Sport: Poloists Rated

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Last autumn, Hitchcock Jr. was the only player sure of his place on the U. S. international team. After a summer of practice matches, a team was finally an nounced, beaten by a scrub team, changed, reannounced, changed, listed in pro grams, changed, beaten by the Argentines, changed once more.

As a result of last week's rating Hitch cock Jr. became more than ever the deity of Long Island's polo prairies and of the warm fields near Aiken, S. C. Now 28, he has enjoyed more than a decade of polo's peculiar fame. It was before the War, when he was still in his 'teens, that the efficacy of his mother's coaching first be came apparent. She, a vigorous woman who still occasionally plays at Westbury herself, is credited with having inspired and largely trained a generation of U. S. players.

Hitchcock Jr.'s name first appeared in U. S. headlines after his sensational escape from a German prison camp when he had been supposed dead. Now, lately married (TIME, December 24), he is a modestly obscure person except when, on greener fields than those of war, he rides hard, swings mightily and shouts even more frequently than do most polo players the emphatic and yet unshocking blasphemies which are part of the lingo of the game.

^{†But the rate of Polo's annually renewed subscriptions
is conservatively figured at 90%.}