EAST Yorkshire’s White Rose Polo Club are celebrating a year of growth and success that has seen membership soar to an all-time high, and record numbers of people taking part in polo lessons and taster sessions.

The club, based at North Cliffe, near Market Weighton, which was set up in early 2007 and has just completed its fourth competitive season, now boasts almost 60 members.

Its Hurlingham Polo Association-qualified coach, Tony Wesche, has taught more than 500 lessons and taster sessions this year as more and more people of all ages discover the thrill of playing polo.

The club’s three major tournaments of the season – the Yorkshire Open, the Summit Cup and the Castle Howard Cup – attracted record numbers of spectators, who turned out to watch fiercely-contested games of polo featuring teams from across the length and breadth of the UK.

Exciting new additions to the programme for 2010 proved equally popular. They included the Stimpson Ladies’ Tournament, which raised £320 for two cancer charities, and a hugely successful tournament for children, which saw 20 up-and-coming young polo players battling it out.

Claudia Weiler, managing director of the Summit Polo School and Livery at White Rose Polo Club, said: “We’ve barely paused for breath in 2010. We’ve experienced unprecedented growth and success as more people discover polo. In just four seasons White Rose has gone from being ‘the new kid on the block’ to become the leading polo club in Yorkshire, and one of the fastest growing polo clubs in the UK.”