Roehampton Club
The Roehampton Club is an exclusive private members’ sports club in Roehampton in southwest London, England. It is set in 100 acres (400,000 m2) of parkland, close to Richmond Park. Originally established in 1901 as an officers’ polo club, the Roehampton Club has a wide range of sporting and leisure facilities including an 18-hole golf course, 28 tennis courts, 5 squash courts, 4 croquet lawns, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a gym, fitness studio, health and beauty clinic and bridge room.
At the turn of the 19th century there was a tremendous strain on the polo clubs of London to provide for the growing interest in the sport. Clubs existed in the vicinity of the capital but were considered to be too far to travel. It was the initiative of the Miller brothers that began the formation of the Roehampton club to alleviate this problem. Edward Miller had left the 17th Lancers in 1893 to start Rugby Polo Club at his home in Warwickshire. His brothers Ted, Charles (an Olympic polo player) and George had developed one of the largest polo pony supply businesses in Europe. Together they met with the other interested parties and formed a Limited Liability company to create the club. Lord Shrewsbury was appointed as the chairman and Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge was made president.
Charles Darley Miller set out to find the land which needed to be close to the Hurlingham Club and Ranelagh Club for ease of transportation of polo ponies. The original facilities included three polo grounds, a racecourse, a horse show ground, an area where women could practice driving, tilting and jumping and stabling for the members horses. in 1904 a golf course was built with nine holes, this was later expanded to 18.
The Roehampton club opened in April 1902 under the management of Charles Darley Miller. The Roehampton Trophy, donated by Mrs Alison Cunninghame of Craigends, was first played for in this year. The Trophy is now the oldest polo trophy played for in England and the tournament is held at Ham Polo Club in Richmond, London. There were also Junior competitions and a tournament where all the players and teams were selected by ladies. The cups were presented to the ladies who picked the winning team.
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