Rachel started to ride before she could walk and progressed through pony club, competing in all teams from games to eventing. At 14 she moved onto the showing circuit, travelling around the country to all the county shows in search of the prestigious HOYS and RIHS tickets. Nowadays, she mainly competes in mountain and moorland working hunter pony classes with her welsh section C, Starcrest Mel Aur, finishing 3rd this year at the Horse of the Year Show and won a class at the B.S.P.S summer championships. This is Rachel's 3rd year playing polo - she too started playing at university and fell in love with the sport. In her first year, she was a member of the winning Beginner team at the Winter University National Championships and came 2nd in the Summer, captaining the Novice 2 runners-up team in the 2009 Arena Champs.
Hannah started her equestrian career with a shetland pony when she was just 2 years old. Hannah has always been around horses and had ponies at home on the farm for hacking around. She came to university looking for a sport to quench her need for speed and started playing polo in the first year of university. The highlight of Hannah's career to date was winning the beginners division(with Rachel) at the Winter Championships 07, and taking the runners up spot in summer. To progress further, Hannah keeps her own polo pony at university. Hannah recently played on the English University Students team at the SUPA University Nations Cup.
Heather started to ride at the age of 10, with her school pony club. Despite not having owned her own horse, Heather has been consistently improving her riding and whilst at school entered occasional unaffiliated show-jumping competitions on borrowed ponies. Heather decided to try polo in her first year of University and has never looked back. She captained the 2nd Beginner team for both the Winter 2008 and Summer 2008 University National Championships, leading her team to victory in the Summer. As a result, Heather was invited to play on the English University Students team at the SUPA University Nations Cup.
Tina started riding at the age of 2 when she was bought a Welsh X for her birthday. With grandparents fanatical about point-to-pointing and a mother working in National Hunt, riding was inevitable from a young age. Tina continued to compete in lead-rein showing until boarding school took over most of her time. At 13 she again took up riding, although just for leisure (however, with a chestnut mare(!) prone to bolting, refusing and general naughtiness it was not always the most pleasurable activity). Tina took up polo in her first year at Uni and was a member of the winning team in the Beginner 2’s division at the 2008 Summer University National Championships. She was also awarded Most Improved Player in 2007-2008. She hunts regularly with the Devon and Somerset Staghounds and hopes to compete in the National Championships this summer.
Having spent much of her early childhood on the West End stage, Bec decided that riding was more exciting and had her first pony at the age of 7. Whilst on ponies, Rebecca captained many Welsh showjumping teams to victory. She won major Grand Prixs and won the 'Best Rider' award at RIHS when she was 10. One of Rebecca's highlights was performing a Royal Salute on horseback to the Queen at Royal Windsor Horse Show. Having left the pony circuit to complete her schooling, Rebecca decided that she would have a go at polo when at university. She was soon 'hooked' and captained the Beginner team at the National Championships (Winter and Summer 2008), winning on both occasions, as well as leading the Novice team to victory in the Arena Champs 2009. Rebecca was a member of the Welsh University Students team at the SUPA University Nations Cup last year and is played for them again in April 09.
Nicola began riding from the year dot as her mum thought a shetland pony was a far better idea than a pushchair. Nicola then advanced through many other ponies during her childhood and was an avid Pony Club member. She competed in the Eventing teams for the Pytchley Hunt Pony Club despite her hatred of dressage. She has also hunted with the Pytchley since a young age and continues hunting with them now. Since arriving at Warwick Nicola immediately took up polo, and is now in her third year of the sport. Despite her liver taking such a bashing through her membership of Warwick Polo Club she still thoroughly enjoys both the competitive and social side!
Michael Burr
As a fresher Michael was most likely to be heard singing row, row, row
your boat as he awoke at 5am to go rowing with some strapping young
men. However, having decided that horses are a better mode of transport,
we now have his undivided attention. He is an expert in flora, and can
often be found amongst the Bluebells and Heather.
He is the dominant male, and despite his gentle appearance he works
hard to fend off those persistent hockey boys and suchlike. You may
think that butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth...we know otherwise!
Even though Michael wasn’t the most confident rider when he joined us,
we have all been very impressed by his determination and he is now our
number 1 male polo player and resident knight in shining armour.
Ilesh Persand
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Having been tormented by the evil clutches of the chemistry department, he was lead to the magical land of Offchurch where he discovered the magnificence of POLO! Although he had never even come close to what one may consider to be called riding, in a matter mere weeks Ilesh was riding like a true polo-master and was able, with guidance and tutoring of the polo president, to begin intense polo-jousting sessions, soon to transform into the true marvel of polo: CHUKKAS! Meanwhile, off the pitch, Ilesh voyaged into the realms of social extravaganza where he quickly made himself a true impact as he toiled in hours of mischievous outings with the devilish polo-ites: rampaging through the dance-floors of Warwick and slowly sipping on his bottles of wine forced upon him by the Wicked Woolfe of the North. Within moments, Ilesh had captured the hopes and dreams of the lavish polo-ites as he rose to the thrown of Social Sec.
Lizzie Jay
Lizzie started riding aged 7 at her local stables and after finally persuading her mum a horse was a solid investment she worked there from the age of 14 onwards. After outgrowing her first horse, Lizzie was lucky enough to get another and compete in some local show jumping classes in Cheshire. After having to give up riding in order to achieve the grades to actually get into Warwick, polo was always going to be the club for her. She's enjoyed so much with the club despite only being a fresh, from captaining the 2nd team at nationals to the fantastic socials at score each week! Lizzie is now Social Sec.
