Narrabri Polocrosse Carnival Report (Junior Challenge & Australian V New Zealand Test Series)

12^th, 13^th & 14^th July 2019

What a huge weekend of action packed Polocrosse at Narrabri Racecourse. Definitely our biggest and best yet.

80 teams in total, consisting of the following:

• 20 Junior Challenge Teams
• 1 Australian Junior Team
• 1 New Zealand Junior Team
• 69 Sub Junior players
• 13 Women Teams
• 33 Open Teams
• 6 Blue Bandage Players

Our Polocrosse grounds saw trucks rolling in from Wednesday morning the 10^th July onwards. Wednesday evening we had 2 teams of Western Australian Juniors fly into Tamworth along with their Coaches and Managers. North West Plains members kindly hosted & horsed these players and parents throughout the duration of Narrabri Carnival and the following weekend at Cubaroo Carnival. This was a mammoth effort from our Zone to source suitable horses for Junior players for two carnivals in a row. We cannot thank the horse owners enough, especially the ones outside of our North West Planes Zone who donated. It was greatly appreciated.

Narrabri Club hosted a meet and greet for the Western Australians, a sausage sizzle, TV for the State of Origin decider and some warm fire pits to mingle around.

Thursday saw the Australian horses get rated and split into two even pools and then the horse draw.

The Australian and New Zealand players then had an opportunity to ride and get the feel of their steeds.

We sorted the Western Australian juniors onto the best horses possible. We have had some wonderful feedback from the adults as well as the kids that they are some of the best horses they have ever sat on. This is a credit the horse owners and the kind Polocrosse community as this helps our sport grow and develop for all the right reasons

Thursday night, Narrabri members put on a welcome 2 course dinner for the Australian & New Zealand teams, all players and their families who were already on the grounds. This was a big effort from the Narrabri Club who donated food, catered and fed just under 100 people midweek. It gave all the juniors an opportunity to meet and get to know each other before they started competing against one another, this is beneficially for the sport and its players. The adults also got an opportunity to meet each other and have a few quiet beverages.

All day Friday we had a consistent line of trucks rolling into the Racecourse and the Narrabri members were running flat making sure everything was organised for our carnival to kick off. Graeme Elford (Narrabri President) was making sure lines were marked, the loos were full of toilet paper, the lights were full of fuel and shinning bright ready for the night games. Kristy Bullen (Secretary) along with Trent Mortimer (NWP’s Chief Umpire) worked alongside Ashlee Anderson getting the draw working well so the weekend ran as smoothly as possible. Samantha Ross had ladies cooking up a storm in the canteen ready for the rush at dinner and Clayton Dickinson had the drinks on ice ready to crack a cold one if you were game.

Thanks to Phil Cants generosity to the sport of Polocrosse we had Joe McInally setting up his gear to live stream the Test Matches and Junior challenge games. This was a real hit to the wider Polocrosse Community.

Wow, can you believe all this has happened and we haven’t even had a game yet. All I can say is dedication and hard work, that’s what our few Narrabri members give.

Fridays night game, this is what we had all been waiting for, Australia V New Zealand in their first test match game, this was a cracking game, all horses and players went like superstars and as planned, Australia run out winners of this game.

Play commenced at 7.30am both Saturday and Sunday with 150 games in total being played over 2 days. There were some fantastic games to be watched including the Junior Challenge games with grades from A through to D Grade, this was just in Juniors, what a tremendous effort. We also had a fantastic Women’s Comp with the Albury ladies running out winners in their A Grade division and the Albury Open team having a tight tussle with the Warwick fellas to come home with the win in A Grade Open also. It just shows this great event is pulling players from all over the Country.

As we are fortunate enough to have 9 safe playing fields and have 2 ambulances on deck we were able to have a break of games on Saturday whilst the Australians played New Zealand in their 2^nd game. It was great to see so many people show up to support and watch the game in which the Aussies run out winners again.

Throughout Saturdays play we had State Sub Junior Selectors looking a the Subbies for the 2020 Nationals as well as naming 2 teams to play each other under lights in a curtain raiser for the Aussie, NZ final match.

This is an amazing opportunity for the under 12 players who may never get to play under lights again. It gives the kids something to strive towards and we love to see the smile on their faces when they get the opportunity to play under lights. Thank you Coates Hire for the brilliant lighting towers, we couldn’t make this happen without your support. We couldn’t have made anything happen without the support from all our great sponsors.

Saturday night also saw our Sponsorship Committee organise a VIP nibbles and drinks on the hill whilst looking down on the night games. It is always nice to be able to try and give back to those who have helped make this all happen as we cannot do it without our sponsors and we thank you for you generosity in helping support our fabulous sport to grow.

Sundays final day went off with a bang, the Junior Challenge was an eye opener with the South Australian Juniors running out winners over Silver Hills. This was by far the best game of the weekend. It was truly amazing to see this team play on our fields. They had travelled so far, brining all their own horses we are so excited to see them win. Such a genuine team, genuinely happy to have the opportunity to have played at this great event and then running out winners. Congratulations to the South Australian Junior Challenge team, great effort and well deserved.

Narrabri Polocrosse Club pride themselves on promoting this great sport and we have a hard working, well organised President, Graeme Elford and Secretary Kristy Bullen at the moment who really put their heart and soul into promoting Polocrosse with new and upcoming players. Trent Mortimer is another one to mention who you may have seen not only at our carnival but all of the carnivals in our Zone help run the Blue Bandage competition. He really puts in a lot of time and effort to help our beginners enjoy their games and make sure they are learning the correct way. It’s great for the sport!!

We only have a limited number of members in our Narrabri Club and our funds are quite low due to the fact we try to give a lot of it back to the players, sponsors and grounds to improve things every year and to keep people coming back and encouraging new faces and I think we have proven this just with the different teams we attracted just from 2018 to 2019.

To be able to continue to run a huge event like this so smoothly and to continue to promote Polocrosse at this level (Australia & Nationally), we are in desperate need of more toilet & shower facilities, more fixed yards, wash down bays, better kitchen facilities. We are constantly writing applications for grants outside of Polocrosse to try and get funds in to make our life easier although we haven’t had any luck at this stage but we will not give up.

We thank you greatly for your generous support, it has helped and will helped our Club out immensely.

We hope we can continue this great relationship and we look forward to hearing more positive feedback from the carnival.