UK shocks with their World Cup squad

The UK named their 2011 squads at the National Championship on Sunday and there were a couple of big shocks in the men's open side, as the UK prepare to try and win their first World Cup on their home turf next year. There was no place in the 8 man world cup squad for either of James Robertson or Martin Brookes but there was a first call up for Alex Richardson, Joel Sics received a call up, despite not playing since early July due to a broken leg and Jason Burbidge, the only man to play in both the last two world cups for the UK was recalled...Read More

The UKPA National Championships 2010

Kent Target claimed the A grade trophy at the UKPA Nationals, held at Rugby Polo Club, but it was Cotswolds who probably had the best tournament, claiming second in both the A grade and the B grade in their first year after fully reforming. Heavy rain stopped play early on the Saturday but matches were rescheduled for early Sunday morning and despite more rain falling, and the most of the pitches ultimately looking like ploughed fields, the Championships were completed succcessfully with a massive party on Sunday night which featured the man of the year awards....Read more

UKPA consult their members on Inter Regionals

The UKPA have this week launched a formal consultation process to their members concerning the format of the Inter regionals, scheduled to be held on the last weekend in September (the 25th and 26th). In a note to the membership the UKPA suggests two format for selection for the inter regionals, one based on players playing for the region in which their playing club is based and one based on players playing for the region in which they live....Read more

Polocrosse Extreme to become Bombers' UK Agents

Polocrosse Extreme today announced that it is to expand the commerical side of its operations by becoming the UK agent for Bombers Polocrosse Equipment. Bombers, the South African based equestrian company, has lacked a UK agent since Equiextreme stopped trading earlier this year. Polocrosse Extreme said they hoped to have landed the first lot of Bombers equipment in the UK by the Nationals this weekend and then would look to keep a constant stock to meet the demand for the equipment in the UK. They said that in the autumn they would look to set up an online shop to allow people to easily purchase equipment from them but in the meantime people could see the entire Bombers range on the Bombers own website, www.bombers.co.za

Man of the Year returns

For a number of years it was the highest prize in UK polocrosse but the Man of the Year competition has not taken part at the last few Nationals. However, this year its original organisers have promised to bring it back. Claire Morrisey said "We think the time is right to bring back the competition. Sunday night at Nationals just hasn't been the same without it, for example I haven't seen a naked man in years" (editors note: we are assuming Claire was purely referring to the viewing of naked men at the Nationals itself and not all year round). The ladies of the UKPA will be invited to nominate their selections for a range of categories and then a select judging panel will decide who wins each category on the Sunday night. Polocrosse Extreme does actually already have one Man of the Year prize, we somehow gained it when Jason Burbidge left it behind after winning in 2007 so to commerate the return of the competition we will be returning it to him at Nationals.

Zambia name their first World Cup team
by Richard "Chappers" Chapple, our man in Africa

Zambia have announced their final 8 person team for next year's world cup, being held at Bishop Burton College in the UK. Zambia named the squad after a weekend of top quality action at the Zambia high goal invitational tournament. The final 8 players who will represent Zambia at their first ever world cup are as follows...Read more

UK Pony Club Championships hailed great success

The UK Pony Club Polocrosse Championships were hailed a huge success as 135 players took part, the highest ever number and a 35% increase on 2009 (which was in itself a 30% increase on 2008). North Warwickshire defended their title in the Championship class (where teams field both a senior and a junior section), indeed both their sides made the final but the North Warwickshire Blues and Royals were crowned champions despite losing to the North Warwickshire Red Arrows in the final...Read more

Zambia and Ireland name World Cup squad

Zambia and Ireland have become the latest countries to anounce their world cup squads. In the last week Ireland confirmed that the men and ladies teams that faced the UK recently will now form their world cup squad and that from these 14 players they will select their final 8 to compete in the World Cup next July...Read more

Midland Tournament sees more success for Kent in the A grade

Kent once again claimed the A grade trophy as Midland Tournament was played out under a mixture of bright sunshine and short showers at Henley in Arden. However, overall it was once again Vale Impi's weekend as they took two wins and second place to take 46 points to help their pusuit of Kent in the league....Read more

Walkaway walk away with the prizes at home tournament

Walkaway picked up the most prizes at their home tournament in Western Australia on the 24th and 25th of July. They took the A grade, the D grade and the E grade, as well as a good selection of champion horse and best player awards....Read more

South Africa name their World Cup squad

South Africa have named the 12 players who form their world cup squad and from which they will select their final 8 players. The squad is very similar to the men's and ladies teams which toured the UK in 2009, which will probably come as something of a relief to most, as rumour had suggested that that wasn't actually their strongest teams and that they had had some better players at home who couldn't afford to make the trip over. However, that relief will only be very temporary as this is a squad packed with talent...Read more

UKPA go communication crazy!

