Tansey Polocrosse Club is Riding High as it Celebrates Top Spot at Home Carnival

Tansey Polocrosse Club is cementing its reputation as one of the best polocrosse club’s in Australia as it continues to dominate State and National Polocrosse team selections, and this weekend at their home carnival was no exception.

The Club, who stepped in at short notice to hold the first carnival of the South East Zone season over the weekend, won the A Grade competition with Warwick 1 coming runners up. Tansey 4 were Runners up in B Grade and Tansey 5 Runners up in C Grade.

The carnival, originally to be hosted by Clifton Polocrosse Club who had to withdraw, was an important one on the calendar due to it being a multi horse event. This meant riders rode more than one horse over the weekend, which was vital to test how horses were going in the leadup to the Barastoc Interstate Series and Shell Cup Club Carnival to be held in Warwick from 4th to 6th May.

Tansey Club member Lisa Johnson said with the carnival being a multi horse carnival, many players used the opportunity to ride some of their younger horses as well as giving their top horses a run to sharpen them up for the Barastoc competition.

With 28 senior teams, 5 sections of junior players and 7 sun juniors talking to the field over the action packed 2 days, Tansey’s carnival made great viewing for spectators.

Tansey is a strong youth development Club so the Junior competition was a highlight of the weekend. Juniors played a round robin with sections consisting of players from Wandoan, Calliope, Stanley Rivers, Tansey, Chinchilla and the Gold Coast. The winning section was the “Bears” section of Emily Bowden, Mia Cooper and Connor Neill-Ballantine. Runners up went to the Tigers and the Beaten team award went to the Crocs.

The sub juniors, just starting out in the sport, played some exciting chukkas over the weekend and starred on the main field on Saturday responding to enthusiastic commentary.

Tansey Polocrosse Club’s dedication to training for a successful result has seen Tansey Polocrosse Club achieve representative success at a State and National level over the past few years and 2018 is no different with many Club members selected to wear Maroon or Green and Gold.

Five Club Members Trent Collins, Beth Hafey, Sydnee Johnson, Tom O’Neill and Lauren Sillitoe makeup a large part of the seven Queenslanders named in the Australian Squad to compete for a spot on the National Team for the 2019 World Cup.

Polocrosse is a fast paced team sport played on horseback. It combines the speed of polo, the strategy and tactics of netball (in terms of the field being divided in to 3 sections), the toughness of rugby and AFL and the ball handling ability of lacrosse. This unique sport originated in Australia in 1939 and is dubbed as the “King of the One Horse Sports.”

Australia is the largest polocrosse country in the World. The Polocrosse Association of Australia boasts a membership over 4,000 players nationwide spanned over 135 clubs within the 7 states and territories.

Anyone who can ride a horse can play polocrosse at an amateur/club level. The sport will help improve riding skills. Unlike polo, only one horse per player is needed, making polocrosse an affordable family sport.