
DATE: Friday, October 10, 1997              TAG: 9710090234

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:  121 lines

MUCH MORE THAN POLO CHARITY WAS THE NAME OF THE GAME IN THE VIRGINIA BEACH POLO BENEFIT. ALSO CHIPS, CHAMPAGNE AND A CHANCE TO BE SEEN.

POLO FOR CHARITY was the name of the game Saturday.

It also was a time for chips, dips, beer, bloodies and champagne.

More than 1,000 people assembled at well-manicured Alpha Omega Farm in the rural tip of Princess Anne Borough on a cloudless, sun-drenched day to watch a little polo, sip a beverage or two and see and be seen.

The occasion was the 11th annual Virginia Beach Polo Benefit, which featured the 11th rematch between the Virginia Beach Polo Club and the University of Virginia Alumni Polo Team.

This year more sport utility wagons appeared near the playing field than Rolls Royces, Mercedes or Jaguars, but the socializing on the perimeter appeared to be as intense as ever.

As players and mounts dashed up and down the 300-by-150-yard field, flailing away at a softball-size sphere, spectators like Jeanette Thorpe, Melody Copper, Jonell Walthall, Jean Benjamin, Trish Puchko and Barbara Colgate sipped chilled white wine at a table that featured a pot of bright yellow chrysanthemums as a centerpiece.

They munched on a bleu cheese torte (complete with sun dried tomatoes and crushed hazel nuts) and English water crackers and chatted with passers-by.

Benjamin had flown into Hampton Roads from Cleveland on Saturday to attend the match and the festivities. This was the third year the six friends had gathered at Alpha Omega Farm and chances are - they hinted - they would be here next year.

Fifty feet to the north another tailgate party was in progress under a tent festooned with Mexican pinatas. This one was sponsored by Bay Tower Corp., a Virginia Beach company that specializes in erecting communications to towers and antennae.

The tailgate theme this year was Mexican, said organizer Ruth Anne Rusbuldt, thus the pinatas, including one molded in the shape of a burro. The menu: chili con carne, tacos and Corona beer among other items.

This was the sixth year for the company gathering and Rusbuldt and her companions were hoping that their decorating efforts might win them the ``best tailgate'' prize.

It was not to be. The honor went instead to Chris and Bill Kelly, whose linen covered table featured a floral arrangement of silk tulips and real sand dollars, a magnum of chilled champagne and a plastic enclosed menu featuring Italian dishes. The bill of fare included an item that - when translated - meant country-style chicken.

The Kellys had been selected over other tailgaters, because of the carefully prepared menu, the food and overall ``ambience,'' said judges Randy and Arlene Wright of Norfolk.

Best dressed honors went to Bob and Nancy Hopping of Virginia Beach, who have been attending the polo matches for five years. Actually it was Nancy more than Bob who sewed up the award. She wore a scarlet ankle-length dress, split to the thigh on one side. On the front was a horse scene she had painted. Completing the outfit was a black felt hat with the crown wrapped in a matching scarlet sash. Her husband was decked out in a traditional blue blazer, khaki trousers and topped off by a tan Aussie bush hat.

While the socializing appeared to occupy the attention of most of those in attendance, the Virginia Beach Polo Club was busy drubbing the visiting U.Va. alumni squad 9-0.

One spectator who was not distracted by the tailgate parties was William O. Johnson, 87, who concentrated on the polo match from a wheelchair.

Wearing a weathered Auburn University baseball cap with a feather in the crown, Johnson watched the action that swept up and down the grassy field. Closer inspection revealed a white cardigan letter sweater draped over the back of the chair, bearing a faded red A with crossed polo mallets.

Johnson, said his son William K. Johnson, played on Auburn's polo team in 1934 with twin brother Oel Johnson. The squad that chalked up a 6-2-1 record.

Johnson's laconic assessment of Saturday's contest: ``It's a pretty good match,'' he said. ``They do pretty well.'' Then he continued munching on cakes and cookies.

Polo was followed by a patron's party, which was held in a tent behind the field. The stretch of canvas was big enough to house a major high school basketball tournament.

Inside, rows of tables were with covered trays of food prepared by Beach Bully. Cooks had prepared enough pasta salad, cole slaw, potato salad, North Carolina-style pork barbecue and sliced smoked beef for more than 400 guests, said Corey Cason, who supervised party preparations. Next to the food tables was an open bar, which provided guests ample quantities of beverages to wash down their food.

For guests inclined to tap their feet, host and farm owner Bart Frye had hired Ernie LeBeau and the Beach Blasters, a local band and fixture at area music events for years.

While polo and partying provided ample diversion Saturday for paying guests, the real purpose of the event was raising money for charity. Once again, the benefit raised between $23,000 and $25,000, said Hazel Fritz, chief organizer of the event and administrative assistant to apartment developer Frye. Recipients this year include the Sugar Plum Bakery, a nonprofit retail outlet on Laskin Road that hires and trains handicapped people, the 4-H Clubs of Virginia Beach and the Shriners Hospital for Crippled and Burned Children.

Last year the polo benefit raised $25,000 that was to be distributed among Equi-Kids, United Cerebral Palsy, as well as the 4-H Clubs of Virginia Beach and the Shriners Hospital.

Frye, who has organized the match for the past 11 years, said he signed up 25 separate corporate sponsors to help underwrite the cost of staging the match and social activities on Saturday. ILLUSTRATION: ON THE COVER

Photos including color cover by L. TODD SPENCER

Mark Corradino of Virginia Beach heads for the ball during the

Virginia Beach Polo Club's benefit match against the University of

Virginia Alumni Team at Alpha Omega Farm.

Players and mounts dashed up and down a 300-by-150-yard field on

Alpha Omega Farm Saturday for the 11th annual Virginia Beach Polo

Benefit.

Karen Mullaney of Virgina Beach sips a glass of wine as she and her

dog enjoy perfect polo weather.

Terree Neal, from left, Rebecca Cleghorn and Lorie Davis ham it up

as their friend Michelle Dowdy snaps a photograph at the Virginia

Beach Polo Benefit on Saturday.