Jaipur’s Royal Trophy Vanished For 11 Years: Now It’s Back At Windsor

For 11 years, the Jaipur Trophy disappeared from the calendar at London’s Guards Polo Club. On July 18, it returned, with the Jaipur Polo Team facing the Guards Polo Club team at the club’s Smith’s Lawn ground in Windsor Great Park to mark Indian Polo Day.

The Jaipur Polo Team fielded Padmanabh Singh, Will Emerson, Simran Singh Shergill and Naveen Jindal, while the Guards Polo Club side lined up Sardar Jaisal Singh, Abhimanyu Pathak, Kuldeep Singh Rathore and Juan Gris Zavaleta. The match began at 7.30pm Indian Standard Time and was streamed live on Guards TV.

Earlier the same day, the final of the Indian Polo Challenge Shield, a clash between an Indian and a British team, was also played at the club. Padmanabh Singh presented the trophy to the winning side.

The Jaipur Trophy itself dates back to 1968, when it was presented to the Guards Polo Club by Man Singh II, one of the most celebrated polo players of the 20th century and a long-time patron of the sport. He died in 1970, after which his wife, Gayatri Devi, continued supporting the trophy for nearly four decades, regularly attending matches.

The trophy was last played in 2011 before dropping off the Guards Polo Club calendar for the following 11 years. Its revival in 2025 was driven by Padmanabh Singh, who has kept the tradition alive after it passed through his family, from Man Singh II to Brigadier Bhawani Singh and now to him.

The fixture stands as one of the longest-running symbols of the sporting ties between India and Britain, linking Jaipur’s royal polo legacy to a club founded on the outskirts of London more than half a century ago.

Wikimedia Commons/by Andreas Polo