A Toast to the Game of Kings
A toast my friends
To the king of games,
A toast to The Game of Kings
To Chess on horseback, cerebral fun
Where brains will beat brawn, to the chagrin of some.
It makes men out of boys and boys out of men;
Where girls can beat boys….
Well, now and again!!
To the hours in the saddle where it just won’t go right
Then that sudden leap forward; the joy, the delight;
‘Til the next peak appears that you just have to climb;
And on it progresses, that’s what makes it sublime.
To the fouls we commit, whether major or slight
To the umpires, god bless ‘em, they can’t always be right
To trusting your pony and becoming as one,
Amazing yourself with what you’ve just done.
To adding a flourish, an attempt to beguile;
Not just playing polo, but playing with style.
And then to the match, to donning your whites,
Regretting the beer from the previous night.
The stakes have gone up, the tension is high;
The ponies can sense it, they’re restless and fly.
To relief at the throw in, the adrenalin flowing’
It’s nervous and scrappy and just won’t get going.
When it’s turning against you and nothing goes right,
To sticking together and still fighting the fight.
To turning and running, leave opponents behind
Just knowing your teammate is reading your mind
To time slowing down and your thoughts speeding up
To the field clear ahead and the ball sitting up
To scoring the goal and turning the game
If ever a sport was deserving of name
The King of Games, the Game of Kings.
So raise your glasses one and all – a toast:
To do justice to our noble sport,
Whether won or lost, the fight well fought,
To friendships forged in the heat and the strife,
To sucking the very marrow from life,
To Polo, the Game of Kings, the King of Games.
Paul Bussey 2013
