Last week Dubai has witnessed one of its first again- the first ever Beach Polo event in the world. The launch of the inaugural Metropolitan Beach Polo Cup was held at the Metropolitan Beach Resort on April 23-24.

"We have heard of polo being played on snow; I have participated myself in such competitions in Austria. But this is the first time ever that we are venturing to play on sand. This is going to be very tough, playing on sand is very demanding, both on the players and the horses," said Rashid Al Habtoor, the initiator and founder of the tournament. "I believe that this tournament will be a major attraction for Dubai and the UAE and the inaugural competition will be the testing ground to ensure the future success"

The response for this competition has been tremendous with outstation teams from the UK, Switzerland and Germany requesting the organizers to accommodate them.

"We do not want to make it a big affair in its very first year. But for sure we have plans to make it bigger and better next year, when we have it as annual fixture.", added Rashid Al Habtoor.
 

In an exciting final, Habtoor Polo rode on a four -goal blitz from their skipper Mohammed Al Habtoor to a 5.5 - 3 win against the Mitsubishi team, lead by Rashid Al Habtoor, and went on to win the First Metropolitan Beach Polo Cup.

" We knew it would be a tough match and that is why we relied heavily on combining as a team", commented Mohammed Al Habtoor after his team won the final.

" I am pleased with the way this tournament has run. And we want to make it an annual event in a more pleasing weather, say sometime in December", added Rashid Al Habtoor.

"This event is a curtain raiser to a pioneering concept;" said Sam Katiela, Managing Director of Mamemo Productions, who organized the fantastic event. "In future, 'The Metropolitan Beach Polo Cup-Dubai' will be a regular annual sporting event- a 'must' for polo fans around the world. We wish to introduce the amazing land of Dubai to our foreign guests and partners, as it is one of the most shining examples of modern Arabic lifestyle and culture in the Arab World".
 

History of Polo

Polo is thought to have originated in China and Persia around 2,000 years ago. The name of the game might have well come from the word "pholo" meaning " ball" or " ballgame" in the Balti language of Tibet.

The first recorded game took place in 600 BC between the Turkomans and Persians (the Turkomans won). In the fourth century AD, King Sapoor II of Persia learned to play, aged seven. In the 16th century, a polo ground (300 yards long and with goalposts eight yards apart) was built at Ispahan, then the capital, by Shah Abbas the Great.

The Moguls were largely responsible for taking the game from Persia to the East and, by the 16th century, the Emperor Babur had established it in India. (It had already long been played in China a d Japan, but had died out by the time the West came in contact with those countries). In the 1850s, British tea planters discovered the game in Manipur on the Burmese border with India. They founded the world's first polo club at Silchar, west of Manipur. Other clubs followed, and today the oldest in the world is the Calcutta Club, which was founded in 1862.

Malta followed in 1868 because soldiers and naval officers stopped off there on their way home from India. In 1869, Edward "Chicken" Hartopp, of the 10th Hussars, read an account of the game in The Field magazine while stationed at Aldershot and, with his fellow officers, organised the first game. Then known as "hockey on horseback", it was played on a hastily-rolled Hounslow Heath where a shortlist of about 10 rules was also hastily assembled.

But, it was John Watson (1856-1908), of the 13th Hussars, who formulated the first real rules of the game in India in the 1870s. He later formed the celebrated Freebooters team who won the first Westchester Cup match in 1886. He was a key player at the All Ireland Polo Club that was founded in 1872 by Horace Rochfort of Clogrenane, County Carlow.

The first polo club in England was Monmouthshire, founded in 1872 by Captain Francis "Tip- Herbert (18451922), of the 7th Lancers, at his brother's estate at Clytha Park, near Abergavenny. Others, including Hurlingham, followed quickly.

Handicaps were introduced by the USA in 1888 and by England and India in 1910.

The first official match in Argentina took place on 3rd September 1875. The game had been taken there by English and Irish engineers and ranchers.

In 1876, Lt. Col. Thomas St.Quintin introduced the game to Australia. He is credited with being the Father of Australian Polo. Two of his brothers stayed on there as ranchers and helped the game to develop. In the same year, polo was introduced to the USA by James Gordon Bennett Jr., who had seen the game at Hurlingham during a visit to England.

Today, more than 77 countries play polo. It was an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1939 and has now been recognised again by the International Olympic Committee.

Polo captures maximum fascination in the minds of all. Though deemed to be elitist and detached by most of the people, Polo, unlike other sports, offers the ideal environment for exclusive brands and luxury goods.