Goroka had an "Invitation" carnival in August, followed the next weekend by races.

Races were held at Goroka and Nadzab about three times a year, also one or two race meetings at either Banz, or later Mt. Hagen. During the "Dry" it had been hard to have a weekend at home. As the polocrosse developed, the station horses were used more as polocrosse horses. More horses were imported or bred for racing, which became more and more professional, with jockeys coming from Port Moresby to ride most horses. Initially the same horses and riders had raced and played polocrosse.

Ramu had another carnival at the end of August, on Dan Leahy's fifty-fifth birthday. A team from Buradoo, guests of Goroka Club, played, mainly on horses that the Goroka Club had imported from Buradoo in the Southern Highlands of NSW. They all, horses and people, felt the heat, and the effects of a diversion to Madang due to bad weather over Goroka the day before.

There was a late start, Gusap were always late arriving, mainly due to the whims of old Hagen, the truck driver, and others only arrived that morning. There were only 6 A/B teams, and 3 C/D teams. Goroka 1 defeated Ramu1 with its 4-goal handicap advantage, in extra time. Ramu 2 won the B Grade on goal scores from Markham Valley 1, again.

Goroka hosted another carnival in mid-September. Their first and second teams dominated. R2 won the C Grade, defeating Goroka 3, Lae defeated Ramu 1 and Goroka 1 thrashed them. Goroka 2 also beat Lae.

The Nationals were held at Nadzab, hosted by the Lae Club and umpired and entertained by Victorians, Buck and Max (John Buchanan and Max Radford). Buck was the official umpire/coach. The results were: A Grade - Goroka 1 (Arthur, Mike, John Tuckerman, Gordon, Richard Palm and Aitap) defeated Markham Valley 1 (Bernard, Rob, Tony Beirne, Ben, Michael and Trevor) 14 - 10. In the B Grade - Goroka 2 (Dan, Paul, Kosi, Ian Veldsman, Russell Smith, David Haynes) defeated Ramu 1 (Grant, Osifa, Jonah, Kipas, Suli, and Waubie) 18 - 9. Once again Ramu 2, with mostly new and D grade players, defeated Goroka 3 (Mata, Hamish Murdoch and James Launder) 14 - 13 in extra time. Markham Valley won the Juniors from Goroka. Arthur Jones' Emma was the Best Horse, Aitap Meskep the Best Player and Dan Leahy won the Best and Fairest.

A team, comprising Bernie Uechtritz, Osifa Kifufi, Mike Bromley, Heather Atherton, Peter Thomas and John Atherton, played at the Townsville Carnival at the beginning of August. They also played at the Lower Burdekin carnival, where they reached the semi-finals. The North Queenslanders entertained the PNG team royally. It was the first time any of the players had played for PNG in Australia.

By 1986, Ramu Club was even weaker. The Ramu Sugar "Stunt" was making harvesting difficult, and management at Gusap and Dumpu had little interest in organizing the local stockmen. The Club did not join in the early carnivals, which were small.

The race Clubs were still very active taking up many weekends. Each Club hosted major polocrosse carnivals from 30th and 31st August to the Nationals, hosted by Markham Valley Club on 4th September. This tight schedule later in the year also suited the coffee industry players, as it was after the peak of the season.

The Ramu carnival was played in chukkas, in four divisions, as a round robin. Dan Leahy, on his 56th birthday played very well, with Grant and Kipas. The other top section was comprised of Bruce, Mike and Bernie. The action moved to Goroka a fortnight later. Goroka were strong. Among the upsets the first day, Goroka 4 defeated Markham Valley 1, who were playing some new and difficult horses. Goroka 3 beat Lae, which went on to defeat Ramu. Needless to say Goroka 1 was an easy winner overall.

The Young & The Old
Grant Jephcott and Dan Leahy

The next weekend Lae Club hosted a carnival at Nadzab. Some Gusap players came as a team, and three Dumpu players, Kipas, Osifa and Mato played as a section with three A grade players from Markham. We had the pleasure of James Blundell singing at the barbecue on Saturday night. He had been working at Dumpu all year, but was about to leave due to an injury to his back. After treatment in Sydney, and being banned from riding, he launched himself on his singing career by winning the Golden Guitar for a new singer at Tamworth.