Press Coverage:
 

"Luxury brands target the polo set"

 

BBC News

Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup, Cowdray Park

 

“The most glamorous fixture in the polo calendar.”
Vogue

"The Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup Final is one of the highlights of the English Summer Season. A throng of celebrities, aristocrats and polo-lovers descend on Cowdray Park's lawns to watch world-class polo and soak up the sun."
whatsonwhen.com

“As a polo venue, there is nowhere quite like Cowdray Park, the ultimate English country estate. The magnificent setting, the sheer spaciousness, the atmosphere, the glamour, the excitement, the spectacle - all play a part in heightening its appeal. It is also a superb spectator’s arena. There is a real feeling of participating and being close to the action.”
Polo Quarterly International

"Cute retailers were quickly onto the possibilities opened up by this. The Gold Cup has been sponsored for the past decade by Veuve Clicquot, the perfect backer as its champagne is synonymous with the summer Season. But from small beginnings, the trade stands at Cowdray have grown into a significant village, including designer-wear from top labels, jewellery and even property."
The Times

“Cowdray Park became the home of polo in the United Kingdom, and it remains so. The final of the British Open Polo Championship, inaugurated at Cowdray in 1956, is the highlight of the polo year.”
HRH the Prince of Wales

“The top club is Cowdray Park in West Sussex. The Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup is the cup that every polo patron will spend a fortune to try to win.”
Sport First

"The champagne manufacturers Veuve Clicquot have been the title sponsors of England's biggest national polo event, held at Cowdray Park in West Sussex, for the past 10 years. In that time, they have seen the number of punters passing through the gates rise from 5,000 to 20,000.
'Choosing polo meant that we could get instant brand recognition that would elude us if we went for something more mainstream. Nobody remembers who sponsors a football match.'
It is pretty good publicity and it comes at a price that, in advertising terms, is very competitive. VC is rumoured to pay about £180,000 for the privilege.
Cartier, the polo world's biggest sponsor, spends something like four times that on its international match day the following weekend. Audi and Rolls-Royce are also in on the act, sponsoring teams. And a host of other luxury goods brands attach their names in different ways."
The Independent


Cartier International Day, Guards Polo Club

 

"For a man who began life raising piglets and ended up the biggest property developer and construction magnate in Barbados, it takes a lot to shake Sir Charles Williams out of his busy, self-made stride. Yet when, after a gap of many years, the multimillionaire and polo fanatic returned to Cowdray Park in West Sussex last July to watch the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup final – the most prestigious polo trophy outside Argentina – he was astonished. Firstly, the size of the crowd. Fifteen thousand people were sitting in raked stands in the shadow of Lord Cowdray’s castle ruins, or dining in their picnic gazebos, quaffing thousands of bottles of the sponsor’s champagne. When Sir Charles had played at the home of English polo between 1979 and 1991, spectators came in their hundreds, clutching Thermos flasks and shooting sticks. Sir Charles was stunned as he wandered through the shopping village of 100 tented boutiques, selling everything from helmets, mallets and saddles to upmarket adventure holidays, designer jewellery and yachts. One year, somebody wrote out a cheque for £250,000 and took home a helicopter. The ground was ringed with cameras, televising the match to 35 countries."

The Times

“A scene that is at once typically English and international. The alfresco atmosphere among the picnic tables, the hint of wellington boots and waxed jackets in case of showers, is only found in England. But there is a certain elegance, an indefinable chic, that suggests Palermo, Deauville or Palm Beach.”
PQ International

"The glamorous annual Cartier International offers world-class polo in the regal environs of the Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park. Where the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup is all understated English elegance, the Cartier International is bold and beautiful, regularly pulling a crowd of 20,000."
Virgin

"It was all about buying strings of pearls or the cashmere Aphrodite EJK top from surrounding stalls and parading around blowing air kisses to fellow rich-list cronies."
The Times

"Polo is a fantastic leveller." says Guards Polo Club's Charles Stisted "However many polo ponies you might own, there will always be someone who has more than you."

BBC News

"Cartier International Day is so important in the English polo calendar that all other polo in the country is cancelled on that day."
Gold Air Magazine

"The Cartier International Day at Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park, yesterday, was teeming with wild life - both indigenous and exotic, including Juliette Lewis, Matthew Williamson and Richard Branson's children Sam and Holly. They turned out to see England take the Coronation Cup, and Prince Harry and his Prince of Wales Team win the Golden Jubilee Cup."
First Post Magazine