Playing Polo | Polo Matches Will Be ‘social Event Of The Year’
For many sports fans, tailgating and watching a sport played on a large grass field in September is synonymous with football season.
But in Barrington Hills, it is synonymous with Saturday’s Kalaway Landowner’s Cup polo matches at Oakwood Farms, 250 Deepwood Road.
Gates for the sixth annual polo event are scheduled to open at 11 a.m., with the first polo matches scheduled to begin at noon. The Kalaway Landowner’s Cup is sponsored by the Riding Club of Barrington Hills and the Barrington Hills Polo Club.
Polo Club President John Rosene calls it “the social event of the year in Barrington Hills.”
More than 1,000 people attended the Kalaway Cup in 2009, and Rosene said he expects at least 1,300 on Saturday.
Rosene said tailgaters will be out in full force, vying to win prizes for the best tailgates.
For the first time this year, the tailgate contests will be dedicated to the memory of Peter Wessel, who died in September 2009 from lung cancer while serving his first term as a village trustee in Barrington Hills.
Wessel was a former three-time president of the Barrington Hills Riding Club and a former commissioner for the Barrington Hills Countryside Park District. Rosene said Wessel took great joy in participating in the tailgate activities at previous Kalaway Cups.
“That was his favorite part,” Rosene said. “He loved to go around and judge the tailgates.”
Wessel’s son, Christopher, will participate in the polo cup matches. There will be a three-team round-robin to determine the winner of the 2010 Kalaway Landowner’s Cup as well as a “Battle of the Sexes” polo match, pitting a team of men against a team of women.
Rosene said 20 of the 24 people who will participate in the round-robin matches started playing polo through the Barrington Hills Polo Club’s polo school.
“A lot of them were non-players, and some of them weren’t even riders, when they started,” Rosene said.
Barrington Hills resident Andy Thorson will be participating in the Kalaway Cup for the first time this year.
He said polo has been growing on him ever since he attended the polo school four years ago. Previously Thorson was an avid golfer, but in 2010 he said he has turned his attention almost exclusively to polo.
“Last year I played about 55 rounds of golf and this year it’s been probably about five,” he said.
Thorson said he and his wife, Kristen, attended the polo school together, but he barely knew how to ride a horse when he started. He said he never dreamed he would be playing in a spectator polo event.
“It’s going to be neat to play in front of all the people I know in the area,” he said.
Thorson said he has attended the Kalaway Cup festivities as a spectator and tailgater previously, but now that he is playing in the event he will leave the tailgating duties to his family and friends, who have rented six tailgating spots and are expecting over 100 people.
In addition to the tailgate contests, Rosene said the 2010 Kalaway Cup will feature a contest to reward the best lady’s hat.
“The lady’s hat contest is new for us, but it’s really an old-time tradition in polo matches,” Rosene said.
The Lake Run Clydesdales will give rides in its red beer wagon, the Fox River Valley Pony Club will have demonstrations and various children’s activities are also scheduled.
General admission tickets are $15. Children under age 12 are admitted free. Field side tailgate parking spots are available for $75 per spot. For more information call (847) 854-1415.
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