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South
Midlands
Polocrosse Tournament – August 29th & 30th 2009
Report
by Jodi Tiver
South Midlands club held the
first tournament within the central zone for the 2009 WA
season and with 42 teams nominated it was certainly going
to be a big weekend! The weather didn’t look all that
favourable on Friday with trucks rolling in before lunchtime,
but it had cleared by Saturday morning which dawned very
cold and frosty. The excitement had actually started before
the teams had even taken the field with the host club’s
captain Ben Thomas and wife Suzette Thomas (recent Australian
captain) welcoming their very first child, a baby girl,
on the Friday night! This did throw a little spanner in
the works for the South Midlands A Grade with Ben being
one of the strongest players, but Suz, ever the good polocrosse
wife, gave Ben a leave pass and he arrived just in time
for their afternoon game against the Walkaway team. Jeff
Martin was back from injury for them and doubled up for
their first game in the morning.
Walkaway, although missing
one of their strongest players in Trent Cooper, did provide
one of the upsets for the weekend rolling the South Midlands
Team on Saturday. They also had another good win against
Foothills in the morning and the strong and well horsed
Perth team also went through undefeated. With 5 teams this
set up a big clash between Perth and South Midlands Sunday
morning with Souths needing the win to still be in contention
and they pulled it off after a slow start against a flat
looking Perth team. This put a real spin on the afternoon
game between Walkway and Perth!! If Walkaway were to win
they would take the cup but if Perth won it would all go
down to goal count between Souths, Perth and Walkway who
all would have 3 wins on the board each after South Midlands
got some runs on the board against Foothills that afternoon.
The so called ‘final’
provided some fantastic fast action and skilful polocrosse
and with PJ Hall changing to a 3 and finally finding some
form after a few quiet games in the number 2 spot, their
chukka of Rob Sibley, Matt Welsh and PJ kicked away from
the Walkway team throwing a big 7-0 chukka in the 5th. But
unfortunately this wasn’t enough to secure them the
6 goal win they needed to take the trophy and South Midlands
ran out the eventual winners on goal count. Not a great
way to win, but it was a win for the blue and reds all the
same!
There was also some great
polocrosse played in the B Grade which had a massive 7 teams
in the mix! With Moony and Greenough not being able to field
an A Grade due to some absent players and Walkway fielding
2 teams they were certainly some of the favourites. The
mix of young and old players for the Foothills club were
also doing some damage and after some very close games including
the final which ended in a draw due to a very unfortunate
accident they were the winners!!
Well done to the South Midlands
club on a great weekend and good to see so many teams and
good polocrosse played throughout the weekend.
RESULTS
A
Grade
South Midlands won on goal count (Perth
runners up)
South Midlands Team: BJ Thomas, Jeff
Martin, Ben Thomas, Adrian Cobley, Bruce Smith & Scott
Gurney
Perth Team: Robert Sibley, PJ Hall,
Matt Welsh, Jason Stowe, Sharna Hall & Michael Semmens
Champion A Grade Horse: ‘Spider’
ridden by Ben Thomas and Jeff Martin (2 games each)
B
Grade
Foothills won on goal count (Moonyoonooka
runners up)
Foothills Team: Chris Corbett, Sandy
Corbett, Greg Rodwell, Graham Tiver, Mick Rynne & Julie
Bolingbroke
Moonyoonooka Team: John Clohessy, Perry
Cusack, Pete Howden, Alana Clohessy, Trish Jones & Vanessa
Freeman
Champion B Grade Horse: ‘Boo’
ridden by Alana Clohessy
*Sincere commiserations on behalf of
the Polocrosse Association of WA to John and Alana for the
loss of this wonderful horse.
C
Grade
Foothills d Irwin
Foothills Team: James Mathwin, Holly
Ludeman, Tom Mathwin, Paul Corbett, Mick Mathwin & Steve
McMurray
Champion C Grade Horse: ‘Scooby’
ridden by Rachael Cobley
C
Grade Mixed
Perth d South Midlands
Champion C Grade Mixed Horse: ‘Edenhope
Elphin’ ridden by James Lester
D Grade
Walkaway d Kojonup
Champion D Grade Horse: ‘Caesar’
ridden by Megan Keightley
E
Grade
Walkaway d Foothills
Champion E Grade Horse: ‘JB’
ridden by Jess Pulia
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