Southern Highlands Polocrosse
Sub Association Inc

JUNE 2008 NEWSLETTER

Issue No 2/08

2008 WA NATIONALS

The following teams for the Western Australia Nationals were announced at Muswellbrook. Congratulations to our zone members Greg Davidge, Alison Mathie, Belinda Tarlinton, Stephen Davidge, Toni Davidge, Kaaren Hassell, Bernie Hall, Daniel Jones and Claire Gee. We wish you all the best as you make the trip across the Nullarbor later this year.

SH ZONE CARNIVAL

The Southern Highlands will be holding the Zone carnival on 12th & 13th July 2008 at the Bong Bong race grounds, Bowral. Teams are to be drawn out of a hat with a mixture of skills and abilities ensuring that everyone has a great weekend. Numbers pending, competition will be held in both Mixed & Open grades.

Nominations to Rachel Hughes by 9.30pm on Tuesday 8 July.

REVISITING THE RULE BOOK

I have been asked to remind players of the rules which govern our sport.

The main breach that has become more apparent as the season has gone on is that players are swapping horses without having them vetted out by our Chief Umpire Alison Mathie. If Alison is not available the first alternate contact is the Deputy Chief Umpire, Michael Gorman. We need to ensure that we adhere to these rules so that everyone can enjoy a fair go. Polocrosse is after all, King of the One Horse Sports.

ZONE CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS

ZONE CHAMPIONSHIP WRAP UP

Nice and early Friday morning we headed up the Hume Highway and like ants invading a picnic, we rolled into the Muswellbrook Polocrosse Grounds, home of the Zone Championships, mid afternoon. Those wanting to take the scenic route detoured with Poppy Pat the extra 3 hours inland and toured around towns such as Wellington and Cassilis.

The Southern Highlands fielded an impressive eleven teams and one chukka to compete in the Championships. Wet weather leading up to the tournament had many thinking that a wash out was inevitable. Rest assured the rains stayed away and with Nationals spots up for grabs the skills and athleticism of both player and steed remained high.

This year would see some of the best results for our Zone with five of our teams making a final. The biggest success story being the first women's side making the Championship Final for the first time in almost half a decade. Their road to the final was made more thrilling due to a close game against South West Slopes that saw our girls take the smoother road into the final. The rematch late Monday afternoon proved just how skilled our New South ladies are with SWS just running home with the win in the sixth chukka.

The cheers of "Go Highlands" could be heard around the grounds throughout all three days of play. The loudest cheers echoing in the chilly air as Andrew Smith scored the winning goal in the third chukka of extra time for the Sub Juniors.

Early Monday morning we trekked through the mud to the main field to watch the Southern Highlands Junior Mixed side take on favourites Hunter Valley in the Championship final. Never in your dreams could you imagine the high standard of polocrosse that played out over the next 36 minutes of game time. Our Southern Highlanders put their best game forward against a strong Hunter team, just getting pipped at the post.

If these juniors are just a taste of the talent that is coming up through the ranks our sport sure has a bright future.

Congratulations to all the teams who made finals in their grade and for those of us who went without a win all weekend - we'll be back next year with a bit more experience under our belts.

Let's not forget the coaches and managers who made the trip north. Their dedication and was greatly appreciated!

Congratulations to those who received pony & player awards - it was great to see our first Men's side picked up the best section!

ZONE CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

Sub-Junior Championship CW 10 d NWP 9

Sub-Junior Best No 1 - Matt Stevenson
Sub-Junior Best No 2 - Clarke Melbourne
Sub-Junior Best No 3 - Jacob Lawrence
Champion Sub-Junior ASH - Brooke Field
Champion Sub-Junior Horse - Jacob Lawrence

Sub-Junior A Winner SWS Runner up WD

Sub-Junior A Best No 1 - Casey Peeck
Sub-Junior A Best No 2 - Tayla Miller
Sub-Junior A Best No 3 - Holly Stephens

Sub-Junior B Final SH 3 d HV 2

Sub-Junior B Player and Horse - Maddison George

Junior A Mixed Final HV 8 def SWS 6

Junior Mixed Championships HV 17 d SH 8

Girls Junior Best No 1 - Grace Halsted
Girls Junior Best No 2 - Brittany Jones
Girls Junior Best No 3 - Sally Thompson
Boys Junior Best No 1 - Matthew Finlayson
Boys Junior Best No 2 - Brandon Parkinson
Boys Junior Best No 3 - Ned O'Neil-Shaw

