Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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Franz Colloredo-Mansfeld, captain of the Myopia Polo Club since 2011 and the father of the Harvard sophomore, has added to the lineup of professional and club matches during the June-to-September polo season, including a youth tournament, to attract a wider audience. He launched the Boston Polo League two years ago to bring new players into the game and expanded club-level competition, with many of the recruits emerging from Stage Hill Polo and the new league to play for teams in the Boston area— all in hopes of reigniting polo passion in the region. New E ngla nders f i rst embraced polo when it leaped across t he At la nt ic a f ter Br it ish of f icers, returning from service in India, brought the game to England in the 19th century. Polo culture f lour- ished on the estates of Long Island, the Connecticut Sou nd, New por t , a nd Boston, pa r t icu la rly t he North Shore. Myopia, launched as a baseball club by a g roup of Ha r va rd ia ns, developed equ i ne fever a nd moved it s operat ions f rom subu rba n Winchester to Hamilton in the 1880s to accommo- date growing interest in fox hunting and polo. The game, which traces its origins back before t he t ime of A lexa nder t he Great , is simple: Four players on a team, armed with mallets and riding t he world's si l k iest at h letes, t raverse a g reen expanse nine times the size of a football field and attempt to drive a ball through a goal. Matches are usually divided into six seven-and-a-half-minute periods known as chukkers, with riders changing mou nt s bet ween each one. Players a re ra n ked with handicaps (or "goals") from -2 to 10 in order to balance the competing teams. (In top matches, a n elite four -goa l player like Nick Snow w ill be part of a 15 - or 20 -goal team.) The top Boston polo players compete on any of about 2 0 tea ms i n t he reg ion, most ly orga n i zed by fa m i l ies w it h long- st a nd i ng t ies to Myopia polo, like the Daniels family's Pony Express team out of Ipswich, where they maintain their own polo f ield for t ra ining a nd matches, or R ick Sa lter's Firehouse Subs team, which competes at Myopia as well as in tournaments near his farm in Aiken, South Carolina. Under Fra nz Colloredo -Ma nsfeld's g uida nce, Myopia events—usually held Sundays at 3 pm—have doubled their attendance since 2010. The highlight of the coming season, an August 2 match between t he USA a nd polo powerhouse A rgent i na , is expected to att ract thousands to the whispering pines sur rounding Gibney Field, where Myopia riders have played polo since 1887. "For many years, the number of people partici- pat i ng i n polo wa s decl i n i ng," says Col loredo - Ma nsfeld, president a nd CEO of t he old-l i ne The Harvard polo team takes on the challengers from Mongolia at Myopia Hunt Club. "ther e's nothing lik e polo. i've never seen people get as excited, men or women, about pl aying a g ame." —peter poor 112 bostoncommon-magazine.com