HOW A POLO MATCH SHOULD BE PLA YED 367 



seem to be playing a good deal below their usual form. The 

 reason is that they, too, have been in this habit, and, though they 

 give it up in the match, and ride their best, they can no longer hit 

 the ball in the same way that they did when they took it easy. A 

 man who always rides hard, even if he is not a good hitter, is of 

 more use than a good hitter who does not ride. 



2. Another point that should be attended to is that the next 

 player should always closely back up one of his side that is on the 

 ball not so close that he cannot hit the ball if it is missed or 

 ridden off, but bar that as close as is possible and in any case he 

 should not let one of the adversaries get next the striker. 



It will be seen therefore that polo is not the wild hurly- 

 burly that it may at first sight appear to an onlooker unac- 

 quainted with the rules that govern the game. It will be acknow- 

 ledged even by those who stigmatise it as dangerous to be a 

 scientific sport, requiring not only a cool head, quick eye, 

 perseverance, self-denial, dash, faith in one's comrades, and 

 nerve, but judgment, decision, and good horsemanship. It will 

 besides be evident that the power of calculating pace and dis- 

 tance are two most important and requisite qualifications in the 

 man who would shine as a polo player. The knowledge when 

 to race, when to take it quietly ; quickness in turning ; the 

 period when defence should be turned into attack in fact, all 

 the strategy and tactics of the game should not only be compre- 

 hended, but resolved on and executed promptly and with deci- 

 sion. When a man can do all this, and strictly adhere to his own 

 place in a team, then he will indeed be entitled to high fame in 

 the annals of polo. 



My task is finished. It has been to me a task of no ordinary 

 pleasure to trace, though but briefly, the history of this fasci- 

 nating game from remote ages to the present time; nor have I ex- 

 perienced less gratification in endeavouring to do some justice 

 to those who have made polo what it is; and, though the subject 

 may not lend itself to treatment like the wider ones of hunting, 

 racing, or driving, and my narrative has perforce been some- 

 what devoid of anecdote, owing to the comparatively short time 

 that the game has been in existence, yet all those who now 