Junior Open A Grade Final HV 19 d NC 7

Best No 1 - Sydnee Doolan
Best No 2 - Jack O'Neil Shaw
Best No 3 - Mitchell Whiteley

Junior Open Championship SWS 17 d NWP 8

Junior Best No 1 - Murray Scott
Junior Best No 2 - Katie Peeck
Junior Best No 3 - Lucy Grills
Champion Junior ASH - Farren Mathie
Champion Junior Horse - Ned O'Neil Shaw

Intermediate Championship HV 14 d SWS 12

Female Intermediate Best No 1 - Carlie Peeck
Female Intermediate Best No 2 - Sarah Finlayson
Female Intermediate Best No 3 - Annie Waterer
Male Intermediate Best No 1 - Adam Wrobel
Male Intermediate Best No 2 - Simon Parkinson
Male Intermediate Best No 3 - Scott Jones
Champion Intermediate ASH - Scott Jones
Champion Intermediate Horse - Scott Jones

Women's A Grade Final NNE 11 d HV 2

Best No 1 - Stephanie Grills
Best No 2 - Kate Buchan
Best No 3 - Jessica Grills

Open Over 40 Championship HV 17 d CW 15

Best No 1 - David Badior
Best No 2 - Peter Robinson
Best No 3 - Phil Hvirf
Champion Veteran ASH - John Forsyth
Champions Veteran Horse - Phil Hvirf

Senior Mixed Championship HV 21 d SWS 11

Female Best No 1 - Lyric Anderson
Female Best No 2 - Bernadette Holz
Female Best No 3 - Kayleen Wilson
Male Best No 1 - Ricky Mitchell
Male Best No 2 - Colin Parkinson
Male Best No 3 - Brett Pryor
Champion Senior Mixed Horse - Ricky Mitchell

A Open Final SH 19 d HV 8

Best No 1 - Bernard Hall
Best No 2 - Stephen Davidge
Best No 3 - Greg Davidge

Women Championship SWS 18 d SH 13

Best No 1 - Alison Mathie
Best No 2 - Leith Pryor
Best No 3 - Amanda Smith
Champion Women's Player - Alison Mathie

Men Championship SWS 20 d HV 14

Best No 1 - Todd Weston
Best No 2 - Troy Henry
Best No 3 - Will Weston
Champion Men's Player - Todd Weston
Champion ASH - Bernie Smith
Champion Horse of the Carnival - Todd Weston

ANNOUNCEMENTS

John & Jamayne Tunks welcomed their third baby boy to the family. Cohen Jesse Tunks was born on 25 March 2008.

Matt Yeo & Katie O'Brien were engaged on 1 May 2008. Congratulations to you both!

Justin Darmody & Kellie Willoughby were engaged in March and plan to marry later this year.

Congratulations to Steve & Audrey Stuart on their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Condolences to Warren & Ainslie McWhirter on the loss of Kerrie. May our thoughts be with you.

Best Wishes to Karen Brown who along with her pony Matilda suffered a nasty fall at the Sydney Carnival.

EDITORS PIECE

Well the season kicked off without much ado about anything. There seems to have been no problems with players ensuring they have got their Travelling Horse Statements and event organisers have policed these without fail.

This year has seen only one carnival cancellation and with plenty of polocrosse to play numbers have been high and the people just happy to get back to the norm.

Some major changes during the extended off season have added to our creature comforts with the improvements at the Burradoo and Hall grounds helping us stay warm and dry and the new shower block at the Bungendore grounds encouraging us to smell nice too.

As our season draws to a close the carnivals throughout the zones continue through to August. Hopefully the price of oil may start to slowly decrease making travelling around the state easy for us all.

If you have any announcements or classifieds to place in the next newsletter please contact myself on the numbers or email below. All ads placed by zone members are charged at $10 per issue. The newsletter is circulated to all the NSW zone secretaries and an electronic copy is also posted on the NSW part of the following polocrosse website: www.polocrosse.net

Publicity Officer - Rachel Hughes
Phone: 02 6299 1997 - 0404 942 710