The weekend of March 3rd and 4th, 2001 saw the Adelaide Polocrosse Club carnival held at Strathalbyn.

The Strathalbyn Polo Grounds provide a fantastic venue for polocrosse, with great facilities for horse, rider and spectator.
The weekend was blessed with warm sunny weather and a cooling breeze blowing in off nearby Lake Alexandrina.
Although participating teams were fewer this year, it was great to have players attend from the state's South East as well as from York Peninsula.

Games were played in A, B and C grade and it was encouraging to see the number of first game players taking to the field in C grade. Judging by the enthusiasm of these players, we can expect to see future participation as the C grade players improve and rise through the grades. The enthusiasm shown was evidenced by the wide age-range of players taking the fields. From young Jess Liddiard, from York Peninsula, the youngest junior playing in C grade, to Jacko playing A grade and celebrating his 70th birthday at the end of the month.

The Adelaide Polocrosse Club were fortunate enough to be playing 4 first time C grade players. These first timers were variously teamed up within the regular C grade sections and to a person "had a ball". This was later confirmed by young Sally Williams winning the best C Grade No 2 for the carnival, not bad for a first timer!

The C grade final was played between the Adelaide Club and York Peninsula and was a closely fought final, with York Peninsula running out the winner 9 goals to 8 in the final minute.

The B grade games were all closely fought with a large number of "sudden death" playoffs required to get a result. Once again Adelaide and York Peninsula featured as finalists and once again York Peninsula walked away with the spoils of success.

In A grade, Adelaide promoted several regular B grade players who performed exceptionally well, but who just failed to squeeze enough balls past the posts to make the finals. Naracoorte met York Peninsula in the final in what proved a great spectacle of game skill and horsemanship. York Peninsula made it a clean sweep of the carnival with Danny Dunstan and Bob Slape proving to be the number 1 hot shots on the day and guiding YP to an A grade win.

Without doubt a fantastic weekend of Polocrosse and a credit to the Adelaide club organising committee. The winners were well rewarded and it was good to see sponsor representatives from Vetsearch and Bonnett's Saddleworld there on the day to congratulate the winners.

Results of the carnival are as follows:

A grade Winners - Yorke Peninsula
Runners-up - Naracoorte
Best No.1 - Barry Cameron
Best No.2 - Hayley Crommelin
Best No.3 - Matt Prior and Chris Wittig
Best Horse - "Mel" Danny Dunstone

B Grade Winners - Yorke Peninsula
Runners-up - Adelaide
Best No.1 - Kelly Allen-Gurney
Best No.2 - Mandie Young and Samantha Allen-Gurney
Best No.3 - Scott Allen-Gurney
Best Horse - "Twist" Kelly Allen-Gurney

C Grade Winners - Yorke Peninsula
Runners-up - Adelaide
Best No.1 - Josh Liddiard
Best No.2 - Sally Williams and Robyn Taylor
Best No.3 - Justin McKenzie
Best Horse - "Trevor" Josh Liddiard

B Grade

B Grade Lineup

Laurie

Tara