World-class hockey player Hugo Inglis, 34, retired a year ago after playing a whopping 266 games for the Black Sticks after debuting in 2009.
And this year his cricketing sister, Polly Inglis, 29, debuted for the White Ferns in one-day and T20 internationals in Sri Lanka.
The wicketkeeper/batter, on a New Zealand Cricket contract for a second year, has also played 100-plus games for the Otago Sparks who’ve won the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield for the past two seasons.
Though the siblings grew up in Dunedin, Polly attending St Hilda’s and Hugo, Otago Boys’, they’ve always holidayed in Arrowtown, their parents Caroline and Malcolm having owned a holiday home there before moving permanently in 2016.
Hugo made the NZ under-16 and U18 teams before making the Black Sticks at 18 as part of a Dunedin cohort coached by Dave Ross.
He ended up playing in four Olympics and four Commonwealth Games — winning bronze and silver medals at the latter in 2010 and 2018 — and also played in Europe for six years.
Known for his huge work-rate, he admits "the training volumes you had to do to sort of keep up, especially later, were pretty tricky".
"Everything gets harder as you get older and I did go out with a broken arm in the last three games so it wasn’t the most enjoyable."
Now based in London, Hugo’s running the fast-growing charity High Impact Athletes which he co-founded with ex-NZ tennis doubles pro Marcus Daniell.
It’s mobilised 240-plus athletes to channel more than $US2million ($NZ3.461m) to carefully selected charities.
"We work with some of the biggest athletes in the world now and also some of the biggest sports."
Hugo’s also been named a finalist in the International Olympic Committee’s Climate Action Awards 2025.
Meanwhile, Polly says she’s always been a keeper.
"I didn’t get too many bats or bowls when I was playing with my brothers in the backyard so I was in the field most of the time."
She was only in year 11 when she debuted for the Sparks though hockey had been her first love, even making the NZ A team.
"I kind of always dreamt of going to the Olympics, but cricket eventually took over."
In 2019 she headed to England to play, before moving to Wellington, then Dunedin.
Her first NZ Cricket contract followed a stellar ’23/’24 season when she was second-highest run-getter in the one-day comp.
Polly’s delighted to be a fulltime cricketer, while still helping out Hugo a bit with his charity.
She’s keen to keep playing for a few years with even a chance to fulfil her Olympics dream with cricket on the bill for Los Angeles in ’28.
She raves about Queenstown’s new gym, The Mill — "it’s world-class" — and also loves to play golf at the Arrowtown course when visiting her parents.
"We’re pretty lucky to be able to come home to Arrowtown."
