The British Open Polo Championship for the Cowdray Gold Cup is an annual

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 ...

tournament held at Cowdray Park,

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, England. It is the premier polo tournament in Europe at High Goal (22 goal) level. The tournament is held a
Cowdray Park Polo Club
with matches being played at their Lawns Grounds and Ambersham Grounds over the course of a 3-week period. Culminating in the Gold Cup Final held at Lawns grounds in the shadows of the Cowdray Ruins.

History

The tournament was established in 1956 by 3rd Viscount Cowdray. Players have included members of the British royal family including

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...

and

King Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

and his son

James Packer James Douglas Packer (born 8 September 1967) is an Australian billionaire businessman and investor. Packer is the son of Kerry Packer , a media mogul, and his wife, Roslyn Packer . He is the grandson of Sir Frank Packer. He inherited control o ...

. It was formerly sponsored by champagne house

Veuve Clicquot Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin () is a Champagne house founded in 1772 and based in Reims. It is one of the largest Champagne houses. Madame Clicquot is credited with major breakthroughs, creating the first known vintage champagne in 1810, and i ...

and watchmaker

Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre SA, or simply Jaeger-LeCoultre (), is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer founded by Antoine LeCoultre in 1833 and is based in Le Sentier, Switzerland. Since 2000, the company has been a fully owned subsidiary ...

. According to polo player

Mark Tomlinson Mark Tomlinson (born 25 March 1982) is a professional polo player who plays for the England polo team, with a handicap of seven goals in Britain and six in Argentina. Biography Tomlinson, whose parents Simon and Claire own the Beaufort Polo Cl ...

, it is "the most important tournament in the UK".

List of Champions

References

*https://cowdraypolo.co.uk/gold-cup/ *https://hurlinghampolo.com/past-winners-of-the-gold-cup *https://cowdraypolo.co.uk/news/gold-cup-final-2021/ Sport in West Sussex Polo competitions in the United Kingdom 1956 establishments in England {{England-stub