We’ll give you a clue – it’s posh and minty. Full answer revealed by our extinct games correspondent Angus Young.
It was enthusiastically described in one newspaper as “a red-letter day in the history of local sport.” The day in question was Saturday, 9th May 1896, the occasion was the first ever competitive polo match in Hull and the venue was a new ground complete with stables off Westbourne Avenue.
The game of polo originated in Persia in the 6th Century before spreading into the Middle East, China and India where it was enthusiastically taken up by British tea planters and Army officers in the mid-19th Century. The first competitive game in England was played in Aldershot in 1870 between two cavalry regiments and the new sport spread quickly among Royalty and the nobility. It took another 26 years for the game to reach Hull.
“The picture formed by the gay appearance of the members’ stand and enclosure will no doubt linger long in the memories of those who assisted at the first appearance of the game of Polo in our midst,” continued the newspaper report. The two sides in the first match were simply titled ‘Married’ and ‘Single’. Among the former was George Houlton, founder of the construction company which still bears his name today.
It seems Hull’s high society turned out in force to witness the Single team record 6-5 victory with as much attention being paid to the fashionable dresses of the ladies present. However, the lack of any effective policing of the estimated 6,000 crowd led to complaints from those who had paid an admission fee only to end up rubbing shoulders with those who had gained entry without paying anything. According to one report, paying spectators in the enclosure had their views spoiled by the “assemblage of un-privileged in front of the rails”. Barriers were installed at the next match while screens were erected to prevent people standing outside the open ground having a free if distant view of the action.
The ground had been laid out on open land between Westbourne Avenue and Chanterlands Avenue which, at the time, only ran between Spring Bank West and Perth Street. It became home to the Holderness Polo Club, although the playing team was simply known as Hull.
Early matches against visiting teams did not go well with Hull losing 8-1 to York and then 10-0 to Leeds. Although results did improve and matches continued to attract Hull’s wealthiest figures in regular social gatherings, the last polo game at the ground took place in August 1907. The club’s demise seems to have coincided with a serious injury experienced by its best player Joss Stephenson in a fall from his horse a month earlier.
Another possible reason for its end was that most of the players who had started 11 years earlier were still in the saddle. Had they lost their enthusiasm for the game? Perhaps the expanding nature of Hull itself also forced them out.
In November 1908 city councillors were mapping out plans to extend Chanterlands Avenue to the high-level Hull and Barnsley railway line and connect the new route with extensions to Marlborough, Westbourne and Park Avenues. Within two years, these western extensions to the Avenues had been completed along with a new street called Perth Street West connecting to National Avenue and the new National Radiator Company factory.
A small terrace off Perth Street West was named Polo Villas to reflect the immediate previous history of the area. As for the rest of the ground, it was redeveloped with new housing.