August Newsletter

From the President

Qld Polocrosse celebrated at the Chinchilla carnival with the announcement that 5 players had been selected to represent Australia at the world cup in South Africa. Congratulations to Beth Hafey, Lindsey Doolan, Sam Allen, Matt Davison and Tom O'Neil. QLD polocrosse will be supporting these players to achieve their dreams to play at the highest level.

Congratulations to the Chinchilla club for a great warm up carnival for next year’s National Championships. The grounds looked a picture, the fields played well and John Mullins and Murray Sturgess showed they have the team to run a big event.

The Chinchilla and Warwick carnivals have shown that the QLD club competition is the strongest in the world hosting a great depth of teams in both Men’s and Women’s competitions.

Qld has experienced its first normal Polocrosse season since the advent of Covid and it is great to see players returning to enjoy our great sport. We look forward to the State championships at Cunningham with 68 teams nominated which will mean a hectic weekend to complete the carnival in two days. This year’s two day championship follows comment that we were stretching the carnival out and restricting players from attending who could not take the extra time off.

Next year’s Championships have been allocated to the Tansey club who will host the carnival at their renovated grounds following funding from the State Government flood recovery program.

I am saddened to report that we have had to discipline two players recently with suspension for Umpire abuse. Can I remind players that it is important to be civil in all communication with any official. On the field the captain may ask for an explanation of any decision from the umpire who should give a brief response. Respect from both parties is all important.

As the season draws to a close can I remind players to look after their horses on and off the field. We are under scrutiny as a sport to ensure that our playing partners are not abused and this means careful use of whips and spurs and good care off the field.

Mike Williams

World Cup 2024 Team Announcement

Congratulations to all players selected to play in South Africa next year but an extra special congratulations to the 5 Queensland players selected.  The whole state will be behind you!!!

Women's Committee Report

Each year Queensland Polocrosse holds a women’s competition where players of any ability level can nominate as an individual and then be placed into teams using their gradings as a guide. The weekend provides an opportunity to play with different women, receive coaching and mentoring as well as listening to guest speakers and enjoying the awesome social aspect our sport provides! The focus of this weekend is the development of women in our sport and encouraging a positive culture throughout all levels of the game. 

This year the Toowoomba club hosted the competition and were crucial in ensuring the weekend was a great success. There were 17 teams of women across 3 grades, with each team having a coach/player within their team. This provided a great opportunity for coaching and giving direction during the game. A heartfelt thank you goes out to all the women that doubled up to ensure each team received the coaching they needed as well as the Toowoomba ladies that went above and beyond to make the Saturday night function space so beautiful.

We held a forum at our Saturday night function and received some valuable feedback on the concept of the competition in the hopes to build it to be bigger and better each year. We also were privileged to have two fantastic guest speakers: Gemma Etheridge and Salli Galvin. Both Australian representatives, they provided a wealth of knowledge not only from the sporting field but life coaching and how to overcome adversity. Each attendee received a copy of Salli’s book and a QPA Women’s Competition cap. Please wear these with pride and tell your friends what an awesome experience you had!

Sydnee Johnson - Director of Women's Committee

QLD Zone Titles - Tara

The cold weather forecast over Tara for the 2023 QLD Zone championships didn’t put a damper on the spectacular event held.

Friday starting with a junior coaching clinic, which all the kids coming from far & wide enjoyed.

Saturday began with some exciting polocrosse from Masters down the sub-Juniors & Sunday we witnessed the battle of the zones finals, results are:

