Frustrated Prince Harry howls as he misses open goal

It should have been Prince Harry’s triumphant return to the polo pitch after spending five weeks abroad.

However, the fourth in line to the throne ended up costing his team a victory by missing a series of golden opportunities to score.

The charity match, played Sunday afternoon at Cirencester Park Polo Club in Gloucestershire, reached a dramatic climax when Prince Harry tore down the pitch but failed to score what was described as an “open goal”.

^{Prince Harry playing polo at Cirencester (Mark Stewart)}

The Prince wore a green shirt with the emblem of Centrepoint, a youth homeless charity which was one of his late mother’s favourite organisations.

In January 1996, Diana Princess of Wales took the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, then aged 13 and 11, on a late-night visit to one of the charity’s night shelters in Soho, London.

The charity became the Duke of Cambridge’s first patronage in 2005, and was one of the three charities chosen to benefit from yesterday’s match.

One spectator, who has been attending royal polo matches for more than three decades, said: “There were two shots that Harry missed. The second one was a sitting target, it was almost an open goal.

^{A missed chance (Max Mumby )}

“They stood a chance of pulling level so they could have done with scoring that one. It went wide and he screamed out in anger and frustration – 'arghhh’.

“The one in the first chukka came close. It was a slightly harder one and he took it in good stead. He rode away and said something.”

He hinted that the performance was out of character for Prince Harry, whom he described as “very good at polo, a very fired-up player who plays to win. Normally he would be on target”.

Prince Harry’s team, BMG, were 6-1 down at half-time, but the Prince made amends by scoring, and by the fourth chukka, they had made a comeback.

However, the opposing team, Maserati, scooped the Jerudong Park Polo Trophy after beating BMG 8-7.

Michael Evett, a 20-year-old student, said: “We heard Prince Harry was playing so we thought we’d go down and have a look. He was good at some points but he missed two open goals. One was at the beginning and the one right at the end would have equalised the game.

“He was chasing it down the pitch against a player from the other team. Then at the end he shot and missed.”

^{Prince Harry after playing in the Jerudong Cup (David Hartley)}

However, some audience members praised the performance of Prince Harry, who has recently returned from a week-long trip to New Zealand before which he was on a four-week attachment to the Australian Defence Force.

“I think Harry played well,” said Roy Wood, chairman of the trustees of MapAction, one of the charities for which the polo match was raising funds.

“He was named Most Valuable Player after the match, which I am sure was well deserved.”

The match benefited two charities of which Prince Harry is patron: WellChild, which supports the families of sick children, and MapAction, which works in disaster zones to provide information on where relief help is needed.

Prince Harry was hailed as a hero for rushing to the aid of a fellow sportsman who had suffered a dramatic collision which knocked him off his horse during a previous charity polo match. He gently placed him in the recovery position.