More News of Murray in Oz!

For those who don't know, (the mailing list has grown somewhat) Zambia's very own Murray Evans from Livingstone, was chosen out of 438 candidates world wide, to go to Victoria, Australia, live with the Marriott family for the season and play in Australian tournaments! Murray left early in January shortly after his 18th birthday (on New Years day!) and we have received our second lot of news of him recently from his host, Jeremy Marriott.

A little update on Murray as I haven't been able to get him to put pen to paper yet. So far he has played in 5 tournaments for the year I will try and run through the results for you.

On the 14th and 15th of January we all packed up and headed off to Naracoorte which is in South Australia about 7 hours drive from our home in Pearcedale. Murray was selected in the Moorooduc A reserve side in the same chukka as my wife Peta. He was lucky enough to get to ride one of my best horses as I wanted to play one of my young ponies that weekend. Unfortunately Murray and Peta were unsuccessful not making the finals this weekend however I had started something that was soon to prove difficult to stop, for Murray had found a new love (Fuggly) my horse. After getting over his first game nerves the combination played very well together and proved a substantial force to all contenders. The trip home proved to be quite an event for us all fortunately I was lucky enough to be in the winning A grade team for the weekend so was still on a high when the front drivers side tyre blew out at 100kmph. It was rather frightening as 60ft of bus (Murray is still coming to grips with our ways, Peta and I have a 40ft bus fitted out with accommodation and tow a 20 ft trailer filled with 6 horses when we go to polocrosse) hurtled down the wrong side of the road with me wrestling it at the wheel. Well we finally came to a stop back on the right side of the road and I had to go down the back of the bus and pry Murray out of the toilet. It took us a while but we finally got home at around 2 in the morning all with our hearts still pounding and no chance of sleeping at the wheel.

The following weekend Murray was again selected in the Moorooduc A reserve side once again with Peta and we travelled what feels like a short distance 200KM to the Smythesdale tournament. Another eye opener for Murray as we turned up to the grounds and 40+ teams (we play six in a team rather than sections) once again Murray got to ride Fuggly once again they proved to be quite a combination and once again I thought I may never get her back. Unfortunately similar results meant no finals berth for Moorooduc again and the 200km home felt like 1000 when none of us had any silverware to take home.

Given the next weekend was the Portland polocrosse tournament about 8 hours drive from home and that the horses had had two weekends in a row we decided to give it a miss and go for a drive in the other direction. Murray and I took a 2 year old horse of ours 8 hours north to Robert Sibley for breaking in. With an invitation to stay Saturday night we both took the opportunity to avail ourselves of Robert's hospitality and after telling stories and listening to Robert's unique way of telling jokes we finally retired to bed in the early hours of Sunday morning. Robert is a member of the Australian World Cup squad and had represented NSW countless times in winning nationals teams, not only a great horseman and player Robert is a natural with training any animals and owns some very special sheep dogs. In the morning we packed Murray up and took the dogs out into the paddock to watch them work. The look of amazement in Murray's face was incredible as he watched these dogs run off into the distance at the command of Robert and return sometime later with a mob of sheep they had collected from around this 200 acre paddock. Spending the next half hour watching the dogs work the sheep at Roberts command Murray sat there silent and entranced. Soon after we bid Robert goodbye and headed down the 8 hour drive home vowing to come back and collect the horse once he had broken it.

The first weekend in Feb and we were off to Ballarat's home tournament once again only a short 2 hour drive for which we were grateful. Murray and Peta also once again in the same Moorooduc A reserve team but this time Murray had his heart broken as it was my turn to ride Fuggly, and he was aboard one of the young horses. Playing sensibly and with the interests of the young horse in mind they were beaten most games however came out winners from a future horsepower point of view.

Back on Fuggly for the 3rd tournament out of 4 Murray was selected in the Moorooduc B grade side to play at the Sale polocrosse tournament also about 2 hours from home. With many of the players starting to get onto their good horses as the season progresses positions in the A reserve team had become more and more scarce however the level of the polocrosse had also lifted. Playing without Peta in his team for the first time Murray had a great weekend being instrumental in guiding his team to the finals on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately although extremely close (1 goal) Moorooduc had to settle for the runners up trophy. No so for Murray and Fuggly however who took out the Best Horse and Rider Combination in the B Grade, Given my team had also made the A Grade finals and we had worn an absolute thrashing from our opponents the trip home was interesting with some of us happy and others not so.

All in all Murray is fitting in really well and all the club members love him, sometime in the future I am hoping to get to ride Fuggly again but I hate to break up such relationships. I will try and keep you updated when I can and give Murray a rev up here and there to send you the odd update. I do have some other photos of Murray playing which I hope to download soon and email to you.
Once again thanks for the update and look forward to talking with you soon.
Kindest Regards
Jeremy Marriott