Thanks Amanda for the photos 📸

A Grade Men        

South East 1 - Winners

Leichardt 1 - Runners UP

Best H & R Colten Preston                                                                                                                                      

B grade men 

South East 3  - Winners

Leichhardt 2 - Runners up

Best H&R Jordon Perkins

C grade men

South East 4 - Winners

CW combined  - Runners Up

Best H&R Richard Eton

D grade men

South East 5  - Winners

Leichhardt 5 - Runners Up

Best H&R Tim Mitchell 

A Grade Women 

South East 1  - Winners

Leichhardt 1 - Runners Up

Best H&R Emma Piltz

B grade women 

South East 3 - Winners

Leichhardt 3 - Runners Up

Best H&R Sophie Wells

Beaten Teams

Combined women’s

A grade Masters

South East 1 - Winners

Leichhardt 1 - Runners UP

Best H&R Jacko bowling 

B grade masters

South East 2 - Winners 

Leichhardt 3  - Runners UP

Best H&R Clay Colless

Intermediate 

Leichhardt 1  - Winners

South East 1 - Runners UP

Best H & R Maddy Shaw

A Grade Juniors 

Leichhardt 1 - Winners

South East 1 - Runners UP

Best H&R Tom Breadhauer

B grade juniors 

South East 2 - Winners

Leichhardt 2 - Runners UP

Best H&R Marcus Sykes

C grade juniors 

South East 4 - Winners

South East 5 - Runners UP

Best H&R Courtney Landrigan

🌟ASH award winners 🌟

✨Junior Boy - Watchirs Charm ridden by Drew Sturgess - Service Fee to Haydon Siesta

✨Junior Girl - Sailor Moon ridden by Charli Austin - Service Fee to Haleycreek Sunny Mac

✨Intermediate Boy - Noonamah Redraw ridden by Hudson Ward - Service Fee to Taylormade One Moon 

✨Intermediate Girl - JH Quill ridden by Emily Bowden - Service Fee to Neirbo Django 

✨Open Women - Steptovictory Jivetime ridden by Emma Piltz - Service Fee to Hylux Bollinger 

✨Open Men’s - Rosses Dennis  ridden by Jacob Ross - Service Fee to Doolanpartnership Espresso 

✨Masters Men - Roseneath Diaz ridden by Paul McGrath - Service Fee to Berragoon Truce 

✨Masters Women - Chesapeake sniper by Libby Dummett - Service Fee to Tregarthan Currawong

Thank you to our stallion donors

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 9

Next

Toowoomba Carnival

The Toowoomba Polocrosse Club would like to thank all the competitors and spectators that attended our annual carnival. Our committee certainly felt the support for our small club from the polocrosse community.

Thanks to sponsorship from Aon Insurance the club was able to invite Gemma Etheridge, a gold medal winner at the 2016 Olympics in the Rugby 7’s as the first guest speaker for the Women’s QPA night. This was followed by Salli Galvin discussing what representing Australia in Polocrosse meant for her. Special thanks go to Sydnee Johnson who organized the QPA Women’s competition. The structure of having A grade women play with and coach the lower grades is what these Women’s competitions are all about. A massive shout-out goes to those lovely players that had to double-up all weekend, coaching and supporting their other team. 

Our grounds are continuing to have improvements due to successful grants and our local Toowoomba Regional Council. We are hoping that 2024 brings in underground power and a new ablution block.

Charleville Carnival

2023 consisted of many fun filled polocrosse weekends for our club members once again! Our new grounds set up got its debut in June for our carnival, the new field placements were a hit and the canteen was the busiest we’ve had yet with the first customer being the man the myth the legend 'Streety'! This year has been a cracker once again with our club attending a total of 14 carnivals across the state this year, with multiple awards won. Congratulations all on a such a successful season, see you all in the new year! 

Pyramid Club Report

2023 started off with hosting out annual Come & Try Day.  Yet again this was a successful event and we are happy to say we had 4 new juniors sign up to our sport shortly after.  It's great to see the club growing numbers outside of our existing polocrosse community.  The girls and their trusty steeds have come along in leaps and bounds. Their giggles heard from the field having a hoot of a time makes these Come & Try Days worth it.

The season for some started early when twins Hannah & Dallas Cook were selected in the Qld Mixed Junior Team at the Albury Junior Classics.  The family became the Polocrosse Nomads, turning up at carnivals in the SE corner sometimes joined by fellow player Gail Bradshaw.  Chinchilla, Killarney, Warwick, Roma.   You never knew where they would pop up.

We attended the FNZ Coaching Clinic run by Matt & Sydnee Johnson.  We look forward to these clinics every year, picking their brains on play positioning or horsemanship advice.  

