The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder

It was a fantastic day for polo high 70’s with a nice ocean breeze. The games were on time and good at least for the first 1/2. In the first game Lucchese took on SD Farms. It was very tight for 3 and then Jeff Hall and Mr. Badiola went a little crazy with goal production and it was over at the end of the fifth and maybe a bit sooner. It was a good showing for the new team just arriving to town.

Game two between Farmers & Merchants 1 and Restoration Hardware was a very good and fast game, but there was a major flaw in my opinion, the Umpiring. It showed a little in the first, but got a bit silly in the second game. I think the new International rules are great for polo and I have no doubt it will make it a much better game, but the USPA needs to look across the Pond (as in the UK). I watched about 10 games and never saw this type of inconsistency. I know I am getting old, but I have excellent eyesight and I am sure this was the case. To go along with this there was some major confusion late in game with whistles, which were wrong or I do not understand the new rules and that maybe the case. However, there were 30 other people, who know Polo,  who agreed with me. I spoke with the head Umpire and he said it was ok and gave me some reasons and answers, but I am not sure about this. First and worst on a knock in at the end of the sixth was a whistle blown with 3 seconds to go? The Pro who was hitting asked to hit and he said the Umpire said to wait and whistle blown? Why? Several players were off field and this did change advantage majorly as the call caused the play to finish 50 yards inside field instead of a knock in OT or a hard hit to near center. No one would explain.

I have a few questions …
Why the constant changing of umpire crews?
This, to me, makes it very inconsistent as the umpire staff changes every few weeks.

One response was …. Why did reps from the team not show up? Well, it is not players job to keep the rules. They should be the same all the time we are playing under them. If you change staff every two weeks, it will never happen.

Answer:  US Rep. says club is responsible for changing because of money issues.  Are the patrons aware of this ? I doubt it as they are the ones spending big bucks to be here. So is it the club or USPA? There is no possible reason to ship in and out 12 or more umpires to CA for a 4 to 6 team tournament. In my opinion, that alone creates inconsistency. That is also  burning money the way I see it. It is simple.  Rules are rules and they should be the same for all personnel enforcing them. I like the new system and think it is great for the sport, but if you have no police to enforce the enforcers, you have no rules.

Game 3 was also a good one as Klentner ranch flexed their young muscles and sent the old boys back to the barn, but again, I  heard a lot of grumbling. Maybe we need to look into this as we are not exactly thriving in our sport and need more not less.

I really think it maybe as simple as publishing the rules in a simple report not the blue book and not at a meeting where everyone gets an opinion.  That would be just the way it is and do it as it says. Just write it out and each player sign he received it and each Umpire as well. Use videos to control it.

see ya SUNDAY.

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