Hope and Glory founders, Nina & Bharat Chudasama were delighted to attend Chesterton’s Polo in the Park in Fulham recently, where teams representing six different Cities from around the world competing over three days.
Nina and Bharat are dedicated supporters of the sport which they see as a unifying emblem of British & Indian heritage. Modern polo originated in Manipur, a northeastern state of India when the Silchar Polo Club was first founded by British military officers and tea planters in 1859. According to reports, Lieutenant Joe Sherer saw the locals playing polo and announced, “We must learn the game!”
From India, polo spread as fast as its enthusiasts could travel, appearing in Malta in 1868, England in 1869, Ireland in 1870, Argentina in 1872 and Australia in 1874 and now can be experienced in all its glory at the annual Chesterton celebrations. Chesterton proudly proclaim the tournament to be ” largest and certainly most fun polo tournament in Europe” and we couldn’t agree more!
We loved the unique format of fast and furious polo where the rules of the game have been tweaked to make it faster and to bring spectators closer to the action.
Our founder Nina said “We absolutely loved the atmosphere of the day, it’s such a family-friendly event with a lovely relaxed vibe and a classically British feel to it!”
In between exploring the shopping village and enjoying the delicious food, we watched the Polo in the beautiful grounds and listened to the sounds of the bandstand drifting through the park, what an incredible way to to get the Great British Summer started!