Pyramid had 1 senior and 5 juniors from our club represent FNQ at the QPA Zone Titles in Tara, another opportunity for our juniors to partake in a coaching clinic.

Our 1^st home carnival was held back in June and although numbers are generally low we have a lot of local/ex members that come out of the woodwork to play.  Unfortunately our major carnival Norweld Cup held in August was cancelled due to higher than predicted rainfall.  As players had already made their way to our grounds, we turned the weekend into a FNZ Coaching/Practise Day.  It was heartbreaking to call the carnival off but we can't thank everyone enough who stuck around and still made it an enjoyable weekend.  

After we packed up our clubhouse, two days later it was time for us to pack again this time to Chinchilla!  We sure love travelling.    We took 5 kids down to compete in the Juniors Competition mixing it with players their own age.  

We have one more carnival before we can turn out our horses.  We look forward to doing it all again next year.

Photo 1

New crop of juniors that signed up 

Photo 2

Hannah & Dallas Cook - Albury Junior Classics

Roma Carnival

Emerald Carnival

Emerald's results 2023

A GradeWinners - Tansey

Runners up - Tambo

Fairest Male on the field - Blake Wells

Fairest Female on the field - Lynda Booth

B GradeWinners - All Sorts

Runners up - St Lawrence/Nebo

Fairest Male on the field - Mick Fitzgerald

Fairest Female on the field - Teagan Carr

C GradeWinners - Emerald/Bauhinia

Runners up - Calliope

Fairest Male on the field - Nick Wriede

Toompine Carnival

Tambo Carnival

TAMBO POLOCROSSE CELEBRATES 60 YEARS

On 13 & 14 May, 2023, Tambo Polocrosse Club celebrated 60 years of playing polocrosse and what a celebratory carnival was had, the weekend was action-packed with continual entertainment both on and off the field.

On Friday night of the Carnival, a 60-year anniversary Cocktail Party was held on our brand new lawned area and club shed.  It was a spectacular night, with 120 adults attending to celebrate the occasion.  The theme was ‘A splash of red’, which then saw everyone dressed in some form of red attire to replicate the successful colour of the mighty Tambo Club.  We had the Jedburgh Gin Bar, a memorabilia table and guest speakers to reflect on the past.  It truly was a wonderful celebration.

After receiving 15mm of rain overnight, a decision was made to start play later in the day for safety reasons.

We started with the Drensmaine Old Dogs taking on the Nutrien Young Dogs competition.  A competition that fields players from all over Queensland to take part in a two-game competition and the winner takes all!  The Old Dogs were given a 2-goal head start but the Youngs Dogs proved to be too strong for them on day 1.

We were lucky enough to secure Doug Dodds as our commentator for the weekend and doesn’t he bring some entertainment to a game of polocrosse.  A big thank you to Doug for the efforts that he puts into the job for the weekend.  Not only does he commentate the games, he MC’ed the Cocktail Party, auctioneered on Saturday night and commentated the Novelty Race!  A truly talented man with a microphone.

15 teams took to the fields to compete throughout Saturday afternoon and Sunday.  Clubs came from Pyramid, Roma, Tara, Chinchilla, Charleville, Longreach, Wandoan, Warwick and we even had a player attend from Albury, NSW.  Of the 15 teams, Tambo were able to field 5 teams!  Of this, 4 teams were present players and then we had a ‘Comebacks Team’ which was made up of past Tambo players. 

Saturday afternoon after play saw the return of the Novelty Race, which is an on-foot relay-style race of 2 people from each team who compete in a novelty race to take out the cash!  This year was again won by Cameron Tickel & Hilary Ballinger from Charleville.  Such a fun afternoon for all players and spectators to relax and enjoy some wholesome entertainment.

Saturday night was a scrumptious dinner provided by our caterer, Cindy Holmes and an auction to raise some funds for our club.  We auctioned halters made by MG, stallion service fee for Sargood’s Buzz, homemade quilt made by Mary McLellan, a breeding package from Beef Breeder Services and a wire hat sculpture made by Netta Robertson.  All of these auction items are kindly donated, so thank you very much!

