Welcome to our series, Club of the Month, where we highlight one of our amazing clubs and share their news, views, and plans for the season. If you would like to nominate you favourite club, or would like to be featured, email media@hpa-polo.co.uk for more info.
November’s Club of the Month
Leadenham Polo Club
Can you tell us about the history of the club? Leadenham Polo Club was founded by James Reeve, who took up polo whilst studying at Edinburgh University. Upon graduating, James set about starting the club up to bring polo to his home in Lincolnshire with the intention of making top quality facilities, horses, and coaching accessible at a grassroots level and beyond.
Having consulted one of the best pitch designers, the work on the polo field began in 2006. Old farmland was stripped back and laser levelled with thousands of tonnes of sand mixed into the surface, and the field was then sown with a specialist blend of grass seed. James took a trip to Argentina with Henry Brett during the winter of 2006/07 and they selected 20 horses to ship over to Leadenham to become the founding string, with many of them still being with the club today. The first chukkas were finally played on the field in late 2008 and in 2016 an irrigation system was installed.
In 2022 we completed the build of our purpose built 100mx50m polo arena, which has a top-specification wax fibre surface and floodlights. With the installation of this arena, Leadenham is now a fully-affiliated HPA arena club.
Another part of the fantastic offering at Leadenham is The Manor, a Grade II listed country house situated within the grounds of the club. The property sleeps up to 16 people and comes complete with a large hot tub with views of the polo field, a grass tennis court (in the summer) and ample space for families and groups of friends to relax. The perfect setting for a Polo Holiday!
What’s been happening in 2023, and what are the plans for the rest of the season at Leadenham?
2023 has been a great year for us at Leadenham; we welcomed our fantastic Polo Manager and Coach Adam Deane, a 3 goal player from Barbados, at the beginning of the year. Adam has been a fantastic addition to the team and has allowed us to go from strength to strength making 2023 one of our best years yet.
Our young horse programme has ramped up in 2023 under Adam’s expert eye, and we are thrilled to be seeing some fantastic ponies entering the club string. Here at Leadenham our main motivation for our young horse programme is to make great ponies and to keep them so that our clients are able to enjoy them!
We are passionate about grassroots polo, which is why our schools and university programme is so important to us. We have had great uptake this year from local schools who are now offering polo lessons to their pupils, and we are keen to grow on this during the rest of 2023 and into 2024. We are proud to be the training hub and home to both Durham University Polo Club and Loughborough University Polo Club, and in June we were thrilled to host the Durham University Summer Invitational Tournament which saw students travelling from all over the country making it the largest university tournament outside of SUPA.
In July we hosted our first 4 goal Super League tournament, which saw 4 teams go head-to-head playing some spectacular polo during our summer tournament. We are looking forward to hosting this again in 2024 and entering our own Leadenham team!
What plans are underway for the future?
We have just entered our second ever arena season, having only completed our arena build during the summer of 2022 and we have already got our first arena tournament of the season under our belts, with Durham University hosting their Invitational Arena tournament just a couple of weekends ago, which again welcomed students from universities across the country. We have exciting plans to welcome 10 goal arena player Max Charlton to Leadenham in the coming weeks to run clinics for our members and play in some chukkas (you heard that here first!), as you can imagine we are really looking forward to this and we know our members will be too!
We are busy making plans for 2024 which include our usual great tournaments here at Leadenham, as well as a few additional ones. We have some great ladies players coming through the ranks so are really keen to start making waves within women’s polo. Having also recently purchased an artic lorry our plans also include lots of travelling away and entering Leadenham teams into tournaments up and down the country!
What’s the best thing about Leadenham?
We thought it was best to ask a couple of our members about what they think is the best thing about Leadenham and this is what they had to say:
“Leadenham Polo Club is a welcoming hub for all levels of players. With its pristine grounds and exceptional facilities, it’s the go-to spot for those seeking high quality polo in a welcoming environment”
“Having had no prior experience of any polo club, Leadenham has been something of a revelation to us. We arrived with a preconception that it would be unwelcoming and snooty, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. The young, enthusiastic team that run Leadenham take their polo, the welfare of the horses and the support of members, new and old, seriously. Nonetheless, their irrepressible enthusiasm ensures that Leadenham is invariably, a fun place to be”
“Leadenham Polo Club is truly my favourite place on earth! I started having lessons towards the end of 2022 and I haven’t looked back. I’ve totally caught the polo bug, but it’s not just the polo – the team, the horses and the facilities are 10/10”.
“Polo has given my daughter the courage and determination to try new things, it has given her a sense of identity that she is incredibly proud of, taking up polo has been life changing for her, as a little girl who’s struggled with dyslexia and never felt like she could achieve anything has gone on to be awarded ‘Polo Player of the Year’ at her school. Leadenham Polo Club have been hugely supportive with coaching her and helping to build her confidence, my daughter would literally live at the club if she could!”
“Leadenham Polo Club has a wonderful grass pitch and floodlit arena and I feel very lucky to have played on both. I have developed massively as a player in the time I have been based at the club and this is mainly down to the fantastic horses the club have to offer and the inspiring coaching I receive from Adam”.
“Leadenham has been a great club for me, from playing during and after university, I wanted the opportunity to base myself at a club where I can really focus on personal progression and growth. The fantastic facilities at Leadenham have played a major role in allowing me to challenge myself and enjoy my polo, and I feel like I am progressing every day!”
How many ponies and players are based at Leadenham
There are about 40 ponies based here at Leadenham, with over 30 of them belonging to the club and the rest being here on livery, our string of school ponies are among the best in the country for learning to play on, we have horses to suit all abilities from complete beginners through to ponies for more advanced riders.
What does a typical day look like at Leadenham?
The days vary here at Leadenham, but the mornings tend to be spent working on our young horses, followed by private lessons. The afternoons normally involve multiple university lessons, taking us into an evening of school lessons and club chukkas or instructional chukkas.
What’s your advice for someone looking to take up arena polo?
Given the weather in the UK, the arena season is essentially longer than the grass – so you’d be mad not to take up arena polo if you are serious about progressing and you love the game. Playing on the arena provides a great opportunity to massively improve the most important elements of your grass game from stopping and turning, confidence in the ride-offs, and spatial awareness. If you want to excel at something (and you enjoy it) you can’t give it up for 6 months of every year!
