Victory for BFF Polo Team

The British Forces Foundation polo team – the sport's equivalent of cricket’s Lord Taverners – were triumphant in this year’s Chapple Cup Series.

They thrashed the Combined Services Polo Association side at the Hackett Rundle Cup Day at Tidworth, and then repeated the feat, albeit in a much closer game, at Berenberg Bank Finals Day at Guards Polo Club, 24 hours later.

The BFF polo team evolved from Mark Cann’s ‘Leopards’ team playing very badly at the turn of the century. The players get together in aid of the Charity and have included the likes of Hollywood legend Tommy Lee Jones, rock stars Mike Rutherford from Genesis and Kenny Jones (The Who and Small Faces), HRH The Prince of Wales, Prince William, Prince Harry, George Milford Haven and polo greats like the Englishmen Howard and Julian Hipwood, Adam Snow, plus Gabrielle Donoso, and the amazing Argentine Nachos Figueras.

The team come together for a few matches a year, raising money for the Foundation in both America and the UK. The BFF Polo Trophy is competed for every year at different and wonderfully varying venues such as Houston, Richmond Virginia, Palm Beach and Tidworth and has been won by some illustrious teams like Isla Carrol and Gololphin.

Earlier this year they were soundly beaten by England Ladies at the BFF Polo Day at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. But it was a very different affair when the team – Pedro Lopez–Valido 1, The Hon Tristan Phillimore 1, Ben Vestey 3 and Mark Cann 0 – squared up against the CSPA at Tidworth for the ICOA Trophy. They dominated from the start and relentlessly increased their stranglehold on the game, snuffing out any hopes that the CSPA may have had of making a comeback. The final score 9 goals to 4_.

The next day at Guards Polo Club, with the United Services Cup up for grabs and the overall Chapple Cup Series, The BFF faced an even stronger CSPA side determined to share the honours. However, in an excellent spectacle, it was the unchanged Charity team who ran out victors by 10 goals to 7.

This is the second time The BFF team has competed in the Chapple Cup Series – the first was six years ago in 2002. HRH Prince William played for BFF that year, but it was the CSPA who were victorious. In 2003, the team played for the ICOA Trophy only, again with William but also Harry and The Prince of Wales and a terrified Mark Cann. They won in the dying seconds by half a goal thanks to Prince William's composure.