INDIAN POLO RULES. 237 



no time except the specified intervals between the 

 periods of play. In order to allow for the extra 

 time required by this proposed method, an alteration 

 in the length of time occupied by a match would 

 have to be made. For instance, instead of play 

 occupying forty minutes, as is now the rule, sixteen 

 minutes more might be given, or fifty-six minutes in 

 all, split up into eight periods of seven minutes each. 

 This would result in no more actual play than under 

 the present arrangement, but matches would be played 

 off in less time ; for a great deal more than sixteen 

 minutes (in addition to the regular three-minute 

 intervals now allowed) is wasted in every match at 

 present. Under the existing rule, it is no uncommon 

 thing to see a match which, including stoppages, 

 should last but little more than an hour, drag itself 

 out into a matter of two hours. It must be re- 

 membered that in India the ball goes out of play 

 much more frequently than on an English ground, 

 where, as a rule, there are boards, and where the 

 ''going" is not so hard, and is consequently not so 

 fast. If it were found that seven minutes is too long 

 for a pony to play at one time in a really fast match, 

 the whole might be divided up into shorter periods 

 of play ; or it might be left, as a matter of private 

 arrangement, to the Captains of sides in an ordinary 

 match, or to the Committee in a tournament, to decide 

 into how many periods of play the match, or series 

 of matches, should be divided. I feel convinced it 

 would make a match more enjoyable both to players 

 and spectators, if no time were deducted when the 

 ball goes out of play ; because we would no longer 

 see players strolling up to the middle after a goa 



