The Beijing International Polo Open Tournament 2011 took place at the Beijing Sunny Times Polo Club. (© Oliver Doran)
The Beijing International Polo Open Tournament took place on 16th and 17th September 2011 at the Beijing Sunny Times Polo Club. This year, for the first time, the final day of the tournament became the “Beijing British Polo Day”, a celebration of Sino-UK relations. Guests were ferried to and from the polo in a fleet of 20 vehicles from Land Rover, and were treated to a British “Tea” served by the Intercontinental Financial Street, Beijing.
Fittingly, the British Exiles team, dressed in their Barbour shirts, beat fellow British Commonwealth nation, New Zealand, 6.5:1 in front of a 3000-strong crowd, which included Sebastian Wood, the British Ambassador to China and Sir David Brewer, Chairman of the China Britain Business Council. Earlier on in the day, the Piaget China team, which included 10 goal star Marcos Heguy, had beaten Argentina in a gripping subsidiary final.
The Beijing International Polo Open Tournament begun in 2009 and has been built by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports. It is the only authorized international polo tournament supported by the government of China. The British Polo Days celebrate the history and heritage of the game in a quintessentially British day of polo in various locations all around the world. The next destination is Singapore on 19 November 2011 when the Singapore Polo Club is celebrating is 125th anniversary.
The Ranking:
1. British Exiles (+10)
Stuart Wrigley (0)
Eden Ormerod (+3)
Jack Mann (+2)
Gaston Devrient (+5)
2. New Zealand (+9)
Simon McDonald (+3)
George Gemmell (+1)
Kit Brooks (+4)
Jared Thompson (+1)
3. Piaget China (+12)
Xia Yang (-1)
Wu Zhiwei (0)
Marcos Heguy (+10)
Manuel Guiraldes (+3)
4. Argentina (+12)
Marcial Socas (+4)
Francisco Lalor (+2)
Javier Herrera (+1)
Luis Eduardo Lalor (+5)
Enjoy some films of the Beijing British Polo Day >> click here
