The Harvard polo club opened its short indoor season Saturday with a 13-5 loss to Yale at the Army in New Haven. The Elis broke open what had been a close match in the second chukker with a deluge of seven goals, which proved almost their eventual margin of victory.

"The game reflected our inexperience," captain Bill Griffen said yesterday. The team had a month of practice under its belt, with primary emphasis on riding skills and elementary mallet work.

The rules of polo are designed to prevent collisions and injury to horse and rider, and Harvard was guilty of fouls throughout the contest. Most were examples of players in the wrong place and failing to play through the ball.

The most common Crimson offense was obstructing the right of way of the player closest to the ball.

The Gang of Three

The starting three of Griffen, Bobo Tanner, and Cabot Lodge scored all five goals. Griffen put the ball in the eight-foot-wide goal three times while Tanner and Lodge each hit a ball home. Three Crimson players--Lodge, Brooks Newmark, and Emily Harris--were playing in their first intercollegiate game.

The approximately 15-member club, which includes some graduate students, receives no funds from the University. The club's five horses are kept in Wellesley where the daily practices take place.

In the spring, the horses are moved to the Myopia Hunt Club's stables for the outdoor season where the club will be able to host matches.

Next weekend, the squad travels to Vermont for a series of matches hosted by Norwich University. The team will not have to ride their horses to the north country because in college polo the host team provides the visitors with their mounts.

The club has scheduled matches with Skidmore, Cornell, UConn, the University of Virginia and Princeton in the next three months. Then, with the melting of the March snows, the outdoor season begins and Harvard will join the battle for the inter-collegiate championship.