Tom de Burgh
H. Tom de Burgh
Although Tom has ridden in the past, little stuck until he started riding more regularly and playing polo at Warwick this year, having joined us from University of London where he studied Neuroscience at King’s. At that time he was spending most free moments rolling around at sea with the Royal Naval Reserve rather than on horses. Trying to keep his medical studies under a lid, he is hoping to play in the SUPA Nationals very soon!
Tom Astley
Coming from a small village in Oxfordshire there wasn’t much for Tom (Astley) to do as a child apart from get on a horse, and fall off, and get on again. That was about as far as riding got until his third year at university when he couldn’t miss the opportunity to see Anthony ride a horse in the polo arena and figured he would have a go too. Hooked at an instant, Tom continued, competing in the Beginner B team in the winter nationals, winning two out of four games and scoring a cracking goal. Including many antics off the field Tom looks forward to more fun in the future with Warwick Polo.
Jill Oxenham
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Jill Oxenham has been riding since the age of four; firstly with weekly lessons at the local riding stables then loaning ponies while at secondary school, trying her hand at various unaffiliated shows in the holidays. She spent her gap year as a working student for an international eventer in Canada; improving her riding and competition grooming across the US. Always keen to do something new, Jill tried polo at the start of University and immediately became addicted. She was undefeated with the Beginners 1st team in the Winter Nationals 09 and hopes to continue the trend into the summer.
Kayte Block
Kayte started riding aged 5 but gave up after a pony-eating umbrella was opened causing chaos and much running around the school in circles. Eventually Kayte got the riding bug again aged 16 and soon progressed to have her own little fat pony, Jolanda. Not really up for the aggressive and frightening world of competitions, Kayte and Jolanda terrorised the countryside for a few years, occasionally tackling a cross-country course. Whilst at university, the itch to ride was too much to handle and searching for a fix Kayte eventually found polo. Kayte has now learnt to love the (aggressive) world of polo, captaining the 3rd beginner team to 4th at the Winter Nationals. She is now looking forward to the experience of playing on grass.
Jenna Townend
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Jenna ('the Cornish Pasty from backwards land') has been riding since the age of 7 and has never looked. She was the 'stickiest' of the riders at her yard and was consequently used as a guinea pig for new horses during which time she learnt many lessons, with injuries to match. Prior to university, Jenna competed in show jumping and cross country competitions for her club and her school, before being welcomed to the wonderfully addictive world of polo at university. She got her first taste of competitive polo in the Beginner 2 team at the National Arena Championships in February 2009 and is determined to play as much as she can. Jenna and is greatly looking forward to the excitement and opportunities that the next 2 years in Warwick Polo will bring.
Anthony Braddon
Anthony: When Bradders was originally asked if he could last 7 minutes, he didn't quite understand what he'd let himself in for. A few days later he found himself trotting around Offchurch on his newly discovered four legged friend Blue, mallet in hand, looking extremely comfortable despite being a newcomer to both polo and horse riding in general! That said, he is still striding (!) to be part of the team for the Summer Nationals and continues to indulge in the boisterous social side of the club when not in the saddle. As chief of the publicity team, Bradders intends to raise the general profile of the club, as well as its bank balance.
Ignacio Guerrero
Ignacio "Nacho" Guerrero is an Argentinean polo player and model. He is a member of the award-winning Black Watch polo team, based in Palm Beach, Florida and Bridgehampton, New York, and also plays for the Warwick University Polo Club. He is the face of Ralph Lauren’s new Polo Black fragrance as well as a Ford model. Only joking....Nacho, from the Philippines, is a member of our beginner 1st team and chief whip among the MBAs. Having started playing polo at Warwick in October, MBA student Nacho has learnt a huge amount, improving his riding and now has new ball skills. An avid photographer, you will no doubt see Nacho’s polo photos springing up all over the web.
Lousia Lim
Growing up land-scarce Singapore, Louisa has always been interested in equestrian sport but never really got the chance to pursue it competitively. She has been riding school ponies on an on-off leisurely basis since she was 9 and has done a little bit of dressage. It is only at university that she picked up polo and has just had her first taste of university polo at the Winter National Championships 2008.
Ste Lovelady
Steve began riding at the tender age of 5, which was, incidentally, still before most of the current Polo club were even born. He progressed steadily, before retiring at the less tender age of 15. He received 2 accolades in his illustrious career, the awards for "lowest injury to fall ratio" and "person who should probably ride the crazy horse before anyone else to test whether it's safe or not". The opportunity arose in second year when a friend suggested he joined the newly formed Polo Club because they only had three members and needed new recruits. Ste found himself with a starting place on the inaugural Beginner's Team. He then progressed to the Novice teams and has good memories of these times with the exception of the Winter Nationals in 2007 where he suffered a grade 3 concussion and has no memory whatsoever. Ste continued his development by joining Offchurch Bury Polo Club and learning alongside some of the finest players in the Eastern Leamington area, and it was here someone suggested he ventured to Argentina for their summer season, primarily because it wasn't 3 degrees and snowing in December over there.
Rhiannon Howe
After seeing Warwick Polo on Campus during an Open Day Rhiannon came away with an even greater resolve to study Chemistry at Warwick. Having ridden on and off during her teens she had no real knowledge of the competitive equestrian world. Warwick Polo has unleashed the hidden competitive side and since her first taster session Rhiannon has been completely addicted. Playing with the Beginner 3’s at the winter SUPA nationals she helped to take her team to 4th place in division two. Here the phrase work hard play hard reigns true - every minute not spent in lectures is spent at the yard or at polo socials. Having completely immersed herself in polo, the next step was inescapable. In the spring of 09 Rhiannon invested in her first polo pony Jill, She is looking forward to competing on her in the SUPA summer nationals and (hopefully) captaining her team to victory.