 |
|
|
We took our senior polocrosse team to the Championships this year, in our fab new 'Cheshire Polocrosse'
colours. The competition ran for two days, so we had to camp at Draycott and pen the ponies nearby.
The team competed as a section of 3 in the Charles Mason Open class and was made up of Jamie Duffill and Lochie at number 1, Amy
Galvin and Ramalacha at number 2, and Lydia Boyle-Chambers and Charlie at number 3. They had been working hard towards this tournament all year, attending training sessions on foot with Celyn club and then going to every mounted practise with Anna and Sarah on a
Tuesday evening just to watch and pick up tips. Pretty dedicated as it involved travelling to North Wales and back again every week,
often getting home around midnight! As well as working on their own game, all three regularly help to coach our junior players too.
The first match on Saturday was at 9am, and it was early to rise for all of us so that we could be brushed, plaited and dressed ready
to go for our 8.30am tack inspection. Our team were playing the North Warwickshire branch first, and it was a great game to start the
day with. Although we practise lots at home this was only the second time we had played away this year, our first time as a full team
on these horses, and Lydia's very first tournament on grass! Jamie and Amy had played at Draycott the previous year, but this time
round we felt that we were more experienced, and our horses were quite a bit faster! (Sorry Spice...)
We surprised ourselves in the first match by grabbing the ball from the lineout and scoring straight off. It was a good way to begin,
and we won our first match comfortably. All three horses are very confident on the pitch and know their jobs: Charlie is a great
confidence giver and loves to ride off, which helped Lydia in the number 3 position. Lochie and Jamie both like to gallop and be up
front with the ball. Amy, as she quite rightly says, is 'the voice' of the team and helps to keep the other two in the right place, so it's just as well that Ramalacha is super-fast to keep up with play!
However, the day was only just beginning, and our two afternoon matches were much tougher. We played Croome Hunt and the Iveagh, who
both beat us. However, we learned a lot in both matches, and we enjoyed seeing our Northern Irish friends from last year. Apparently
there were many jokes traded during the Iveagh match, and of course Sarah had a little trouble knowing who to cheer for! Inbetween
matches we had the chance to watch some of the other games. We made sure that we were on side to cheer for Sarah's old Pony Club, the
North Down, and their minis team.
On the second day we had two matches to play in the morning. Our first was against the very experienced Rockwood Harriers team (who
went on to win the class). It was one of our hardest matches but we managed to score several goals and we really worked hard for each
one! Our final match of the tournament was against United Pack, and our team really pulled out all the stops for their last few
chukkas. They took the lead straight away, with the girls working well in defence leaving Jamie to keep putting the ball between the
posts. The final score was certainly very pleasing, and a fantastic finish to the weekend! All the training had really paid off, and
the team felt that they had played well. We had to wait for the final scores to be worked out, but in the end we were
6th out of eleven teams, a huge improvement from last year and against a much higher standard!
Well done to the team and their ponies, and also to our army of helpers over the weekend. We couldn't have done it without all our
grooms, goal-judges, pony holders and of course the chef! We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us out with training over the past year: Barry Amor, Tom Simkin and Chris Illingworth of Celyn, and also Debbie Miller who answered all our
questions and very kindly timekept for us as well. Many thanks also to those involved in the organising of the polocrosse at the
Championships, especially Dave Brookes and Hannah Clack.
Back to News page
|
|
