Polo match is an excuse for George and Charlotte to come out and play
WATCHING one’s father play polo is not the most exciting activity for most under-fives, but the Duke of Cambridge’s eldest children found plenty of ways to beat the boredom on a sunsoaked family day out yesterday.
While the Duke competed in a tournament at the Beaufort Polo Club in Gloucestershire, Prince George and Princess Charlotte slipped off their shoes and chased each other around the edges of the field.
Charlotte, aged three, showed off her roly-poly technique by tumbling on the grass, while George, who will be five next month, mimicked his father by hitting balls with a miniature polo mallet.
George is reportedly left-handed, like his father, but polo players are only allowed to hold the mallet in their right hand – a lesson George already appears to have been taught as he whacked balls right-handed under the watchful eye of the Duchess of Cambridge.
He had also brought along a colourful plastic Slinky toy, which he swished through the air behind him, and other toys including a water pistol with which he duelled with a friend.
At one point it all seemed to have got a bit much for Charlotte, who retreated to her mother’s lap for a much-needed cuddle.
The Duchess, wearing a blue Zara dress and Russell & Bromley wedges, also had to console George at one point as he seemed to become tearful. The Prince and Princess were joined by Savannah Phillips, their cousin – who had put a hand over George’s mouth to stop him giggling on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on Saturday – and her sister Isla. Savannah, 7, has clearly developed a close bond with her cousins, as she was pictured with her arm around Charlotte as the children all sat on a grass slope together.