us this year.

#3 Tito Gorosito is rated at three goals and is from Argentina. He presently manages Bluewater Creek Polo Club, just east of Florence, Alabama on Highway 72. Tito encourages all to come up to Elgin, Alabama to see Ed Robbins’ beautiful polo facility there and enjoy the polo. Just call (256) 247-3596 for more information.

#4 Doug Moore is a local magazine publisher and a one-goal amateur polo player. After being introduced to the sport in 1992 by polo announcer, writer and instructor, Maybe Ortiz, Doug became a mainstay in Birmingham Polo. He has played polo around the southeast and in South Florida, Chicago, London, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.

Brookwood Medical Center

#1 Dr. Kennie Bramlett is a Birmingham orthopedic surgeon and a principal in Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Clinic of Alabama on Hwy. 31 in Vestavia. Bramlett and his group operate out of Brookwood Medical Center, the Classic’s major sponsor. Just a few years at the game of polo, Kennie carries a zero-goal rating and plays polo with the intensity at which he played baseball some years back at Birmingham Southern College.

#2 Jimmy Wetter is a Memphis cotton broker and one-goal player. He has played as long as all of us can remember, stabling his horses in Germantown, Tennessee at the old McFadden Farm, across the street from Wildwood Farms, the “Oakbrook of the South”. Birmingham Polo is pleased to have Jimmy and his wonderful and lovely wife, Alison, and son, William, in town for the Classic.

#3 Hamish Bray, a native of Ashburton, New Zealand, is a professional polo player rated at four-goals, now living in Rossville (Memphis), Tennessee. He plays and umpires in Florida during the winter polo season and, for the last three years, has managed Memphis Polo in the summers. Hamish has been in the U.S. since 1995 and has played in Palm Beach, Florida to Calgary, Canada.

#4 Bob Edmundson is a resident of the French Quarter in New Orleans and is involved in agri-business and oil and gas interests in south Louisiana. As President of the Point Clear Polo Club in Point Clear, Alabama, he has been a frequent visitor to Birmingham Polo through the years. He started playing polo in Louisiana in 1987 and has also played in other places such as Palm Beach, Chicago and Wyoming. Bob carries a one-goal USPA rating.

Bottega

#1 Frank Stitt, chef and restaurateur of Birmingham, has been playing polo for nine years. With four bustling restaurants, Highlands, Bottega, Bottega Café and Chez Fonfon, he struggles to get enough time on the field, but says his coach, Freddy Villar, is extremely patient. A zero-goal player, Frank, with the help of Freddy and his favorite pony, Moonshine, will keep working toward that elusive one-goal.

#2 Guy Vise, III, Ph.D., is from Jackson, Mississippi, but his horses now call Alabama home as they and Guy play weekends with Pt. Clear Polo in Fairhope, Alabama. Guy is a forester. He attended Sewanee and then earned his master’s degree from Duke and his doctorate in forestry from the University of Georgia. Guy is a one-goaler, soon to be two, if he can spend more time in the saddle and less time in the woods.

#3 Wilfredo (Freddy) Villar is Birmingham Polo’s Pro and Manager, and is rated at three-goals. Freddy, loved by all, is from the Dominican Republic and, as a kid, worked polo at Casa de Campo, grooming and exercising horses. He encourages you to take a few lessons, and has polo ponies for sale! Call him at (205) 668-4276 or (205) 427-5709.

#4 W.J. “Bill” Hough, a/k/a Chief, Captain Tumble and a few others, lives in Gulfport, MS. He manages the Phillips Building Supply stores in South Mississippi and Louisiana. He has a passion for polo and horse activities. He began playing polo with one horse, a Tennessee Walker, and is now rated at two goals. When he is not playing polo with the Sultan of Brunai, he and his wife, Susie, like to hunt, fish, travel, fox hunt or just relax at home.

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