The last two teams meet in the final of the British Open Polo Championship for the Cowdray Gold Cup, a 22-goal tournament first played at Cowdray Park in 1956.
The final of the British Open Polo Championship for the Cowdray Gold Cup is played at Cowdray Park Polo Club in Midhurst, West Sussex, on Sunday 11 July 2027. The club calls it Europe’s premier high-goal tournament.
The Pearson family founded the club in 1910 as a small country club on what is now Viscount Cowdray’s 16,500-acre estate. During the Second World War its polo fields were ploughed for the war effort.
John, 3rd Viscount Cowdray, rebuilt the game there after the war. He had lost his left arm at Dunkirk in 1940 and played on, holding the reins with a hook. In 1953 the club staged the first Coronation Cup before a crowd of more than 10,000, Queen Elizabeth II among them.
The Gold Cup was first played in 1956 and reached its Golden Jubilee in 2006. It is played at 22 goals, the high-goal level, and St. Regis is its title partner.
The tournament’s last two teams meet on the Lawns ground, watched from the Lawns and Brooks enclosures and the Pearson Pagodas, the club’s own hospitality. In 2026, Gaston beat Dubai 9-8 in the final.