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Nov. 27th, '02 - The Polo Player Part 2: THE AMATEUR Nov. 25th '02: Polo Time - It's 3-goal polo, but you have not ever seen 3-goal this way. They are flying and its not real 3's anyway as many teams are set to go up from 3 to 6 goals next month, but it is fast. If you did not know it was only 3-goal you would never have guessed it was. Nov. 23, '02: O.T. IS OVERTIME and we had it often today. It shows how good the Handicap Committee is. In 6 games there were 4 overtimes and this is how it was: Nov. 23, '02: Go Honey Polo - It's time for the Go Honey Tournament which was started 25 years ago in Santa Barbara. The tournament was named by the wives of polo patrons who were playing in a Sunday match. The announcer picked up the name from hearing these words "Go Honey" from some supporting wives and ladies on the sidelines and it has been "Go Honey" ever since. It all starts today and for the next 2 weeks we will all here those words in many ways . . . "Go Honey," "Oh No Honey", "Well done Honey," "Why Honey" and "You're so great Honey" or "Honey that was horrible. As long as it's Honey its ok.
They are all here to Go Honey. Nov. 21, '02: The Polo Player - Part 2 Nov. 17th, '02: Polo In The Desert - The flags are flying, the grass is fast and green the action is here. The Road Runner's on the move in the biggest low-goal on the continent. It was time to let them run and they did. There were 3 tournaments and 13 teams for two days of polo and it all came down to Sunday all day to see who was where and it ended this way : Bracket A San Diablo It was light Brigade with the usual Jim Hunter force beating up on the Trumps and going to the finals. Big John Gonzalez come out of the dark and slid by hard charging Chuck Stanislawski to win by 1 on Sunday. It was the Malibu Boys putting a whipping on the Trumps as Chuck had a good day at court side rolling in 3 for a fine Sunday morning. Then big John G. took on Mr. Hunter and had him, but forgot to lock the door and they got out the Wright way as Light Brigade came back and did some more to walk away with Johnny's cup. BRACKET B San Diego White Oak Cassidy West slid up and down the field and then in the fourth it was Mr. Jordan doing the talking as they finished off Doctor Tom by 1and headed to the finals. In the other 1/2 it was Magellan with the Wolf and big AC (Artie Cameron) put the rings on the tree early and late to send Magellan to the finals against Cassidy, which was more than they could handle. As the sun was headed west and so was Cassidy as they made it to the trophy line. In the consolation finals it was the Doctor Tom and boys chopping down the rest of the tree as Whit Oaks was not a protected species on Sunday at Empire. Bracket C KSL Stone Canyon It started out fast as KSL got out early, but could not hold the second half as the Doc and Negro came out smoking and sent KSL to the consolation round in the round robin. It was Stone Canyon smoking in the first and Domingo and Darren in the second and it ended in a tie. Then came Surfer Doc and they tied Darren even with some big booming shots, they just came up short. Then it was the Palomino (Jason Crowder) sending the bombs to Mr. Mano who looked like Horacito Heguy as he scored 4 in 2 and blew away the Doctor and headed to the finals in the consolation on Sunday. It was Mr. Darren not waiting as they put them away and headed for their silver trailer. In the finals it was Polo Dudes feeling just that way, as Dudes, when Mano and Schlei took the pill to the box often and relentlessly even with Mr. Hill busting his butt to be there. It was one heck of a fun weekend and there are 5 more to go so be there. See ya. --Steve Crowder |
Crowder Polo Report Archives
2002 Nov. 17th, '02: Polo In The Desert - The flags are flying, the grass is fast and green the action is here. The Road Runner's on the move in the biggest low-goal on the continent. It was time to let them run and they did. There were 3 tournaments and 13 teams for two days of polo and it all came down to Sunday all day to see who was where and it ended this way : Bracket A San Diablo It was light Brigade with the usual Jim Hunter force beating up on the Trumps and going to the finals. Big John Gonzalez come out of the dark and slid by hard charging Chuck Stanislawski to win by 1 on Sunday. It was the Malibu Boys putting a whipping on the Trumps as Chuck had a good day at court side rolling in 3 for a fine Sunday morning. Then big John G. took on Mr. Hunter and had him, but forgot to lock the door and they got out the Wright way as Light Brigade came back and did some more to walk away with Johnny's cup. BRACKET B San Diego White Oak Cassidy West slid up and down the field and then in the fourth it was Mr. Jordan doing the talking as they finished off Doctor Tom by 1and headed to the finals. In the other 1/2 it was Magellan with the Wolf and big AC (Artie Cameron) put the rings on the tree early and late to send Magellan to the finals against Cassidy, which was more than they