Details here. It will be in Chiang Saen again this year, up in the North. First full week of September, as usual.
I was talking to our team captain about it last night, and we’re psyched! Training will commence immediately, which in our case involves the repeated lifting of countless vessels of amber-colored liquids in one of Bangkok’s several bar districts. Strengthens the old playing arm.
I’m amazed - this is not a one-off event. There seems to be a sort of elephant polo “tour”:
That’s right. It’s played in at least three countries – Nepal, Thailand and Sri Lanka. This will be the seventh year for the Thai tournament. I’ve met Jim Edwards, too, a real last-of-the-British-Raj character, full of neat stories; he attends every tournament in each country as far as I know.
And handy he is, too, because being the founder of the sport, he can make rulings when something weird comes up. For example, last year here in Thailand, instead of the player knocking the ball across the goal line, the elephant accidentally kicked it across itself in the act of stepping forward. So, was that a valid goal? That had never happened before. Can an elephant score a goal? Jim’s ruling: Yes, the elephant can score a goal. His word is law. 
UPDATE: The King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament has been moved from the first week in September to early next year, March 31 to April 6. An online copy of the official announcement that we received can be found here.
It seems that the tournament has been moved back to avoid the heavy rains that are prevalent in the North this time of year. March to April is the height of our dry hot season, not a drop of rain in sight usually. During last year’s tourny, in September, it poured a couple of days and soaked the pitch thoroughly. That did cause some problems. There was talk last year of moving the tourny to March and April, but when those months passed THIS year, we thought they had decided against it.
My team is a bit disappointed that we must wait a few more months to indulge, as we won’t be playing in the exhibition or celebrity matches on September 21 here in Bangkok at the official kick-off for the tournament. We do think it’s a little bizzare to have a kick-off this far in advance of the tourny, but hey, this is Thailand.
And this will work out rather well for me personally, because I’m doing a 10-day elephant-handling course next May, so that entire period will be some great elephant time for me. 
UPDATE: The elephant-polo tournament has still been postponed to early next year, but the press conference kicking it off is this afternoon, and I’ll be attending. There’ll be some sort of exhibition match, although my team will not be playing today. Not sure who they’ve got playing the regular exhibition match, but there will also be a celebrity match, with local film and television personalities participating. Should be fun.
Then tonight it’s off to the Soi Cowboy bar area for the live lesbian shows. I love Thailand. 
We really need somebody to do an elephant polo documentary.
One reporter did ask yesterday about that, and they said there had been some made, but no major ones. First I’d heard about it. They also mentioned that Ringo Starr had played once in Nepal – I thought that was cool – and so there could be some star-power interest in making a major documentary or even a feature film incorporating the sport into the plot.
Yesterday’s pess conference was very good. I could get used to something like that. Since the five-star Anantara hotel chain, which is based in Thailand, is the major sponsor of the event, there was lots of free alcohol and food all afternoon long. And the food was great; they even had one of their chefs on hand to make sure it was going down well. Since I was meeting the guys last night in Soi Cowboy for a beerfest, I opted for beer, but they had two full bars with just about anything you wanted, all free. But I went with the beer. Unfortunately, due to the occasion, they were serving only Chang beer. “Chang” is Thai for “elephant.” It’s very popular in Thailand, because it’s very cheap and is something like 7% or 8% alcohol, something high like that. It makes you FEEL like you’ve been kicked by an elephant. I usually don’t touch that brand, preferring my beloved Singha instead (which is Thai for “lion,” by the way), but free is free.
But the press conference was a success. It was held on an army base in the northern part of the city, the 1st Infantry Regiment King’s Own Bodyguard. At the conference itself, they went over some info that I already knew. About how the World Wildlife Fund has declared that this game poses no harm at all to elephants, but rather helps them through fundraising and awareness-building activities. About how elephants are specially picked for polo. They work with an elephant for a week or two to determine whether it has the right temperament, then train it to play polo. If the elephant does not seem to enjoy it, it goes off the list, period. Many of the ones that do play grew up kicking balls around. In fact, many of the elephants that play grew up together in the same village, so it’s a day out for them. That is paramount: The elephant must have fun. (True fact: When they first started playing elephant polo in Thailand, a soccer ball was used, but they soon switched to a regular polo ball, because the elephants liked to squish the socer balls and make them pop.)
And around about polo time, they go looking through the streets of Bangkok for more elephants to participate. It’s illegal to bring elephants into the city, but they’re not hard to find. I saw one off Sukhumvit Road last night. With the logging ban, the mahouts (elephant-handlers) don’t know what to do with their elephants, so they bring them in to beg. Now that the tournament will be held up in the (relatively) cooler North at the height of our summer – March and April – it will be good for the elephants to get out of the burning-hot city for a few weeks of recreation. I guess they give a stipend to the mahouts, not really sure about that. But then the problem is they hit the streets of Bangkok again afterward. But the elephant associations that are participating in elephant polo – all of them really, and there are several – have programs to try and help them. For example, there is one program in which they make paper out of elephant dung. It’s very rough and difficult to write on, but not impossible, and I’ve bought elephant-dung cards and paper to send to friends. Everyone is fascinated once they realize what it is.
But anyway, back to the conference. They mentioned the slight difference of rules in Nepal – four elephants to a side, as opposed to three a side in Thailand and Sri Lanka – and they MAY have said the World Elephant Polo Association was going to standardize the four-a-side rule internationally, but I was not sure. Meant to ask about that later, but the free beer preempted my thought processes. They also mentioned that whereas elephant polo is played only in Nepal (where it originated in 1981), Thailand and Sri Lanka, 25 other countries have some an elephant-polo association. They don’t have elephants, but they send players. Even Jamaica has an elephant-polo association of some sort.
So then we headed outdoors for the matches. Two teams of Thai celebrities and “high society” folks batted the ball around pathetically. (Sort of like MY team.) Then two teams of seasoned horse-polo players, including Chris Stafford, Mr Elephant Polo in Thailand, played, and MAN, could they wack that ball. The elephants really did seem to be having fun running around, and they all got lots of good sugar cane to munch on as a treat between halves and games (the elphants, not the players).
The actual tournament will be March 31 to April 6 of next year in the town of Chiang Saen, Chiang Rai province, up in the beautiful North. If you’re thinking of being in Thailand at that time, it’s a pretty setting, and the tournament is well worth a look.
Well, I’ll start writing a novel later tonight, but a feature film or documentary might be faster. 