Polo, Spokane Style This Ain’t No London, Visitors Find, But A Home To Regular Sports

Almost on cue, a well-coiffed woman in a red Mercedes convertible cruises down the driveway of a polo club, expensive sunglasses shading her eyes.

A small streamer of dust trails behind the car - a vehicle worth more money than many people in the nearby city bring home in a year.

Two visitors, not used to seeing such cars, stop and stare, squinting against the dust and sun.

They’ve only just entered the polo club’s grounds, and already the stereotypical images of the sport enter their minds.

It’s strictly for British royalty and American rich, played atop sleek thoroughbreds on meticulously manicured lawns, or so the visitors think.

It’s an expensive distraction for blue bloods and power brokers who congregate in cities of stature, like London, New York, Miami and Buenos Aires.

Polo fans - or, rather, connoisseurs - sit under umbrellas and sip tea and champagne while Ivy League-educated men play a few chukkers.

But wait a minute.

The next car to pass is a beat-up, backfiring Honda Accord.

And that’s a car saleswoman named Lori, not Prince Charles, astride that red mare there.

The people watching are sitting in lawn chairs gulping Diet Coke, not Dom Perignon.

This is Spokane - Spokane, Wash. - and while it’s no London, it is home to one of the oldest polo clubs in the United States.

For the past 45 years, members of the Spokane Polo Club have gathered to play the centuries-old sport on a sprawling green lawn off U.S. Highway 2 near Fairchild Air Force Base.

Only 13 polo clubs have been in existence longer.

While most of the Spokane polo players are successful local business owners - like Clay Bleck, who owns a car dealership in downtown Spokane - there isn’t a prince or member of Parliament in the bunch.

There are even a few members like Lori Troyer, a 34-year-old woman who sells cars for Bleck during the winter so she can train and ride polo ponies in the spring and summer.

And there’s no pretentiousness among the Spokane members, says Frank Mortimer, the club’s manager.

This group plays polo for the competition and camaraderie, both equine and human, he says, and there isn’t a status monger in the bunch.

“You’re judged on your playing here. They don’t care what you’re social skills are,” says Mortimer, who’s been with the Spokane club for 10 years and once worked at the nation’s oldest polo grounds, Meadowbrook in New York.

They play hard, too, he says.

“Once you get on the field, you’re just a schmuck out there. If you don’t hit the ball well, they’ll cuss you just like anyone else,” he says. “God, they’re terrible.”

Lewis Sisich can attest to that.

The securities broker - that’s stocks and bonds, not alarms and motion detectors - is sporting a long scab on his chin, an injury he sustained during a game last week.

“I got hit with a mallet or the ball or something,” Sisich says. “It’s a contact sport.”

It’s also expensive, even in Spokane.

Polo ponies average about $6,000 a piece, and most players have four or five. It’s important to have a fresh mount during those heated contests of late August, when players are allowed to switch horses in between chukkers, or periods.

Then there’s feed, horseshoes and other upkeep, which can run $7,000 to $8,000 per year.

Dues for the club are $1,500 annually.

For most players, it’s well worth the investment.

“It’s exciting and glamorous and fun,” says Dan McKelvey Jr., the club’s president.

It also can become all-encompassing.

McKelvey, a local attorney, is planning to move soon.

He’s found a house with some acreage where he can keep his nine horses - he had only two four years ago - with him year-round.

McKelvey currently keeps his horses at the polo club during the summer and boards them at a southern Spokane County farm in the winter.

“I actually like my current house better,” McKelvey says. “But I can keep my horses with me at the other place.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Polo tournament The Spokane Polo Club’s Officers Cup Tournament concludes today. The contest is being held at the “Big Pete” Dix polo grounds on U.S. Highway 2 west of Spokane. The fields are across the highway from the Longhorn Barbecue restaurant. The finals begin at 2 p.m. Admission is free.