In Thailand's Golden Triangle, sportsmen compete in the annual "King's Cup" elephant polo challenge. Almost all of the competing elephants, and their handlers, were rescued from roaming the streets of Bangkok. (Patrick Winn/GlobalPost)

Elephant polo: It's kind of a big deal

Wild snarls. Clashing sticks and trunks. And don't forget the waddling and squawking.

By Patrick Winn - GlobalPost
Published: April 3, 2009 12:45 ET
Updated: May 19, 2009 13:18 ET

CHIANG SAEN, Thailand — Somewhere in the pantheon of blue-blood sporting, that exclusive world where men hunt foxes and race yachts, there is a place for polo on elephant-back.

Elephant polo is half sport, half high-society lark. Like its equestrian counterpart, it couples man and creature, adds a ball and long mallets, and engages two teams in a soccer-style scoring match.

But this is where the similarities end and the weirdness begins.

Only in elephant polo can spectators hear the dry hiss of pachyderms brushing hides as they scramble towards a ball. Only in elephant polo does the announcer gush, “What a beautiful under-the-trunk shot.”

Playing elephant polo is a bit like being driven around in a convertible jeep, while sitting on a high chair, and swatting at a ball with a 7-foot-long stick. Which is exactly how oil tycoon Ed Story practices on his Texas ranch.

“If we have to explain it, you’ll never get it,” said Story, CEO of SOCO International, an oil and gas exploration and production company.

Story and his competitors — business magnates, equestrian polo lovers and others — face off several times a year in exotic locales. Their most recent contest was the World Elephant Polo Association’s “King’s Cup,” held last week in Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle.

Beside a glittering Mekong tributary, on a pitch spotted with small pyramids of dung, six elephants faced off during each match. It is a game that peaks and wanes. There is sometimes a wild snarl of trunks and clacking of sticks as elephants pursue a fist-sized ball. There are also long bouts when elephants, trunks dragging across the grass, waddle about and squawk.

All of this is narrated in a style typically reserved for racetrack announcers — though with a fine veneer of posh.

“He tries to swing, but there’s a forest of legs!” said David Wilbridge, an announcer, polo sportsman and airplane captain. “And now he’s taken it away from the Dark Horse of Delhi … going around the trunk now … and that’s a lovely under-the-belly shot!”

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Posted by gullett187 on April 3, 2009 14:45 ET

"Like Little League baseball, each team is sponsored."

This is an odd analogy that makes me think the author knows very little about sports. Outside the US almost all teams are sponsored and wear their brand sponsors' names on their jerseys.

"Like in professional soccer" would have made more sense. Continuing that, the paragraph would say:

"as is very commonly the case in professional soccer, the sponsors include {global brands such as} IBM, Mercedes Benz and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Sample match: Audemars Piguet, maker of luxury watches vs. Moet & Chandon, maker of luxury champagne."

Posted by thudfactor on April 26, 2009 07:49 ET

I think if he'd said "Like professional soccer," I wouldn't have understood the analogy.

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