Argentine opener for Inanda polo season
● On a chilly Saturday afternoon the Inanda Club in Johannesburg marked the start of the polo season. The match, the High Goal Polo Invitational, saw a team from the club take on a side from the Coronel Suárez Polo Club 1929 of Argentina.
Argentina’s ambassador to South Africa, Javier Esteban Figueroa, lent his support to the arrangement of the match, a friendly international. Meeting the ambassador as he had a drink at the bar of the VIP marquee, he told me with pride that the South American country can lay claim to having nine of the 10 top polo players in the world.
The game, which originated in India and is hugely popular in Argentina, has produced some of the world’s top players. It is so popular that thousands flock to watch the matches, which are broadcast live on TV.
Judging by the size of the crowd at Inanda, though, it’s clear it is nowhere near soccer in the South African popularity stakes.
Speaking of football, someone I was pleased to see was Kalusha Bwalya, one of Zambia’s greatest footballers who also happens to be married to one of our biggest soccer marketers, Emy Casaletti.
While Emy couldn’t make it for the outing, her younger sister, Vivian, did.
I chatted to Vivian (who sheepishly admitted she wasn’t quite dressed for the occasion) and she told me the sisters had landed the nod as exclusive agency for all the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s sporting events during Madiba’s centenary year.
That includes the Barcelona versus Mamelodi Sundowns game that took place on Wednesday.
Someone who did dress up for the polo occasion was Simphiwe Dana, wearing a bright pink feathered top with long black skirt and a Xhosa turban.
Mind you, the singer admitted she was longing to head back home to “put on my onesie and work on my album”.
When it came to the guys, Randolf Jorberg stood out in a canary-yellow suit.
You really have to be brave to wear something like that, I told the bearded hipster.
He showed me his business card and it turned out his kit was a marketing ploy — the bright yellow shade matched the logo of his beer halls in Long Street, Cape Town, and Fourways, Joburg.
Elsewhere I spotted Joburg Tourism’s Lumka Dlomo, cute new Real Goboza presenter Mulisa Mudau and Barclays’ Peter Matlare with his wife, Nomvula.
Food-wise, it seems as though caterers By Word of Mouth couldn’t master the Argentinian theme: the beef asada I had was tougher than getting Patricia de Lille to let go of her mayoral chain. The Argentinianstyle chicken was bland and while I enjoyed some of the desserts like the mini-banoffee pies, other guests felt the rice pudding was inedible.
While polo might not figure high in the local sporting popularity stakes, clearly our local players can give the Argentinians a run for their money.
The Inanda team, led by Tom de Bruin, beat the visitors 7-5.
It’s clear that this game is nowhere near soccer in popularity stakes