The UKPA today went a bit communication crazy today as they released the 2010 UKPA magazine, the latest UKPA newsletter and details of a new Head of Comunications all in one day. Possibly this was cunning move to try and bury the news of their bad results against Ireland or it could just be that everything happened to be ready at this time (the second option is much more likely but we do quite like the idea of the UKPA trying to bury bad news)...Read more

Ireland come out on top after hard contest with the UK

Ireland and the UK fought out a very hard and competitive test series over the weekend of the 24th and 25th of July at Celyn Polocrosse Club, near Chester, and it was the visitors Ireland who came out on top, winning the Men's competition and seeing their Junior side defeat the UK Juniors twice. The UK ladies, however, continued their fine winning tradition by beating their Irish counterparts...Read more

Cotswold deliver a great first tournament

Cotswold Polocrosse club ran their first tournament (well, first one for the newly, fully reformed Cotswold club anyway) and it was more successful than they could have possibly hoped for. They expected entries around the 100 mark and ended up having to cap entries at 198, as with three pitches they couldn't get any more play in...Read more

Arden delivers its normal fayre of polocrosse and partying

Arden served up yet another big tournament and another big Saturday night party, though judging by the couple of errors that were made during the prize giving the organisers might have indulged a little too heavily. The weather was also kind to the polocrosse community, with sunshine for most of the two days, though heavy winds built up late on on Sunday...Read more

Australia name their World Cup Squad

The reigning world champions Australia have become the first country to name their world cup squad for the World Cup in the UK in 2011. The team which will try and defend their crown is Jodi Tiver (WA), Sandra Weston (NSW), Alison Mathie (NSW), Suzette Thomas (WA), Cameron Shepard (QLD), Will Weston (NSW), Robert Sibley (WA) and Lance Anderson (NSW)...Read more

Northern Tournament Results 2010

Polocrosse Extreme is sorry to announce it wasn't at the Northern Tournament on the 26th and 27th of June so we only have the results, not a full report. However, if an aspiring journalists want to write us one and send it in to polo-x-treme@hotmail.com we will happily publish it...Click here for the full results

Quirindi claim champion club at New South Wales Championships

Quirindi picked up the champion club accolade at 2010 NSW Club Championships, winning the Open Championship grade and a couple of other grades as well. The championships were a huge event with play being divided into 17 grades and they were hosted by Bingara polocrosse club...Read more

Vale Impi dominate at Ashfields while Kent's young guns claim the A grade

Vale Impi dominated at Ashfields with three grade wins but it was a young Kent section who claimed the biggest prize of all, the A grade. Vale Impi conquered the C grade, the D grade and the Primary Juniors with some sterling performances from some of their young players, such as Matthew Smith, Tom Bowden Eyre and Celia Price. However, it was three young players from Kent who took home the A grade...Read more

UK name squads to play Ireland

The UK today named their Open men and ladies' squad and their junior squad which will all face Ireland in a month's time at Mollington in Cheshire. The UK named a squad of 8 ladies, 9 men and 7 juniors who will all play against the Irish teams on the 24th and 25th of July...Read more

France win the 4 Nations Cup
Report by Fleur Bartels

The weekend of the 5th and 6th of June saw France claim the Four Nations Cup, at“Dop heets Del” in Kootwijkerbroek, Holland. Teams from France, Norway, Germany, Holland all played against each other in sunny Kootwijkerbroek. This competition took place to help the preparation of all four of mainland Europe polocrosse Nations, as they get ready to compete in the International Challenge, being held alonsgide the World Cup in 2011 in the UK...Read more

Highlanders and Arden are the big winners at Pennine Tournament - 5th and 6th of June

The Highlanders claimed both the A and B grades at Pennine Tournament but Arden ended the weekend with the most points as they cleaned up the 2nd and 3rd places in the lower grades. It was perhaps though a tournament mostly decided by the torrential rain which struck on Sunday morning, leading to a number of teams forfeiting games and agreeing to call games a draw...Read more

