A Review of 1997 - 98 - from Tara Pocock

 Being a very small country and all, we hardly do well against other countries, especially in Polocrosse, as we have half the players that any other country has. So, when we were invited to the Quadrangular Test Series in South Africa in June 1997, we felt very honoured. We had trained very hard for it, but having limited players, we had to work a little harder on some, except when it comes to players like Henry Harris, who are natural players. I wouldn't have gone to watch if it wasn't for my father being chosen to umpire. I went down and had the time of my life, and that was the only time I have ever watched a true game of polocrosse!!
 
The South Africans and Zimbabweans had to put in 2 horses minimum per player. So, when it came to playing you wern't sure whether you were going to be playing on your own horse, your team mates horse or a South African horse. The players were given a week to ride the horse and get used to it.
 
As I can remember the Mens team was:
Angus Alexander
Henry Harris
Kane Mathews
Gavin Cocker
The Ladies team was:
Sally Harris
Paula Campbell
Susan Sargent
Margo Worsiworsik
 
I will have to check the other players names as I can't remember them off hand.
 
Anyway, the first weekend we beat SA, Australia and New Zealand and were accused us of giving our horses something. We then went into the Second Test and won all of our games. Well, Zimbabwe was over the moon. By the way, this was played in Petermaritzburg (South Africa). On one side of the field were all the SA, Aussie and Kiwi spectators and the other side was nearly full of Zimbabwe supporters. I can remember one of the prizes given to Henry Harris for best player over both Tests. Henry had played a Number 1 on one weekend and a Number 3 the other and had won best Number 1 and best Number 3. So basically I would say that Henry is the best player in the world. Henry is in his 30's and is the best player in Zimbabwe.
 
About a month later we made a Presidents team to play Western Australia and am ashamed to say that we got drummed into the ground!!
 
Last year we went down to Hippo Valley, which is at the edge of Zimbabwe, for the Veterans Men and Ladies to play against SA. Well, if I am not mistaken our Ladies won and the Men lost or it may have been the other way round. I will find out and let you know.
 
Later on, we sent out U19 Boys and Girls, U16 Boys and Girls, and U14 Boys and Girls Teams to SA, but didn't do to well!! Our U19 Girls have never played an international team, so for their first time they did very well and am proud to say that they never EVER gave up. I have only watched the U19 Girls video so I can't comment on the rest, as I didn't go down south to watch. I was supposed to be playing but unfortunatly my horse had died earlier on and I didn't want to take someone elses horse down south.
 
Other than that, there wasn't much else that happened last year. We haven't started our season yet. We should be having our first tournament over the Easter weekend, at Featherstone Club. At the rate the rain is going, I am not sure whether we will because everything is so wet and it doesn't look as though it is going to slow down. We haven't even started to practice, but I suppose we should start soon.