You and your brother, Howard Hipwood, are renowned for being England’s highest goal polo players since WWII. Can you tell us how you came into the sport?

 

I didn’t start hitting a ball until I was fourteen, at the local Pony Club. I was eighteen when I was invited to join a professional outfit.

 

I played with my mentor, Rao Raja Hanut Singh, who started me on the road to my adventurous life. I was with him for a few years, and he actually made me cry; he was never satisfied with anything I did.

 

Speaking to the person who looked after him, I said, I don’t know if I can keep on. She said, You’ve got to keep on, because the reason he’s shouting at you, and not ever satisfied, is that he thinks you have talent to go somewhere. The people who he’s given up on, he won’t even say anything to. So I took that as an incentive to keep persevering and traveling, just for my expenses being paid.

 

Hanut Singh never said well done until I was a 6-handicap. Only then he said, Now, you’re a polo player.

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As Captain of England’s polo team for two decades, you’ve been referred to as a British polo legend. Who were some of the greats that you fondly remember?

 

I’ve played in over twenty-five countries and met such wonderful people, in the most spectacular places.

 

The moment I heard the news of Prince Philip’s passing, it really saddened me. I sat there and reflected on the days when I first went to Windsor Park; I played against Prince Philip, at eighteen or nineteen years old. It was right at the beginning of my career, because then, I think he only played for a short time thereafter.

 

His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh was a good player. He rode and he galloped with the rest of them, and he was treated just the same as everyone. He raised greater awareness for the polo sport.

 

Juan Carlitos Harriot was the best polo player I was ever up against. From Argentina, he was the true legend – a 10-goaler for twenty-five years.