Water polo has a history that spans
 roughly four centuries in one form or
 another.

 Initially horses were used to play the game, as this
 Dutch painting shows. The game was a version of
 modern polo, played on the beach, with high tide signalling the end of the match.
This version of the game was phased out early in the eighteenth century, however, as the Dutch
chose to reclaim land from the sea and beach space became scarcer: these tracts of reclaimed land
were named after the sport in its original Welsh, polo dwr, hence the Dutch polder. Moreover, the
tendency to play on until the last possible moment drew criticism from the first animal liberationists,
and with good reason: one account tells of how an entire team of seven horses was lost in a
championship final as Utrecht sought a last-minute equaliser against their deadly rivals, the Hague.

The game therefore suffered a major lull in popularity, as what had previously been the sport of kings went underground in a bid to escape unwanted attention. While the traditionalists struggled to avoid animal welfare groups, however, another set of pioneers formed a breakaway leauge that laid the foundations for the game we know and love today.

These founding mothers and fathers had played the original game and had thereby grown used to
surviving the drowning horses in what had come to be known as "injury time". Their swimming skills had consequently vastly improved, and they decided to put this "side-effect" to good use.
Abandonning the use of horses, though retaining full riding gear, these sportsmen and women created modern waterpolo.

The nineteenth-century saw many changes in the game, notably in the ball; an inflated cow's bladder was used in place of the original puck. For the sake of convenience, most of the riding gear was now abandonned, though the riding helmet was retained to protect against injury.

Andy Cuthbert, of Thetford Water Polo Club, points out that in eastern England riding crops are still in evidence, particularly in more vigorously contested games.

Water polo's popularity reached its zenith in the second half of the nineteenth century, particularly in France. The game had generally moved inland to fresh water, and the Seine proved a particularly popular location. Newspapers carried spot the ball competitions for water polo, most of which have since been lost.

These days, of course, tactics and technology are far more advanced and the rules have been
standardized. Though its original form would seem to have vanished completely, the modern game is played across the world, even in west Wales, where a group of hardened professionals struggle to keep the game alive.

This text was originally devised by Phillipe Parker