1941: Polo

With Elbridge T. Gerry continuing as Chairman of the United States Polo Association, governing body of the game here, there was a full and active season at the many polo fields throughout the country.

At Meadow Brook on Long Island, the National Open Championship and Monty Waterbury Cup tournament, highlights of the American season, were held and both events were won by the same team. This was the Gulf Stream four, captained and led by Michael Phipps and including in its make-up J. H. A. Phipps, Charles S. von Stade and Alan L. Corey, Jr. The National Twenty Goal Championship was also held at Meadow Brook and was won by G. H. (Pete) Bostwick and his Bostwick Field team consisting of himself, Sidney Culver, Charles von Stade and Alan Corey, Jr.

The year's Inter-Circuit and Twelve Goal Championships were, once again, held in the Middle West at the Oak Brook Club, just outside of Chicago, and the National Inter-Circuit was won by the Huisache team from Houston, Texas, while the home Oak Brook team won the Twelve Goal title. Robert D. Farish, William Dritt, Robert S. Nichoalds and Rudolph Humberson played for the winning Houston side while Harry O. Owen, Jr., Paul Butler, Dan Peacock and Charles Aaberg made up the winning Twelve Goal team.

At the Blind Brook Club at Port Chester, N. Y., Yale won the Intercollegiate Championship for the second successive year.

No formal international competition was held but two American teams visited Mexico City during the course of the year for a series of special matches with the Mexican Army.

Stewart B. Iglehart became the only 10-goal player in the world when Cecil Smith, who had shared the top pinnacle with him during the 1941 season, was dropped to 9 goals at the regular fall meeting of the Handicap Committee of the Association.

1940: Polo

Although most of the foreign players were absent from these shores during the 1940 season, there was plenty of good polo played throughout the country during the year. There were many charity games in various sections for the different war relief causes, and these were all well-attended and enthusiastically received.

The National Open Championship was played at the Meadow Brook Club on Long Island and was won by the Aknusti team of Gerard Smith, Robert L. Gerry, Jr., Elbridge T. Gerry and Alan L. Corey, Jr. They defeated the Great Neck team in the final of this event, only to find themselves a week later being defeated by this same Great Neck four in the finals of the Waterbury Cup, most important handicap tournament of the American season. Great Neck lined up with George H. Mead, Jr., J. Peter Grace, Stewart B. Iglehart and Robert E. Strawbridge, Jr. The National Twenty Goal Championship was also won by Stewart Iglehart's Great Neck team although they played with Gerald Dempsey, J. Peter Grace, Iglehart and E. N. Carpenter in this event, which was held at the Bostwick Field Club.

The Hunting Valley Club near Cleveland was awarded the year's Inter-Circuit and Twelve Goal Championships with five of the six Polo Association Circuit winners sending teams to compete for national honors. The National Inter-Circuit was won by the Blue Hill Farms team of Philadelphia, representing the Southeastern Circuit, while the Twelve Goal was won by the Gates Mills team of the home club.

Yale University won the Intercollegiate Championship which was held at the W. Cameron Forbes Field in Westwood, Massachusetts.

Robert E. Strawbridge, Jr., who had served ably as Chairman of the United States Polo Association since 1936, was forced to retire under the Constitution, and he was succeeded by Elbridge T. Gerry.

1939: Polo

The year 1939 in polo was notable for the fact that the first International Polo Cup matches between Great Britain and the United States since 1936 and the first to be held in this country since 1930 were played in June. These matches, held at the Meadow Brook Club in Westbury, Long Island, were won by the United States team in two straight games in the two-out-of-three game series. Michael G. Phipps, Thomas Hitchcock, Jr., Stewart B. Iglehart and Winston Guest formed the American team, while Great Britain used Robert Skene, Aidan Roark, Gerald Balding and Eric Tyrrell-Martin.

The National Open Championship and Monty Waterbury Memorial Cup tournaments were held, once again, in September at Meadow Brook and the Open was won by the Bostwick Field team of George H. Bostwick, Robert L. Gerry, Jr., Elbridge T. Gerry and Eric H. Tyrrell-Martin. The Greentree team, consisting of J. Peter Grace, Jr., Robert Skene, Thomas Hitchcock, Jr., and John Hay Whitney, won the Waterbury Cup.

The National Twenty Goal Championship, which was formerly called the National Junior Championship, was won by the League of Nations team, while the National Inter-Circuit tournament, which brings the best medium goal teams from all over the country to a central point, was once again played at the Oak Brook Club just outside of Chicago and was won by the good Houston Huisache team from Texas. The National Twelve Goal tournament, held in conjunction with the Inter-Circuit, was won by the Pegasus Club of New Jersey.

On the whole it was a successful season, with the game following the sun around the different parts of the country and play continuing unbroken from January through December.

1938: Polo

The 1938 polo season was again featured by the fine play of the Old Westbury team, who repeated their 1937 success in the National Open Championship. The team consisted of Michael Phipps, Stewart Iglehart, Cecil Smith, and C. V. Whitney; and the excellent all around play of Phipps in this tournament and during the season merited his being raised to ten goals on the handicap list. He shares this top figure with his teammates — Stewart Iglehart and Cecil Smith — and Thomas Hitchcock, Jr., of the Greentree team.

The Aknusti team won the Monty Waterbury Cup, which, like the Open, was held in September at the famous Meadow Brook Club in Westbury, L. I. This tournament is the feature handicap event of the season, and the winning team was composed of Elbridge Gerry, Robert Gerry, Jr., Captain C. T. I. Roark, and Raymond Guest.

Other national championship winners included the Bostwick Field team, which won the Junior Championship; the Army team, representing the Field Artillery School of Fort Sill, which won the Inter-Circuit Championship; the Harvard University team, which won the Eastern Intercollegiate Championship; and the University of Southern California four, winners of the Western Intercollegiate Championship.

The game continued its healthy growth in all sections of the United States with more players, member clubs and spectator interest than ever before and continued as a world-wide sport with fine polo being played in all parts of the globe, including Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, England, India, Australia, Africa, Germany, France, Belgium, Hawaii, China, and the Philippine Islands.

During the latter part of the year, Great Britain sent an official challenge to the United States for the historic Westchester Cup, which was last successfully defended by this country in England in 1936. This challenge has been accepted, and the 1939 season will see the renewal of the International Matches with Great Britain. These games will be held in June at the Meadow Brook Club and will be the first formal International Matches between the two countries to be held on this side of the water since 1930.