Queensland and NSW battled on the Tambo Polocrosse Club fields

Building on their reputation for entertaining polocrosse, the Tambo club hosted a two-game interstate series at their annual carnival on the weekend.In a result that the western Queensland crowd hoped was a pointer to the upcoming football season, the Queensland team defeated New South Wales by a four point margin on Saturday and followed up with a 21-16 win on Sunday.

Victorious team members included Warwick club member, Ryan Copeland, who has played national polocrosse in 2008, 2010 and 2012, and taken part in the 2007 UK tour and the NZ tour in 2009, Will Taylor, Frank Taylor and Ronnie Stephens from the Tara club, Matt Taylor from the Roma Club, and John Franklin from the Gold Coast.

Will and Matt are other Australian representatives, having taken part in the under 16 international contest in South Africa.

Will said it had been an honour to be selected to compete at Tambo, represented Queensland as an open player.

“I thank the organisers for making the weekend possible,” he said.

In 2017 the Tambo Club paid for the airfares for a team from the Putaruru Tirau Polocrosse Club to cross the Tasman from New Zealand’s North Island and take on challengers from around Queensland.

Both ideas, last year and this year, were done with the aim of keeping the sport alive in the west,” Tambo club president, Rachael Sargood said.

The New South Wales team playing the two games of six by six minute chukkas included Matt North from the Lake George Club and a member of the NSW under 21 ambassadors tour of the USA and the Trans-Tasman series, Brett and Cody Woodward from Inverell, Murray Scott from Galloping Gully, Sam Halsted from Quirindi, and Callum Hughes from Yass.

Murray has played for his country as well as NSW, while Brett, Cody, Sam and Callum all have state honours under their belt.

Jo McFadzen was their coach.

All players commented that it had been a great experience to represent their state in western Queensland, something they hadn’t had a chance to do before.

Alongside that was a 20-team carnival in four grades, which saw Tambo defeat Wandoan 14-12 in the A grade final.

There was an extremely close result in the B grade round robin, where the NSW combination team finished with 43 points, Tara with 42 points and the Gold Coast on 41 points.

In C grade, Bauhinia II defeated Charleville II 18-11 in the final, while the Tambo/Capella junior team gave the crowd one of the best results of the weekend, defeating Tambo II 11-10 in extra time to win the D grade final.

Consisting of Hunter and Lara French, Livia Robertson, Jett Sargood and Philip and Jessica Wilson, they were hailed as the future of the sport.

Results:

Player of the interstate series: Ryan Copeland, Queensland.
Interstate best horse: Spring Hill Pippa (Pink), Ryan Copeland.
Interstate best No 1: Ryan Copeland.
Interstate best No 2: Ronnie Stevens, Queensland.
Interstate best No 3: Murray Scott, NSW.
D grade best horse and rider: Hunter French, Tambo and Josie.
C grade best horse and rider: Michael Markham-Gaudion, Bauhinia and Wednesday.
B grade best horse and rider: John Franklin, Gold Coast and Moongamba Molly.
A grade best horse and rider: Jacob Ross, Tambo and Dennis.
Best lady player: Kylie Gould, Wandoan.
Champion horse: Summer, ridden by Sam Sargood, Tambo.
Champion horse and rider of the carnival: Sam Sargood and Summer.
Best under 21: Will Taylor, Tara.
Best junior girl: Jessica Wilson, Capella.
Best junior boy: Sam Sargood.

Article courtesy of Fairfax Digital and Queensland Country LIfe