The Auckland Polo Club is a historic

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

club in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Founded in 1888, it hosts many national and international tournaments, including the annual BMW Polo Open.

Location

It is located in

Clevedon Clevedon (, ) is an English seaside town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, part of the ceremonial county of Somerset. It recorded a parish population of 21,281 in the United Kingdom Census 2011, estimated at 21,442 i ...

, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand.Clevedon: Auckland Polo Club
/ref> The Wairoa River flows nearby.

History

It was founded in 1888, making it the oldest club in New Zealand.Horace A. Laffaye, ''The Polo Encyclopedia'', Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2004, p. 22 It is affiliated with the New Zealand Polo Association. It is a reciprocal club with the

Guards Polo Club The Guards Polo Club is an English polo club in Windsor, Berkshire. It was most closely associated with the British Royal Family. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was President of the club from its formation on 25 January 1955 until his death i ...

in England. There are five polo grounds. Sir

Maurice O'Rorke Sir George Maurice O’Rorke (2 May 1830 – 25 August 1916) was a New Zealand politician, representing (as George O’Rorke) the Auckland seat of Onehunga, and later Manukau, and was Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was a committed ...

, who served as the fifth

Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

from 1879 to 1890, was the Captain of the club. Other early players included Thomas Morrin, Major Geoffrey Buddle, E.C. Meysey-Thompson, T.C. Williamson, and T. O'Sullivan. The club has 200 members, 61 of which are polo players. They won the New Zealand Savile Cup in 1976, 1977, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1990 and 1993. Every year from October to March, the club organizes four matches a week. It also hosts the annual BMW Polo Open Tournament.Georgina Bond
Polo open hopes to inspire resurgence for 'sport of kings'
''

National Business Review The ''National Business Review'' (or ''NBR'') is a New Zealand online news publication aimed at the business sector. It has journalists based in Auckland and Wellington. History The ''NBR'' was founded in 1970 by then-23 year old publisher Hen ...

'', February 23, 2013 The club president is Tony van den Brink.

References

Polo clubs Polo in New Zealand Sports clubs and teams in New Zealand Sports clubs and teams established in 1888 1888 establishments in New Zealand Sports venues in Auckland {{NewZealand-org-stub