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History
of Kirtlington Park Polo Club
A
new era of elegance began in 1746 when Sir James Dashwood’s dreams of a magnificent
Palladian mansion in Kirtlington became reality. Kirtlington House stands in fifty
acres of gardens and formal parkland designed by Capability Brown and provides
a stunning backdrop to the polo grounds.
Kirtlington Park Polo Club was
originally formed in 1926 after a former inhabitant of the Argentine, Major Deed,
bought polo ponies to school in the grounds of Kirtlington Park and persuaded
the late Mr Hugh Budgett, who had become the new owner of the park in 1922, to
start playing. | |
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wasn’t long before he was being told ‘you’re a natural polo player’ and part of
the estate parkland was laid out as a polo ground. The club was maintained until
the beginning of the Second World War when the ground was cultivated as part of
the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign. Mr Alan Budgett, son of Mr Hugh Budgett, reopened
the club in 1954 and added a second ground.
By
the beginning of the 1990’s the number of playing members had risen to just over
fifty and a third ground was added at the original site. |
A
fourth playing field and a practice pitch was also added half a mile up the road
at Park Farm. The club survived the foot and mouth disease in 2001 well. By the
beginning of the 2002 season the number of playing members topped 100 and a purpose
built polo office was opened on the edge of the practice field at Park Farm.
In
2005 the sixth ground came into operation and Kirklington Polo Club now has six
boarded grounds and we are looking to irrigate grounds one and two. We continue
to flourish and grow.
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 | Kirtlington
Park Polo Club has some very famous teams and some of the top professionals have
started their careers at Kirtlington. Andrew and Will Hine, Robert Thame, Malcolm
Borwick and Henry Brett started on a Shetland pony!
In the same week at
Windsor in 1970, Kirtlington (11 goals) won the Royal Windsor (14 goal then) with
Richard Clifford (1), Mark Barlow (2), Antonio Harrera (5), Mark Trotter (3).
And Friar Cup 8 goal (later called Archie David) with Jeremy Taylor (1), Mark
Barlow (2), Mark Trotter (3) and Simon Loder - an amazind feat! |
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