BOSTON MA, CAMBRIDGE UK: November 22, 2006
Have you ever tried polo, Sport of Kings? BSG Team Ventures threw down the gauntlet to the VC community and leaders of VC-backed businesses this week ... with great results: Four teams of novice players, many with no riding experience, came together for the inaugural BSG Team Ventures Discover Polo Day at Ascot Park Polo Club.

"I have attended a number of 'different' events but nothing quite like this" said Catherine Beech, new CEO of BioConcepts at Babraham, Cambridge. "It was good to have a corporate event with a real purpose rather than just eat and drink. Different, exhilarating and definitely enjoyable!"

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The day included group tuition covering safety and tactics, practical introduction to the basic shots, development of the rules and format of the game initially on foot ... and of course the horse riding. Many invitees were concerned that the horse riding would be beyond them but this proved totally unfounded - the team at Ascot Park geared the coaching to the level of each individual and provided individually suited polo ponies to match. "The polo ponies are extraordinary - responsive, accepting of the complete beginner, entirely at ease during actual play and probably understand the flow of the game better than we did" commented Chris Clothier, MMC Ventures.

But the day did not stop with the training and the four teams soon found themselves completing their first chukkas, on horseback, four per side in the all-weather arena and despite their novice status all found themselves competing fiercely during the highlight of the day. But this is no surprise: the type of individual that accepts an invitation to try polo when they have never ridden a horse turns out to be an extrovert, active, inquisitive, competitive type - or perhaps polo is just a great team builder?

"This was one of the best team building events I have been to. A good all round day with a balance of fun, challenge and learning new skills" said Mark Docherty, Merlin BioSciences.

After the match, won by pink-shirted Guy Buckley-Sharpe ETV Capital, Chris Clothier MMC Ventures, Sam Tully Insinger de Beaufort and Gayatri Shah BSG Team Ventures, the group retired to the marquee to receive firstly an excellent lunch of Argentinian beef and lamb and secondly a further challenge from CEO Dr Simon Haworth: Simon revealed that the session was actually a team trial for the BSG Team Ventures polo teams to compete in the City Polo Championships at Ascot Park in September 2007.

Any VC or VC-backed CEO interested in joining the squad - to train at Ascot Park and at Haggis Farm Polo Club in Cambridge - should contact Gayatri Shah of BSG Team Ventures

gayatri.shah@bsgteamventures.com

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Click here  for more about our Partners at Ascot Park Polo Club

Since 1997 BSG Team Ventures principals have been engaged to fill more than 250 senior-management and Board positions at the VP level and above, for a slate of clients that includes venture capitalists and private investors, their portfolio companies, and public companies with a strong commitment to "intrapreneurship" and technology. The majority of these engagements have been in industries and with companies at the cutting edge of innovation -- in software, technology infrastructure and services, for-profit and not-for-profit education (and especially eLearning), life sciences and biotechnology, medical devices and digital information and media.