MONO POLO
Derek & the Mono Monkey
Mono Polo started with a brochure. On a family skiing holiday, Derek MacLennan spotted an advert for a taster session at Polo Valley in Sotogrande, Spain, and booked it on a whim. One chukka in, he was hooked — and a spur-of-the-moment holiday lesson turned into a genuine obsession.
The name came later, in Argentina. Playing chukkas at La Dolfina — Adolfo Cambiaso's ranch, and arguably the most famous stretch of polo ground in the world — Derek was in a loose, fast, funny game alongside Pelón and Santi Stirling. The polo was so much fun it gave rise to laughter that, as the story goes, "sounded like a monkey." The other players started calling him Mono — Spanish for monkey.
It stuck. By 2023 the nickname had a team attached to it. Mono Polo now runs in red and black, with a monkey mark on the shirt, competing across 4-goal and 6-goal tournaments at Guards and Cowdray.
"The name stuck, and the Mono story had begun."
