Polo’s renaissance spreads from Florida to England

Polo’s renaissance as a fast, open, spectator-worthy sport continues to spread into Europe as the live-blocking rule, so effectively wielded in Florida this winter, is being applied to polo in England this summer.

“I think it’s great,” Pelon Stirling told Polocamtv after the opening day of the 22-goal Queen’s Cup at Guards Polo Club saw a 17-12 victory for Ferne Park featuring the Uruguayan, going up against La Dolfina/Scone under the captaincy of Adolfo Cambiaso.  “They’ve already used it in the States, they’ve started using it in Argentina. I think it works out perfectly with such good fields and the level of horses and the level of players,” Pelon said.

Simply put, the rule prevents a team using one player to come in and take out – ‘block’ – the defensive player who is trying to mark the player with the ball. ‘Blocking’ had become an integral feature of a team’s strategy resulting in slower and less open play in recent years. The new rule is not actually new and had been sitting on a proverbial shelf in the USPA Blue Book as a ‘tournament condition’ – introduced at a club’s discretion – and was about to be shelved completely before USPA Umpires LLC Executive Director, Fergus Gould, came up with the initiative to instate it as a mandatory rule.

Adolfo, was among several high goal players, condoning its introduction during the course of the high goal season at the National Polo Center, Wellington, FL.  “Obviously we are all learning and the umpires need to learn and we need to learn to adapt too,” he said in the midst of the 22-goal Gauntlet of Polo earlier this year. “But at the end of the day I think it will be really good for polo.”

Confirmation that the Hurlingham Polo Association [HPA] was planning to use the ‘live blocking rule’ in England, came late in the spring.

“The Rules Committee for the HPA wanted to see how it worked in America and the feedback was positive,” said Committee member England’s Alan Kent. 

The Queen’s Cup features 19 teams, with finals slated for June 15th. It is a long road to make the finals and with 38 league matches needed to decide the quarter finalists, there will be no shortage of quality polo – in large part due to the introduction of the ‘live blocking’ rule. “The polo becomes much safer,” said Pelon. “It becomes much more coming and going – running. It’s better to watch, I think better to play…Hopefully it’s a rule that is going to stay for long.”

Visit www.polocamtv.com for England polo coverage and for further Queen’s Cup info: https://www.guardspoloclub.com/tournaments/cartier-queens-cup-season-2025

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