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. The videos show Florida based polocrosse players putting on a catwalk show before taking part in a charity match for the Naples Equestrian Challenge. That's right, we just wrote the words polocrosse, catwalk and Naples all in the same sentence, how much more glamour do you want! Admittedly it isn't Naples in Italy but still...

To watch the videos click on these links, Part 1 and Part 2.

Whether this new trend of combining polocrosse and glamour will continue remains to be seen. There have been other signs that the sport is going more upmarket, for example at the Australian National Championships the organisers were actively encouraging "divot treading" in order to keep the pitches in top order and a number of people did duely head out and squash divots down between chukkas. However, for some reason there is quite a big difference between watching an Australian stomping divots complete with beer in hand and a society girl in high heels gently treading divots at the polo while sipping on champagne. There have also been more and more white picket fences around marquees at polocrosse events in recent years (we have personally counted 6) and the Zim Open is a no holds barred extravangaza with corporate marquees and players changing hands for thousands of dollars.

So all in all we think the sport does seem to be softening its image a bit and becoming a bit more aware of its need to appeal to sponsors, which can only be a good thing. However, let's hope it doesn't go too far down the polo route, after all regardless of whether you are sipping champagne or a bundy and coke, you should still actually watch what is going on on the pitch, it is a lot more exciting than the inside of any corporate marquee.