The Polo Begins

"For the game's sake" is a phrase long since laughed into oblivion by disillusioned sports writers. The sharp black line supposedly drawn between amateurs and professionals has become a wavy web of honorable evasions, and the conclusion must be drawn that amateur athletes derive income from their strength and skill as surely, but not so profitably, as does, say, the world's champion heavyweight pugilist. Helen Wills, as fine a character as amateur sport has ever known, is a paid artist drawing tennis pictures for the press. Her pictures are good--for a tennis player; but it has been accurately remarked that they are not good, for an artist. "Bobby" Jones writes for a sports syndicate. There are similar examples for almost every amateur champion or near cham- pion. But there is one champion who has never been found in any lucrative sideline of his sport. He is Devereux Milburn.

Milburn is never on any polo sideline. His flail flies every day. He is always on horseback on the field. When international or club polo is unscheduled, Milburn mounts a pony and referees junior games at some Long Island field. The records show practice games in which he has played on mixed teams of men and women.*

The earliest echo of Milburn playing polo comes from Buffalo where he was born. (He lived in the house where President McKinley died.) With the late C. C. Rumsey, polo internationalist, the boy Milburn learned the game on a bicycle with a sawed-off mallet; later, on Shetland ponies. He went to Oxford (for his father, though a Buffalo settler, was a native Englishman), and played on the Oxford polo team. He also rowed on the Oxford crew. Later he went to Harvard Law School, and now practices law with the firm of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn in Manhattan. Outside of his law practice he lives the life of a country squire; owns poodles.

When Harry Payne Whitney organized the famed International team of 1909 to bring back to the U. S. the polo prestige long lost to England, Milburn played back. Milburn has played back on every U. S. polo team since 1909 (seven of them, including 1927) and felt defeat in the 1914 series only. He has been an unwavering star of every contest. He plays an unorthodox game that has partially altered the theory of polo. Time was when the back was chiefly a defense mechanism like the quarterback (safety man) behind a defensive football team. Milburn made back an offensive position, driving up to score the goals, and letting the No. 3 player drop back to care for accidents.

Like most successful veterans, Milburn before a game is like a girl before her first ball. He is excited, crazy to start; swept by an emotional and nervous fog. He paces; he mutters; he struggles with the energy within him and his craving for the game. And when he goes on the field this craving, this energy fuse an iron wrist and a clear eye into the irresistible force that has won so many international games.

Schedule. The first International Polo Match will be played at the Meadowbrook Club, Long Island, Sept. 5. The second Sept. 6. The third, in case of tie, Sept. 14.

The U. S. Team:

No. 1. J. Watson Webb, 42, a left hander, rare in polo. Played on the last U. S. team (1924). A saddle hitter (meaning a player who hits the ball while sitting on his horse instead of standing in his stirrups). Saddle hitters are common in England, uncommon in the U. S. It is believed by some that saddle hitters lack power.

No. 2. Thomas Hitchcock, 27, some times described as "most brilliant polo player in the world." First attained international prominence at 20; son of Thomas Hitchcock, onetime internationalist. The Hitchcocks are a famed "horsy" family.

No. 3. Malcolm Stevenson, 40, veteran of the last U. S.-British matches. Originally he was not selected for the team this year; won his position by irresistible play in practice matches shortly before the series.

Back. Devereux Milburn, 46.

Substitute. Winston Guest, 21, captain of the Yale Intercollegiate Championship team this spring. Son of a prominent English player. His mother, nee Phipps, is of Long Island.

Substitute. J. Cheever Cowdin, 39, son of an early U. S. Interna- tionalist. Head of the bond house, Blair & Co. Critically injured sev- eral seasons ago in a game, he recovered and now plays the best game of his life.

Substitute. Robert Strawbridge, 30, played in the last International matches. Scion of a Philadelphia family famed for its horses.

Stibstitiite. C. A. Wilkinson, 35, the only U. S. Army player on the squad. Unknown until a recent fine showing of the Army team in Eastern tournament.

The English Team:

No. 1. Capt. Claude Ernest Pert, 29, Army-in-India player, rugby player, boxer, War veteran.

No. 2. Major Austin Williams, 37, Army-in-India, War veteran and rugby player.

No. 3. Capt. C. T. I. Roark, 32, star of the English team, and only one not from the Army-in-India. An Irishman, called "Pat."

Back. Col. Commandant E. G. Atkinson, 40, veteran Internationalist, Army-in-India player. An erratic player, capable of extraordinary brilliance. Captain of the team.

Substitute. Capt. Richard George, 29, chosen for No. 1 but apparently unable to accustom himself to U. S. conditions.

Substitute. Capt. John Dening, 33, has a very pleasant smile and hits a particularly long ball. Army-in-India and rugby training.

Substitute. Lieut. H. P. Guinness, 25, youngest man on the British squad. A racquets and tennis expert, hitherto unknown in high calibre polo.

Accompanying the team is Col. H. H. Maharaja Sir Sajjan Singhji, of Ratlam (pronounced Rutlam), representing the people of India who raised the money to "export" the team. He is coffee-colored, attractive, rich, wears a turban.

The Ponies. The principal English mounts were brought from India. U. S. players will ride the best ponies from the country's stables, among them Stephen Sanford's Judy, "highest priced polo pony in the world" ($13,000).

A mare, Rosita, is the property of Major H. H. Raj Rajeshwar Saramad Rajhai-Hindustan Maharaja Dhirej Sri Sir Ummaid Singh-ji Sahib Bahadur of Jodpur, is the British star. Gargantilla, spectacularly marked veteran of the last series from the Whitney stables, will be among those under Milburn.

History. In 1886 the Westchester Polo Club of Newport and the Hurlingham Club, centre of English polo, had a private argument. Polo at that time was unnoticed in the U. S. A handful of sportsmen, including Thomas Hitchcock Sr., "picked up a team" and were soundly trounced by the better trained and better mounted Britons. For 14 years polo continued unnoticed. In 1900 a group of U. S. citizens residing abroad picked up a team and played & lost a single game to the British. Two years later international polo really started when a team headed by Foxhall Keene of Philadelphia was formally exported, won the first game and lost the next two. Soon Harry Payne Whitney took a hand. This famed sportsman opened a thor- ough preparatory drive to beat Britain, selected his team, schooled his ponies over a period of years. In 1909 the "Big Four," Whitney, Monty and Larry Waterbury, and Milburn, sailed for England and drubbed Britain, in two straight games. Since then there have been five challenges, and four of them have been won by the U. S. Just before the red shadow of war darkened all sport, the English four took the title back to England where it remained until Milburn, Hitchcock, Webb and Louis Stoddard regained it in 1921. International polo is not played every year. It involves too much preparation, too much expense. England challenged in 1924 and a team identical in personnel to that which will take the field this month won two straight games for the U. S.

* One active woman player has been Mrs. Thomas Hitchcock, mother of the brilliant Tommy Hitchcock, No. 2 on the U. S. team.