Sunday was a spectacular display of polocrosse as teams fought out all competitions from A Grade through to D Grade as well 12 mini juniors battling it out all in the name of fun!

The Drensmaine Old Dogs again played the Nutrien Young Dogs, this time with a 4-goal head start, however, the Young Dogs were just too strong, coming out victors of their competition.

Sunday afternoon, in front of a strong local crowd saw Tambo 1 take out the A Grade competition against Chinchilla 1.  Tambo were elated to win the Bob Sargood Memorial Cup at their 60-year anniversary.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Thank you to our major sponsors of our club, being Brian & Tenille Philp from 3 Rivers Helicopters and Robyn Sargood from Sargood Enterprises, Manresa.  Your continued sponsorship is appreciated by all.

Thank you also to our Gold Sponsors.  Matt & Punch Sargood from Drensmaine Santa Gertrudis and Nutrien, Charleville & Tambo.  Your support is truly appreciated.

Thank you to our Silver sponsors – Lloyd Family, Crown Cattle Co, AP & TM Johnson, Clayton’s Organics, Gerard Johnson Transport, Wellwater Pastoral Co & Beef Breeding Services.

Thank you to our Bronze sponsors – AML Photography, Halton Station, TopX, Longreach, Auswest Brokers, Peter & Mary McLellan, Lindsay & Gill Russell, Scobie Saddlery, Allied Beef, Pullos Family, The Bush Store, Martins Stock Haulage, Elders, Longreach, Greendale Cattle Co, Matta Mia Arabian Stud, MG & Christie Edwards.

The support that our club receives each and every year from our sponsors is absolutely amazing!

WINNERS OF THE CARNIVAL

Winners Old Dog/Young Dog  – Nutrien Young Dogs (Lindsay Doolan, Aaron Mullins, Will Taylor)

Best Player Old Dog/Young Dog  – Will Taylor, Tara

A Grade Bob Sargood Memorial Winners  – Tambo 1

A Grade Bob Sargood Memorial Runner up  – Chinchilla 1

B Grade Beef Breeding Services Winners  – Tara, Wandoan, Gold Coast, Toompine team

B Grade Gerard Johnson Transport Runner up  – Roma 1

C Grade Topx, Longreach Winners – Chinchilla, Albury, Wandoan, Roma team

C Grade Lindsay & Gill Russell Runner up  – Charleville 1

D Grade Auswest Brokers Winners  – Pyramid 1

D Grade Scobie Saddlery Runner up  – Tambo 4

Tambo Foodworks Subjuniors

INDIVIDUAL AWARD WINNERS OF THE CARNIVAL

3RH Champion Horse & Rider of the Carnival – Sam Sargood & Kunderang Martini - Tambo

