HRH Prince Harry was among the players who lined up for the Stanford Charity Polo Day at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on June 11 2008.

This prestigious polo event, in aid of The British Forces Foundation, consisted of two feature matches - The British Forces Foundation Cup a contest between the England Ladies' team and a BFF Side; and The Stanford Sandhurst Cup which saw Audi USA take on Lucchese.

Although the England Ladies team victory in the BFF Cup came as no surprise, the execution of their 7-4 win was as memorable as it was ruthless. The pre-match signs seemingly provided a welcome relief for The British Forces Foundation, with the news that Emma Tomlinson (2 goals) had been replaced at the last minute by Rosie Ross (1 goals). The fact that this change was perhaps not going to affect the outcome was made very clear as the ladies powered to a 4-1 lead.

Led by Martin Ffrench-Blake (4 goals), the men responded by scrabbling back to 5-3 with the final chukka left to play. Any hope of an upset was derailed by Nina Clarkin who scored a goal that was arguably the finest feat of individual skill that Sandhurst has witnessed in recent years. It was with some relief that the final whistle blew on a convincing result of 7-4 to the England Ladies.

There was no Most Valuable Player (MVP) awarded for the match and, in this case, to single out an individual would have overlooked that it was the team performance itself that carved out success. Having said that, Rosie Ross deserves a mention for such a strong debut for the England Ladies and at only 21 years of age, the outlook for female polo in England has never looked brighter.

After the groundbreaking excitement of the first match, it was only fitting that the Stanford Cup would be decided by half a goal. Any expectation that this was to be a standard exhibition match was dispelled in a competition that maintained a frenetic pace throughout.

Nacho Figueras (6 goals), the international face of Ralph Lauren’s Polo Black Label campaign, was clearly keen to lay out his polo credentials. Ably assisted by the big hitting support of Juan Bollini (6 goals), he was highly visible in every play and this was recognised by his horse Estrella – or Star – being awarded the best playing trophy.

In spite of Nacho’s work rate, it was the cunning of Hector Guerrero that stole the prize for John Muse’s Lucchese team. The final chukka saw a peppering of goal shots from Lucchese which was just enough to keep Marc Ganzi’s Audi USA team embedded in their own half until the clock ran out at 7_ - 7.