TAKING A SWING: Glenn Sherriff in action for Rangitikei against Poverty Bay at the Bushmere polo grounds. Picture by Paul Rickard
IT’S not every day a lad from Tiniroto gets to meet Queen Elizabeth II, but Mike and Ngaire Sherriff’s son Glenn did just that.
The 27-year-old former Makauri, Gisborne Intermediate and Gisborne Boy’s High School student met the Queen after playing for Poulton Balvanera team in the Royal Windsor Cup polo final.
Sherriff’s team had to settle for the runners-up spot after losing to Four Quarters Orange 8-7 after extra time. The players used over 40 ponies in the game.
“It was pretty cool to meet the Queen and shake her hand,” said Sherriff, who played rugby for the Ngatapa Nippers (five-to-10-year-olds) alongside All Black Charlie Ngatai, and rep rugby from the age of 10 to 14.
“She asked me if I usually played in the UK and I told her that I had been coming over for nearly 10 years and didn’t intend to stop any time soon . . . she smiled.”
Sherriff said the Royal Windsor was the biggest 15-goal tournament of the summer and 20 teams entered this year.
“Our team included two young patrons — JJ de Alba (Mexico) and Ludo Ephson (UK) — it was good fun to play with such talented kids. We were very much a four-man team with no weak link,” Sherriff, a five-goaler, said.
“The other five-goaler in the team was Tomas Iriate, an Argentinian.
“I have played with Tomas a couple of times before and our styles of play complement each other really well.
“We had three league games, the quarters, semis and the final. It was the first time we had played together as a team so it was amazing to get to the final.
“It was a nail-biting game with the scores tied, until one of their players burst away and scored the winning goal with 10 seconds left.
“We were gutted, but it was still an unforgettable experience to have made it to such a huge final.”
Although on the losing side, team patron Ephson was named most valuable player, Sherriff said.
“He had a really strong second half and his goals kept us in the game.
“And the Champion Pony of the match was New Zealand-bred.”
Sherriff usually plays for Maiz Dulce, who play at Cowdray Park Polo Club in West Sussex, but he was recruited by Poulton for the higher-goal Windsor Cup.
“We also play tournaments in the Cirencester and Windsor areas, as well as West Sussex,” he said.
“Our patron Peter Barfoot is the leading vegetable supplier in the UK and has built his business up from just a small allotment when he was young to a global farming system.
“I’m very lucky to have a patron like Peter. Our conversations are usually either about polo or farming.”
Maiz Dulce, Glenn’s team, won the Prince of Wales Cup at Beaufort Polo Club and he is currently playing in the Queen Mother Cup.
Glenn’s father introduced his son to polo as soon as he was strong enough to “swing a polo stick”.
“Dad played polo and had me swinging a polo stick around as soon as I was able.
“I played my first polo tournament when I was 11 and have never really looked back.”
Sherriff started going to England to play polo when he was 18.
“I play polo and train young polo ponies for six months during the UK summers and for the past 10 years I’ve alternated six months in New Zealand and six months in the UK, so I haven’t had to experience a winter in a while.”
Sherriff represented the New Zealand colts four times before he made his test debut on home soil last summer.
In his first season in England, Sherriff met his girlfriend Lotti Lamacraft, a professional polo player who has represented England.
“We’ve been together ever since,” Sherriff said.
“Lottie is a real natural with the young horses. We have worked together to build up two awesome strings of ponies in both the UK and New Zealand.
“Polo is all about horsepower. You are only as good as the horse you are riding. Many professionals are lucky enough to have the backing to go out and buy top-notch ponies; others produce them by themselves.
“We have always fallen in the latter category.
“It’s been hard work and has taken a lot of patience but we now have a fantastic young horse programme in both the UK and New Zealand. Once the New Zealand ponies are good enough, I fly them to the UK and they join our team.”
The English polo season starts at the end of April and finishes at the end of September.
“Seasons can vary from year to year,” Sherriff said.
“It’s not always easy to find patrons to sponsor teams and it can be a fairly ruthless industry with big overheads.
“Lottie and I have worked really hard and have got lucky; the past three seasons have been really busy. Usually I play games four or five times a week, sometimes more. The days in between are used for practice and schooling the ponies, especially the younger ones.”
Sherriff has also had the experience of playing for New Zealand in snow at Tianjin, China.
“There are three players instead of four in a team and the games are played on a smaller field, covered in six inches of snow — manually put there and smoothed out,” Sherriff said.
“We also use a larger, softer ball and the majority of ponies come from Australasia.
“There are usually 16 or so international teams.”
Sherriff said Chinese players took part in snow polo but they played in Tianjin and Hong Kong in the normal season.
“All other equestrian sports are increasing in popularity in China and they are developing some pretty good horsemen and women. They have imported a staggering number of horses for all equestrian sports.
“They have a lot of exhibition polo over there as they try to promote the sport.
“It’s an amazing experience. We are flown in for the tournament and then back to New Zealand, as it’s right in the middle of the season here — which means I don’t get to see much of China.”