Sports Calendar

LUKE: I started riding around the age of four or five, but then I remember losing interest for a few years — my BMX bike didn’t need mucking out and feeding and things, which made life much easier. But I was very lucky, because my parents bred horses on the farm, and after a while, around seven or eight, I thought it would be a big waste if I didn’t at least have a go. Horses have always been very much part of the extended family, and when I was 14 or 15 we went to South America and I saw the respect that so many people had for my mum there. That’s when I began to realise she was something special in the world of polo.

I always knew that my parents were keen for me to play too, but there was a certain amount of discouragement of my doing it professionally, because it wasn’t seen as a career. It’s really only in the past 15 years that it’s been seen as a profession rather than just a sport. My parents were keen for me to go to university, so I did a degree in property valuation and estate management at the University of the West of England. And I’m very grateful that they encouraged me to do that because it means I have it to fall back on.

When I left university I gave myself three years to be good at polo or concentrate on something else instead. The rating of players ranges from minus two for the most inexperienced to 10 for the very best, and I thought that if I got to seven I’d carry on — which I did, and which is what I am now.

My mum gives a lot of advice.

My brother and I might easily be playing now with two other players who aren’t part of the family, so it’s usually better to have a coach who doesn’t have a family relationship. But Mum and I do discuss tactics and she imparts a lot of very valuable knowledge and experience. She and I have regularly played together, on the same side and against each other. I’m not afraid to tackle her because when I was younger she was much better than me. We have similar styles, I think — watching her has influenced my style. Of course, we disagree sometimes, but when you’re working out your strategy during a game or at half-time, the more opinions that go into the mix, the better. People have said to me that my mum’s quite a strong personality. I’d say that that was the understatement of the year.

Polo is a very physical game. There’s a lot of wear and tear on your body, and it’s very imbalanced, which has an effect on your spine and shoulders. When I was 18, just before I went to university, I had a bad accident during a match and broke my leg. Mum was watching. My horse’s front legs got taken out from under it, and as it fell, my leg hit the ground and I broke it. The fall was quite impressive, I think, and I was lucky not to get my head rolled on. But Mum never questioned whether I should carry on playing, I don’t think. We both take the view that you can’t keep yourself in a padded room. You have to live life without that fear. She encouraged me to get back into the saddle as soon as possible.

When the hunting ban came in, I felt it was important to do something to try and stop it. I realised it was going to affect a lot of people I knew and their way of life. The ban was very much a political act. The waste of police time and money it’s caused is laughable. If you spend time in a country like Argentina, you see how they deal with things that really matter, like crime and education — not trying to ban hunting. So I felt quite strongly about it. But the demonstration itself was pretty well spontaneous. A group of us just got together. To be honest, we never thought we’d get past the first barrier at the House of Commons, let alone to the floor of the House. I’m happy to have done it, because we also pointed up a lapse in national security that has since been dealt with. At the time,

I texted my parents to tell them what had happened and then rang my mum as soon as I got out of jail. I knew they’d support me. We had hundreds of letters afterwards saying what a good thing we’d done. I had one letter from a lady in the village who didn’t approve, but that was it.

A lot of people still think that hunting is a thing for toffs. Cars are also something for toffs — but also for everyday people, if you look at it like that. We both felt that people involved in hunting simply weren’t being listened to, and that something had to be done. My mother and I might not always have the same views on a game of polo, but this was one thing we were both completely in agreement on

Luke Tomlinson will be captaining England against Argentina in this year’s Cartier International, on July 26 at Windsor Great Park

Interviews: Simon Brooke

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