New Zealand and USA announce World Cup squads

Both New Zealand and the USA have named their squads for the 2011 Polocrosse World Cup, due to be held in July in the United Kingdom. That means of the 8 countries competing so far 3 of the countries have declared their squads, from which their final teams of 8 players will be picked. Australia declared their 16 person squad a few weeks ago and now New Zealand have named a 14 person squad and the USA a 15 person squad...Read more

Kent kicks off the UK season in style

The UK polocrosse season started at Kent target tournament on the 29th and 30th of May and it was the home club who got the best results, though the new club Canterbury Colts and Vale Impi both also managed two wins and a second place. The tournament was hit by bad weather on Saturday afternoon as the rain made pitches unplayable and matches were postponed until Sunday morning..Read more

Old footage reveal sport's sexist roots

A video of polocrosse filmed in 1947 from Australia seems to suggest that originally polocrosse was played mainly by women and that men would gather on the sidelines to watch them. Well, thank god someone put a stop to that...maybe. To watch the video in question click here. It is brought to us courtesy of British Pathe and features the wonderful line "If your wife has lost her snood I know where it is" (Editors note: we had no idea what a snood was either but apparently the official definition is a small netlike cap worn by women to keep the hair in place. We still have no idea where it might be if it is lost though!)

Ireland overcome UK in Under 21's

Ireland's Under 21's continued their winning form over their UK counterparts, winning the recent test match series in Carrickmines, Ireland on goal difference. Ireland beat the UK on their home soil last September and the UK travelled to Ireland looking for revenge...Read more

UK Polocrosse stars get engaged

UK Polocrosse stars, Greg Sargeant and Sophie Lodder, today announced that they are engaged to be married. The couple, who have been dating for several years, were swamped with congratulation messages as the engagement was revealed via Facebook. It is not known when they actually intend to get married....Read more

Full Australian World Cup Squad revealed

Just a mere week and a half after we leaked the first few names from the Australian World Cup squad we can finally reveal the full squad (the whole Polocrosse Extreme team might have gone on holiday again.....sorry!). The full squad is a fairly scary prospect as one might expect. It features the Western Australian players that we had already revealed and a large number from New South Wales as well...Read more

Australia notify their World Cup squad

The Australia Polocrosse Association have sent out letters notifying potential World Cup players as to whether they have made the World Cup 2011 squad, from which their final World Cup team will be picked. So far the only names that are known of are from Western Australia (we think that the post must be quickest in that part of Australia)...Read more

Now who said polocrosse wasn't glamorous?

Polocrosse has never really had a glamorous image. It is not associated with champagne and canapes in the same way that polo is (except by people who just assume they are the same thing), there is no divot treading between chukkas and Jilly Cooper hasn't yet written a book called "Polocrosse". However new videos from the US suggests the times they may be a-changing...Read more

Cotswold launch contender for website of the year

UK Polocrosse is rapidly becoming a battleground of flashy website. After the launch of the Canterbury Colts site comes the lastest offering from Danny Duhig, the man behind the Arden Polocrosse club website (and Daniel Duhig Design, just in case you are looking for a good graphic designer, we would employ him but we have no money!). His lastest masterpiece is both simplistic and stylistic and where the Colts went for a logo which spoke of strength and speed, Cotswold have gone for something altogether more refined. To check it out go to www.cotswoldpolocrosse.co.uk

Polocrosse Lots to help Team GBR get to WEG

The UK Polocrosse Association has contributed two polocrosse lots to the Team GBR online auction to help raise the funds necessary to send the Great Britain teams to the World Equestrian Games (WEG). They have teamed up with UK polocrosse star Jason Webb to offer a polocrosse experience day for four people and have also donated two VIP tickets to next year’s polocrosse world cup, which is being held at Bishop Burton college in the UK...Read more

Finals Day from the Australian National Championships

The fifth day of the Nutragrow Australian National Championships featured the last five finals and in the end New South Wales won three of them. They claimed the Junior Open, the Senior Mixed and the Senior Men but lost the Senior Women's final to a strong Western Australia team and the Under 21 Mixed to Queensland...Read more

