Barbados floodlit game at Apes Hill
The Polo Times team were pitch side at the fantastic Apes Hill Polo Club to witness a piece of Barbados history being made on Saturday 28 March.
England may be rainy and cold much of the time, but one thing the UK has is long, light summer evenings allowing us to enjoy early evening polo. Barbados has many things in its favour (great weather, rum aplenty, palm trees… the list goes on), but the nights close in fast with darkness hitting around 6 pm.
To combat this, Camilla Williams, Karen Kranenburg and the team at Apes Hill Polo Club came up with the innovative idea of playing polo under floodlights. Cue a perfect excuse for the great and the good of Barbados to enjoy a night of partying set to a backdrop of polo. What could be better?
As darkness descended, 22 raised floodlights bathed the Waterhall polo ground in light as the first 3 goal match got underway with the 82-year-old Sir Charles ‘Cow’ Williams playing with his usual gusto to score the first goal. A close match followed with a draw at the end of the fourth chukka. To the excitement of the ladies in the VIP area, BRIT-Award winning trio Blake sang a number of our favourites before singing a rendition of the Bajan National Anthem to kick off the second match of the evening. This was a 10 goal game between Digicel and Virgin Atlantic which saw Oli Taylor score in the dying seconds of the last chukka to equalise the scores at four apiece after a tight game.
Guest DJ Camilo Franco of SPACE Ibiza had flown in especially from Spain to work his magic on the decks and this, teamed with rivers of Moët & Chandon flowing well into the early hours, meant that the hottest ticket in Barbados was not a disappointment.
For a full report on the event see the May issue of Polo Times
Photograph: Digicel and Virgin Atlantic shining bright at the presentation. By Richenda Hine.
http://www.polotimes.co.uk/?pg=35