could handle. As the sun was headed west and so was Cassidy as they made it to the trophy line. In the consolation finals it was the Doctor Tom and boys chopping down the rest of the tree as Whit Oaks was not a protected species on Sunday at Empire. Bracket C KSL Stone Canyon It started out fast as KSL got out early, but could not hold the second half as the Doc and Negro came out smoking and sent KSL to the consolation round in the round robin. It was Stone Canyon smoking in the first and Domingo and Darren in the second and it ended in a tie. Then came Surfer Doc and they tied Darren even with some big booming shots, they just came up short. Then it was the Palomino (Jason Crowder) sending the bombs to Mr. Mano who looked like Horacito Heguy as he scored 4 in 2 and blew away the Doctor and headed to the finals in the consolation on Sunday. It was Mr. Darren not waiting as they put them away and headed for their silver trailer. In the finals it was Polo Dudes feeling just that way, as Dudes, when Mano and Schlei took the pill to the box often and relentlessly even with Mr. Hill busting his butt to be there. It was one heck of a fun weekend and there are 5 more to go so be there. See ya. --Steve Crowder Nov. 11, "02: What Is A Polo Player? - If you are a pro, you will be need to sell your services, that is just the way it is. If you are an amateur, you are just free. If you are a patron, then you will have to pay for it. It may sound bad, but that's just the way it is. You just more or you do not. Worse case is that you don't work, so you end up doing something else. Polo is a very interesting sport. It is exciting, fast, dangerous, and addicting. Yet, if you can afford to play polo, you can definitely afford not too. That is why the rest of us are what we are. We need polo and well will do what it takes to be in polo. Why? Well where else can you live a life like this? You only play polo in nice places where the weather is great and there is enough wealth to support the sport. You may enjoy the benefits of working in some out of this world place like Deauville, France or San Tropez, Mexico City, Santa Barbara or Calgary. Not bad places to be when they play polo in them. How else could most of us ever see the places we see while we work in polo? You would never have these opportunities if you were working at the local supermarket or a local law office. Polo is not normally played where the weather is nasty on purpose, but sometimes it happens. Wealthy people do not live or travel to places where the weather is bad, don't have to. So the polo workforce has to go where the wealth is. We need good grass to play polo and it only grows with water and where the sun shines on a regular basis. So, no matter what we like to think, we fit into one of these three categories, but who cares. We are all having more fun than the guy next door and we are polo players or polo people! So lets go play polo. Somewhere, somehow, we will be there. Will you? See ya. -- Steve Crowder." Nov.
7th, '02: Now For Polo -Do
you want to have fun the old fashion way? Do you want to work
hard at playing polo? Well come to Eldorado Polo Club for the
next 6 weeks starting next week, the 13th day of November. There
is going to be 3 goal polo for 3 weeks and 4 goal polo for 3
weeks. If you come out you will have to work because there are
no high-goal pros to do the work for you and there are players
from all points coming just to try to win these tournaments.
We have players sign-up from from Canada, Argentina, England,
California (Los Angeles,San Diego,Santa Barbara),Chicago, Texas,
Oregon, Washington, Florida and all points in between including
New Mexico and Mexico. The weather is great, the fields are awesome
(virgin grass now) and the party is about to begin in world class
low-goal polo. Be there. Everybody else will be. Call now 760-342
-2223 and hope you get in. See you there Nov. 7th, '02: Retraction . . . WELL the other day I was worming horses and I walked up to and old gray gelding I have and I was about 6 inches from him. I reached out to push him out of the way to get to another horse and I though oh S_ _ _ . . . too late. I knew I was already kicked. I got caught in the arm and the leg and the only one to blame was me. Over the years this horses has kicked 20 people including me a couple of times. It was like the song should have read that DETOUR SIGN. Well I should have asked before
I wrote about lack of intermediate polo in Calgary Polo Club,
because I was informed immediately by an executive from that
Club that I had the wrong information. I had to eat that statement
and I am. Calgary did in fact have 3 - 0 goal tournaments over
9 weeks open to club and non-club members. They even had a weekly
pro pool that cost less than horse feed, which was $200 Canadian,
which means someone else, not the intermediate player, is supporting
the show. So I have to agree I was really wrong and those are
some very good ideas for other clubs to implement. So thanks
for the correction, we will ask before we talk in the future.