NSW claim two more titles but Queensland take the Under 21 Men's Trophy off them

The sixth day of the Championships featured 10 matches but only 6 could have any effect on the who will emerge as champions of the various grades. There were three finals and three matches to decide who will feature in finals tomorrow. New South Wales featured in all three finals but ultimately could only win 2 as Queensland defeated them in the Under 21 Men final...Read more

Day 5 from the Australian National Championships

The fifth day of the Championships threatened to be an anti climax after the excitement of the Masters finals yesterday but it was not to be as the final rounds of group games started and there were some exciting and important contests...Read more

NSW win one and lose one in the Masters Finals

New South Wales were involved in both Masters finals on day 4 of the Australian National Championships at Ballarat but only managed to claim one title. They won the Masters Men against Western Australia, all be it after a poor start, but lost to Queensland in the Masters Mixed final...Read more

Day 3 from the Australian National Championships

The third day of the Nutragrow Australian National Championships at Ballarat started with the official breakfast but once everyone had eaten their fill the play started with Victoria trying to finally get their first win of the championship with their Junior Open side taking on Western Australia. The WA side is unusual amongst the Junior Open side as it is mainly made up of girls, in fact it only has one boy in it, James Lester, compared with the other sides which normally have only 1 or 2 girls...Read more

Day 2 from the Australian National Championships

The second day of the Nutragrow Australian National Championships at Ballarat got underway with the opening ceremony (many people might expect this to take part on day 1 but we can only imagine that the mayoress of Ballarat wasn't available yesterday). The opening ceremony was a very impressive site with all the players parading in their state colours. After they had assembled in orderly lines we were treated to some traditional aboriginal dances from some slightly untraditional looking aborigines... Read more

Australian National Championships get underway in Ballarat

After months of waiting and expectation the Australian National Champiopnships got underway today in Ballarat in Victoria and we were right on the scene (and now slightly sunburnt) to bring you all the results. The Nationals this year are hosted by Ballarat Polocrosse Club at their grounds just outside the city of Ballarat. The pitches (all 7 of them) look fairly immaculate and held up very well to the first days play....Read more

Anyone for some Horseplay?

We suddenly realised the other day that it has been well over a year since we saw an edition of Horseplay, Polocrosse Extreme's own newsletter. Thinking this was strange we went down to the basement to find our erstwhile colleagues who write the aforementioned publication. What we found does not bear talking about, in fact we have agreed a pact to never speak of it again. In return for our silence they promised to write a new edition as quickly as possible and here it is!

The Colts launch their website

New Zealand name squads for Sponsors tournament and Junior tour

New Zealand have announced their squads which will play against New South Wales in the Sponsors tournament on the 13th and 14th of March and also the junior squad which will go on tour to Australia in April. New Zealand have named three mixed teams who will play each other and New South Wales over the weekend of the tournament...Read more

Teams and order of play for Australian National Championships and Barastoc Interstate Challenge

With the Australian Nationals just three weeks away the complete team lists and order of play are out. There is also team news from New South Wales and Queensland for the Barastoc Inter state Challenge happening 2 weeks later at Warwick in Queensland...Read more

New Zealand clean up in New South Wales

New Zealand's Under 21's side defeated their New South Wales compatriots 4-0 in the recent test series held in New Zealand. New Zealand used to tour to start preparing a lot of their younger players for possible world cup slots in 2011 and it was down to two of New Zealand's most experienced polocrosse players, Tony Schraft and Shane Hill, to coach them...Read more

Kent bring in new Aussie for 2010

Kent Target will have a new Australian face in their ranks when the 2010 season kicks off, 21 year old Dan Rohan from Kilkivan. Dan is coming over to work alongside UK polocrosse legend Jason Webb from anything between six months and 2 years...Read more

New Zealand Junior and Intermediate Championships 2010

The NZ Intermediate and Junior Championships were held in Glenbrook on the 23rd & 24th January 2010, to read the full results click here

Zambia announce annual awards and new committee

The Zambia polocrosse association held their annual awards dinner and AGM on the 8th of January at Leopards Hill polocrosse club. The club house was decorated in black with silver stars and the evening featured a stunning musical horse light show...Read more

Guy goes global!

Guy Robertson has joined the online battle of the polocrosse heavy weights with the launch of his new website, www.robertsonhorsetraining.co.uk. The UK captain follows his UK team mate Jason Webb and the globe trotting farrier Uncle Pete into the online world. Jason has been online for a number of years while Pete only recently joined the world wide web....Read more