Allied Beef Champion Horse of the Carnival – Michael MG’s ‘Vixen’ - Tambo

Crown Cattle Champion Lady Player of the Carnival – Lindsay Doolan- Chinchilla

AP & TM Johnson B Grade Best & Fairest Player – Jack McCammy - Wandoan

Lloyd Family C Grade Best & Fairest Player – Gordon Moloney - Wandoan

The Bush Store D Grade Best & Fairest Player – Kelly Sturgess - Chinchilla

Clatyton’s Organic Beef Best Under 21 Player – Sam Sargood - Tambo

Herb Bredhauer Encouragement Award – Dallas Cook, Pyramid

Mayne Family Encouragement Award – Hannah Cook, Pyramid

Halton Station Best Junior Boy – Liam Taylor, Roma

Halton Station Best Junior Girl – Lara French, Tambo

Photo Credit AML Photography

My New Gallery

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 10

Next

Quilpie Carnival

Thargomindah Carnival

Eulo Carnival

Goondiwindi Carnival

The 2023 Goondiwindi Polocrosse Carnival held at the Goondiwindi Showgrounds 15th and 16th July was a success with a great turnout of 36 teams from across QLD and NSW.
Goondiwindi Club proudly fielded two teams for the weekend. Our Goondiwindi 1 Team came home winners in the D Grade with Cunningham runners up. Our Goondiwindi 2 Team didn’t come home with the win but had a competitive weekend in their grade.
Congratulations to our individual prize winners Asha Smith D Grade Best Horse and Rider, Michelle Sleeth G Grade Best Horse and Rider and Alysha Forrest who was awarded the Goondiwindi Local Player Award.
The excitement wasn’t limited to the field as Saturday night saw an auction to raise funds for a much-needed toilet block at the bar. Thank you to all who supported this! We are looking forward to doing away with the porta-loos!
The highlight of the evening was the themed event, “I Can’t Believe You Wore That to The Bar!” where participants vied for the best-dressed title. In a bold outfit, Stoff Franklin from Gold Coast Club daringly donned Warwick Club Colours, resulting in a crowd voted win. For videos of the entrants on the catwalk, check out our Facebook page!

We are so grateful to have the support of our Sponsors and the Goondiwindi community, who make this weekend possible.
Thank you to all who came to our 2023 carnival, we wish everyone the best for the rest of the season!

Photo Credits: 

Goondiwindi Region & Uma Vanderwaal

Bauhinia Club Report

Bauhinia Polocrosse Club held their annual carnival on the 16^th & 17^th of July 2023 with no rain in sight this time, unlike last year which was unfortunately a washout! The weather behaved itself for the occasion and it was nice & sunny. Even though team numbers where low, players came from Wandoan, Alton Downs, Tansey, Capella, St/Lawerence Nebo, Gold Coast, Tara, Emerald & Roma to join in for the weekend. We even had some past, playing members participate in the Bauhinia side for the carnival which was great to watch from a local’s perspective!

The Bauhinia State School P&C served up some delicious food in the canteen for the event and we would like to thank them for their catering. We would like to also express our sincere gratitude to all our sponsors new & old that helped support our annual event; with them our carnival would not be possible. Play started at 9am on Saturday and was completed by 2pm on Sunday with some hard yakka polocrosse played.

The Tansey combined side ended up the victors over Wandoan in the A grade final with Best Male Player going to Grant Wells from Tansey. Other results included the “B” Grade competition which was won by the Tara/Bauhinia team with runners-up being Wandoan 2. Best player went to Storm Gould for this grade. Roma conquered the ‘’C’’ grade over Emerald and Lynda Booth won best player. Individual awards presented for the weekend were Best Lady Player going to Amanda Moore, Best Bauhinia Player won by Penny Kelly, Best Junior player given to Storm Gould, Best Master player was awarded to Jacko Bowling & Best Horse of Carnival bestowed upon Greg Wells’s “Berragoon Tex”. Dandarbong Pastoral sponsored the ASH awards again this year; these were given to Frank Taylor for his horse “Taylormade Moonlight”, Lynda Booth’s horse “Taylormade Shimmer”and “Circle Y Carnivarly” riden by Storm Gould took out Best Junior ASH. Overall the weekend would be called a successful time that was enjoyed by all!

Images – A Grade winners (combo team), Best Junior – Storm Gould, C Grade Winners Roma, B Grade Winners Tara/Bauhinia, Best Male Player – Grant Wells & a picture of some old bauhinia members enjoying the weekend

Stanley Rivers

STANLEY RIVERS POLOCROSSE CARNIVAL 2023

CARNIVAL RESULTS

• CHAMPAGNE CUP A GRADE
• Winners Tansey 1
• Runners Up Warwick 1
• B GRADE
• Winners Gold Coast 2
• Runners Up Tansey 4
• C GRADE
• Winners Gold Coast 3
• Runners Up Warwick 2
• D GRADE
• Winners Cunningham 1
• Runners Up Stanley Rivers 1
• E GRADE
• Winners Cunningham 4
• Runners Up Warwick 4
• F GRADE
• Winners Gold Coast 5
• Runners Up Toowoomba

JUNIORS

• Winners               Tansey
• Runners Up        Warwick / Tara
• B Team                Gold Coast
• BOB NICHOLS MEMORIAL TROPHY. Best player in the junior competition
• Ella O’Leary
• PATRONS TROPHY. Best under 21 lady player.
• Beth Shepherd
• PATRONS TROPHY. Best lady player.
• Laura Hafey