The Club

With a long and illustrious history, Cowdray Park is recognized worldwide as the Home of British Polo. Set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty within Viscount Cowdray’s 16,500 acre estate in West Sussex, the game of polo has been played at Cowdray for close on a century – the first competitive tournaments being recorded in 1910. By the 1920s a whole series of competitions with dedicated cups and trophies was firmly established, although the sport in the UK was to all but die out during the Second World War.

Competitive polo has been played at Cowdray since 1910, when the Club was founded as small country Club by the Pearson family. In 1912, Major Frederick ‘Rattle’ Barrett became the first British 10-goaler and regularly played at the Club.

During WWII, the polo fields were ploughed as part of war effort and the Ambersham polo grounds were taken over by the Fleet Air Arm. The original Nissen hut now acts as the members’ Clubhouse and the air hangers are used to store polo equipment and machinery.

Following WWII, John, the 3rd Viscount Cowdray set out to establish Cowdray as one of the most famous polo clubs in the world, securing its place at the pinnacle of the sport, nationally and internationally. Having lost his left arm at Dunkirk in 1940, he had an artificial arm adapted at the Roehampton Limb-Fitting Centre, assisted by his gunmaker, Churchills, so that he could hold the reins with a hook and continue to play. The 3rd Viscount proceeded to build his surviving string of twelve polo ponies to make the UK’s leading string. He loaned ponies to other players to increase participation in the sport. Beginning with Cowdray, polo was gradually revived on a smaller scale at other clubs around the country.

By 1948, visiting Argentines Jack Nelson and Luis Lacey were sufficiently impressed by the re-launch of British polo to invite John Cowdray to take a team to compete in Buenos Aires the following year. The visit by the English team in 1949 was a huge success and marked a significant step in the recovery of British polo.

In 1953, Cowdray Park played host to the first Coronation Cup. Teams from the UK, USA, Argentina and Chile competed and the finals drew a crowd of more than 10,000 people, including HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.

The Gold Cup was inaugurated 1956 and remains the UK’s premier high goal tournament which welcomed its Golden Jubilee in 2006.