Tommy Biddle goes to 10-goals in the arena
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10-Goal Tommy!
By Alex Webbe
At 6’ 3” and 230 pounds Tommy Biddle looks more like a professional football player than one of polo’s elite, but on January 1, 2012 he will become only the fourth player in the history of this age-old sport to be rated at the ultimate 10-goals in arena polo.
Although Biddle cut his teeth on the outdoor game, achieving an 8-goal handicap and numbering a US Open Championship among the many trophies to his credit over the years, his introduction to the arena game came a bit later in his polo career.
“I was a freshman at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, Florida),” said Biddle, “and we were attempting to organize a polo program at the college. A. P. Alexander, J. D. Ducane s and I traveled to Culver, Indiana where we played an arena game (all collegiate and interscholastic polo was played in the arena) against the military academy team, and I was hooked.”
FAU’s efforts to establish a polo program fell through, but the experience opened the door for Biddle to the arena game.
“I was already playing as a professional at the Gulfstream Polo Club (Lake Worth, Florida), and my access to an arena was limited, but I managed to keep a hand in the arena game over the years.”
Constant practice and competitive competition saw his outdoor handicap jump from 1-goal to 5-goals in just three years while the hard-hitting Biddle’s arena handicap rang in at 6-goals in 1988, the same year he was named Young Player of the Year. At the age of twenty Biddle carried a 7-goal arena handicap and reached the 8-goal mark on the field and the arena by the time he was twenty-four.
It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I decided to focus on my arena game,” said Biddle. “I figured that I might have missed the opportunity to reach the 10-goal mark on the field, but felt that if I concentrated on it I could still reach the summit in arena play.”
While playing in Bridgehampton and Greenwich in the summer, Biddle found himself spending more and more time at Bobby Ceparano’s Country Farms Polo Club in Medford, New York. Following his teams win in the USPA National Arena Handicap in 2010 his handicap was raised to 9-goals in the arena.
The National Handicap Committee was finally convinced that he had reached the pinnacle of his arena play after he led the US team to its convincing 15-9 win over England in the storied John R. Townsend International Challenge Cup
When asked about Biddle’s play, teammate John Gobin said “It’s always better to have Biddle on your team than against you, especially where you’re walled in and there’s no place to hide.”
Biddle captained the USA team to a resounding trouncing of the English in the international series played in March of 2011 at the Empire Polo Club, taking MVP honors along the way.
“He certainly stood out above all of the others in the competition,” said arena polo veteran and alternate Billy Sheldon. “Tommy didn’t arrive in time to get a practice in before the match and just asked that his teammates (Shane Rice and John Gobin) be mounted properly. All he asked for was - something that goes , said Sheldon. “He said that he didn’t care if his horses could stop, he just wanted them to go.”
With Shane Rice and Tommy Biddle tearing into the English lineup and Gobin “supervising” their play from a “Back” position (never mind the Number 1 jersey he wore), the United States reminded their English counterparts that the game of arena (indoor) polo originated in New York in 1876, and that the Townsend Cup was destined to remain here.
The US team used speed, quickness and power in overpowering England, and the intimidating presence of Biddle played no small role in it.
“Tommy’s the quickest big man to ever play the sport,” added Gobin. “He can ride down the field switching his mallet from the off-side to the nearside as if it were a whip. He’s incredibly athletic,” said Gobin, “and very hard to stop.”
International play is nothing new to Biddle, who led a team against Mexico in March of 2009.
As the captain of the USA’s Camacho Cup team (USA vs. Mexico) Biddle scored the first goal of the game in the opening minute of play on a 170 yard run, and had the US up 7-2 after the second chukker of play. Biddle scored six times in a heart-breaking 16-15 loss to Mexico on a goal from polo legend Memo Gracida with 48 seconds on the clock.
“You have no idea how much I wanted us to win that game,” Biddle reflected.
His passion for the competition hasn’t abated as he works with the USPA to prepare a team to travel to England for another go.
“March is a tough time for us (American players),” he offered. “We’re right in the middle of our winter season in Florida, and most of the top players aren’t going to be available. I really don’t know what the makeup of the team is going to be.”
On January 1, 2012 Tommy Biddle, Jr. will become just the fourth player in the history of arena polo to attain the coveted 10-goal handicap, and at 42, the oldest of the quartet.
A twenty-three-year-old Winston F. C. Guest was the first to be awarded a 10-goal indoor (arena) handicap in 1929, a rating he held for seven years. In a time when the indoor (arena) game was quite active Guest played on four Arena Open Championship teams, five Class A Championship teams; an Intercollegiate Championship Yale team as well as a member of the winning East-West indoor team in 1934.
It wasn’t until 1951 that the Indoor Polo Association deemed a player worthy of the 10-goal rating. It was in that year that C. C. “Buddy” Combs was elevated to the highest handicap in the game. A member of seven winning Senior Championship teams from 1934 to 1953, the New Jersey-based veterinarian was also credited with an Intercollegiate Championship at Cornell (1937); and East-West title in 1951; the 1939 Junior Championship and the National Arena Championship in 1951 and 1953.
“Smokin” Joe Henderson, a native South African was the next arena player to catch the eye of arena polo aficionados. Rated at 10-goals in 1989, a full 38 years after Combs was named, his hard-riding, physical presence was a boon to the arena game. Henderson rolled onto the scene when big-time, high-goal polo was being offered on a regular basis at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, and where the presence of twenty-five goal teams were the norm. Playing most of his arena polo in the pro league, Henderson managed only a single US Arena Championship in 1990 and a US Arena Handicap title in 1986.
Twenty-three years later the United States Polo Association would see fit to add one more player to the elite 10-goal roster with Tommy Biddle, Jr.
“I’m extremely honored, “said Biddle, but it’s a bit unsettling to reach the 10-goal plateau at a time when there is limited high-goal arena play in this country.”
Biddle has already started working with Palm Beach Polo and Country Club to change that with a proposed “Friday Night Arena Polo” in the club’s recently constructed facility.
“I love the game,” said Biddle, “and I think it’s a great way to sell the game to the general public. I’ve already contacted a number of high-goal players who will be competing here (Wellington, Florida) during the winter season and feel comfortable that we’ll be able to produce some entertaining and competitive high goal play.”
The winter arena seasonal Palm Beach Polo and country club is scheduled to begin in January and is expected to attract top players from the international ranks for weekly matches.
“I plan on working every bit as hard to keep my handicap as I did to earn it,” said Biddle, and am hopeful that the winter competition will help prepare the US team for our March trip to England for a Townsend Cup rematch.
“Practice and preparation,” said Biddle. I feel it’s going to be tougher defending the title than it was winning it earlier this year.”