For South Africa’s Steve Evans, life has been all about polo. His father played and his brothers still play, and he grew up playing at the East Rand Polo Club. There was no professionalism in the sport in South Africa in the late 90s. Steve was about to go to university, when polo got in the way.

“We had a New Zealand team come to play. We helped them with horses and after that, I ended up in New Zealand and then England,” he said.

After that he played in many different countries, but to this day has yet to hit a ball on a polo field in the USA. “I pretty much played everywhere,” he said. “But I hadn’t really been to the USA or Argentina.”

Steve was offered a position with Umpires LLC. The call came through from the States four days before Covid shut everything down. “I was told you’d better get on a plane or you’re not going to get here,” he said. “The rest is history.”

Steve, a straight shooter, said: “The reason I got into umpiring was because I hated bad umpiring. I just promised myself that if I ever did it, people would walk away from the game happier.” He realizes that is not always the case but having the backing of Umpires LLC, makes the job so much easier. “If you get off a horse at the end of the game and there’s a problem, your role is not to discuss it - you can tell them to take it to the management. It takes the emotion out of it, and it is so much better.”