Koala Park win the Zim Open

The Zim Open, probably the most extravagant polocrosse event in the world, was won by the Koala Park team, a team packed with Australian and New Zealand talent. The Zim Open is held every year in Zimbabwe and attracts a great deal of corporate sponsorship. The sponsors this year included Millers, Renaissance Capital, Tanzi, Progroup, Koala Park and High Voltage. The Zimbabwe polocrosse association use the event to raise funds to support their international teams, this year the aim being to raise funds for the 2011 world cup team.

The Zimbabweans invite polocrosse players from around the world to come and compete in the tournament and each team is owned by a sponsor. The main source of fundraising comes from the fact that some of the invited players are wildcard players and before the tournament starts each team buys one of them. This year the most expensive wildcard was Lance Anderson of Australia, who went to Koala Park for a massive $11,000.

The competition is split into two grades, an A and B grade with four teams in each. In the A grade Koala Park beat Capicol (a team consisting mainly of South Africans, plus the UK's Greg Sargeant) in the final. Mikey Krynaw of Zimbabwe won champion Male player and Best No.1, the Australian Beau Moore won Best 2 and the vastly experienced Shane Hill of New Zealand won best No.3.

All the teams initially played each other in a round robin and then the top two teams played in the final. Three teams were equal on points after the group stage so it went to goal difference and it was the Renaisance team which lost out by 1 goal, Jason Webb of the UK was in that team but he found some consolation in picking up the award for the best player on a loaned horse.

In the B Grade it was a largely South African affair as the High Voltage team defeated the all lady team of Tanzi in the final. Tanzi did pick up best No. 1 and No.3 for Kelly Radford and Celica Jacobs while High Voltage's Steven Kane picked up best number 2.