Junior Polo

The Number Two event of the U. S. Polo year came to pass last week at Rumson, N. J., where fishhawks nest on the telephone poles and the Shrewsbury River winds placidly into the sea. The National Open tournament next month at Meadowbrook will be U. S. Polo's Number One event for 1929. Last week's play was the National Junior.

In polo, a "junior" is a player handicapped at six goals or less; a "junior" team has 20 goals or less. '"Juniors" may be anywhere from schoolboys to grandfathers. The best juniors of the year turned out to be four college youths, captained by a sophomore.

Of eight teams entered in the tournament, there soon predominated: The Greentrees--a Long Island four with James C. Cooley, oldtimer, at No. 2 and John Hay ("Jock") Whitney at No. 3. The Midwests--with W. Seymour ("Shorty") Knox of Buffalo at No. 1, Barney Balding and William Blair of Chicago in the middle, Nelson Talbott of the poloing Dayton, Ohio, Talbotts at Back. The Old Aikens--the college team, three parts Yale, one part Harvard. They have played together for years. Their first teacher was Mrs. Thomas Hitchcock Sr., mother and coach of Internationalist Hitchcock. Her younger son, Frank Hitchcock used to be in its lineup but was replaced four years ago by D. Stewart Iglehart Jr. now its captain and No. 3. The others are Elbridge T. Gerry (Harvard) at No. 1, James P. Mills No. 2, John C. Rathborne at Back.

The Midwest Four moved up into the finals without great difficulty, players Knox and Balding scoring fast if not freely against the defenses of an Army team and a team from Ramson which included Player Balding's brother Gerald and Raymond Guest, brother of Internationalist Winston Guest.

The Old Aikens had to start out against the Old Oaks, junior champions in 1928, a team commanded by hard-riding Oldster Howard S. Borden with able young Michael Phipps at No. 1. They rode through to a 10-to-7 victory after trailing by two goals in the third chukker. Then they had to play the Greentrees. After four chukkers they were behind seven goals to two.

It was at that point that something happened, something perhaps internationally significant. Polo is usually a game of brilliant individuals. The young Old Aikens rely on perfect team-play. Riding into the fifth chukker against the Greentrees they opened a team attack of such dash and precision that they scored five times without giving the Greentrees another goal. Captain Iglehart tied the score on a free shot just before the final gong. In the extra period he smacked another one through. The Midwests, able individualists though they were, could make no headway at all against the Old Aiken system of feeding, riding off, keeping in position. While the Midwests bunched on the ball, Old Aiken deployed and rode around them until the score was 12 to 5.

The part played by Mrs. Hitchcock in developing polo players is without parallel. The new junior champions--who went undefeated through 1927, won the Meadowbrook and Hempstead Cups last year and this year defeated Winston Guest's freebooters for the Westbury Cup--are all graduates of the Meadow Larks, a training school organized by her with experts like Devereaux Milburn and Malcolm Stevenson supervising and refereeing. Internationalist Guest was once a Meadow Lark. Some, and perhaps all of the present Old Aikens will doubtless become Internationalists. "Schooling" for polo means learning horsemanship with and without a mallet. It means, as taught by Mrs. Hitchcock, even beginning on foot, to learn the rudiments of team play. The second step is bicycle polo, then ponies. Thus may able poloists be developed young. The Old Aikens still average under voting age. Their captain's mother, Mrs. D. Stewart Iglehart Sr., started another preliminary school five years ago at old Westbury called the Sparrowhawks, composed of famed players' young sons.