A letter from a HPA chief exec David Woodd announces the conclusions drawn from last Friday's Stewards meeting. This is it in full:

"The HPA has for some years been seeking ways to promote its young up and coming players to try achieve their full potential in High Goal competition. It was proposed to Stewards last year that a HGP rule should be introduced for the 22 goal in 2012.

The initial status guidelines for a HGP were changed in the light of comments received to focus more on those players who can be deemed to have learnt their polo here regardless of their nationality or age – in simple terms they need to have played here as handicapped members of the HPA for 3 out of their first 5 seasons, and if their first registered handicap with the HPA is 0 or more they will be judged to have already played for 3 years elsewhere and therefore unable to qualify as a HGP.

Various proposals have been suggested and discussed at various time and at considerable length. On the up side, a proper debate has been generated and this has involved the clubs, patrons, managers, and players of all nationalities. However the complexity of the structure of the sport made it difficult for the parties involved to agree the detail of a possible new HGP rule that was sensible, fair and practical.
 
The Chairman’s Committee met twice in an attempt to agree a HGP rule, on semi-finals day and finals day of the Gold Cup, but failed to do so. They did agree that the handicapping of those who had played in the 22 goal sufficiently to be handicapped should go ahead as normal and recommended that the Stewards should hold  a special meeting as soon as possible to agree the way ahead for any HGP rule.
Accordingly, the Stewards met at short notice on Friday 29th July.

·        They agreed that their objective was to create more favourable conditions for HGPs so that in the long term there would be one sponsored HGP in every high goal team.

·        They agreed that any changes in the conditions should be directed in particular towards enabling those players who were or had the potential to be part of the England squad to have a better opportunity to develop and maintain their full potential whilst continuing to allow teams to be as competitive as possible, particularly in the high goal.

·        They agreed  that further discussion was necessary and any changes could not sensibly be put in place for the 22 goal for 2012. However, they agreed that a HGP rule will be introduced for the 22 goal in 2013 as an instrument to help them achieve their objective of one sponsored HGP per team in the longer term. The detail of the rule will be discussed with all the parties involved along with the other mechanisms available to the HPA, such as handicapping, work permits and restrictions on new or overseas sponsored players.

·        There was general consensus that any proposals for a HGP rule in the other levels would also benefit from further discussion but that it was unlikely that an arbitrary rule of one HGP per team in 2012 would help either the entries for the 18 or 15 goal, which had reduced in the last two years, or the HGPs."

For more information visit www.hpa-polo.co.uk