The statement in the original article has been removed. Maybe
this is the place for new players to go as it is a fantastic
place to be from June to Sept. I like info so give us more. See
ya at polo - Steve Crowder. Out west if your not at Deer Creek your just out of touch with the West Coast's most exciting polo. The other thing I keep bellyaching about, which they do know how to do at Deer Creek, is to help new players be a part of the game. Deer Creek should have a 10 for helping as their pros help or Kate Weber will help find them a door into polo. This is what polo needs, not the other. The pros showing the door to a beginner who does not want to write the big check right n o w. I just received an e-mail from a lady who has the same problem coming up slowly in polo. This is the same problem as other clubs throughout the U.S. Why? Is it the polo managers, polo clubs or professional polo players? My opinion is yes to all 3 of them and then some. Most polo managers just do a job to be around or keep themselves in polo. If you drive from Mexico City to Alaska I think you will find 3 polo managers who really are polo managers and 2 are ladies; Susan Stovall, Maggie Mitchell and James Jimmy Newman. Polo Clubs want players, but not the work to get them. If new players do not walk in with a pro and a big check book they will get lonely in the back corrals. You need to know how to play to participate in the sport of polo, so they say oh go see Rege Ludwig and he is 2,000 miles away (in some cases). So how about this idea . . . the polo manager selects a pro who is helpful and willing to participate as the Club's introductory instructor. In exchange for the pro's participation, the polo club gives a free green fee or stalls to the pro who is picked. New players who come to the Club will more or less get free help to be part of the Clubs introductory program and the Club's pro has to help that person or he is out and someone else gets it. There has to be a reasonable way to put the 3 together to help n e w people play polo. I know these pros are not going to be Rege's, but they will help people to improve and can give them some time and make them get better by just being there. This might be recipe that makes a new patron and a job for that pro or any pro. Something good usually comes out of good things. We n e e d polo players. We need leaders who want polo to grow at every club and give me your ideas on how we can D O it ! See ya at polo with an i d e a. -- Steve CrowderOct. 31 '02 POLO - What is it? The fastest, most dangerous team sport in the world. It is also the most exciting, the most addicting, and one of the most rewarding sports there is. We do not question those facts, this one however bothers me: it is the most aggravating sport to start in so many places! Why? Is it because it is so exhilarating one you learn to play? You do not care about the new guy or gal or what? Or is it so expensive to play you are not going to lose time helping the next person because it was so hard to get help? I do not know, so please tell me? For some reason there are so few places in the world of polo that want new players and that is so DUMB because we all need polo people . . . players, grooms, trainers, patrons. Without people we do not need horses and without horses we do not need grooms or trainers. Why would we have players? There are possibly 25,000 polo players in the world and we know they quit, get hurt, get divorced and or other causes take them away for the world of polo. We need more players coming into polo all the time. We as polo players are the only ones who can make new players, so we can continue to play and our children can play, and so on. Rege Ludwig has probably touched the lives of more new players in the last 2 decades than all other people in the world, and has helped polo by doing what he does. But when they leave his clinics and come home to a Club, someone has to guide them, help them and not rob them. We need to nurture the new players and remember that we were once new players too. You know how it felt to be new to polo, at the bottom of the barrel, but someone by someway made you stay in the sport. So you be the one who helps the next person stay and we will develop a new way to make polo players. If you are a polo pro you are a fool not to because if people can afford to play polo they can always afford not to. We need them and they DO NOT NEED US. So lets make it a goal to all polo players to make 1 new polo player and in 1 year we will have 50,0000 polo players and in 10 years so many more!!!! SEE YA AT P O L O WITH A NEW POLO PLAYER -- Steve Crowder d> | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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