PENNINE MEMBERS RETURN FROM AUSTRALIAN NATIONALS

The Australian Polocrosse Championships finished just over a week ago and produced some amazingly close finals, which was fantastic for us spectators.

Eight members of Pennine made the long journey to Fred’s Pass reserve near Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory to witness the 2002 Nationals. Dave Brookes, Mike Goodfellow (who, as UKPA Chairman and Secretary, respectively, represented the UK at the competition and the IPC meeting that followed), Dawn Goodfellow, Sue Brookes, Ellen Brookes, Nerys Cross, Anna Robertson and yours truly (Lindsey Maclean) braved the 30-degree heat to watch some of the best polocrosse in the world today.

The opening ceremony itself (above) was pretty spectacular. Players for the different states dressed up in their blazers for the on-foot parade and were led in the procession by a large army tank. The Australian flag was then raised and followed by some didgeridoo playing to represent the culture of the host state, the Northern Territory.

The following day, Thursday 4th July, saw the Nationals get underway after a mounted parade in the morning. The levels of play were fantastic in every division of the competition and the horses were amazing, further emphasising the Australian’s impressive horsemanship skills. After much discussion it was decided we all would have been more than happy to take any of the horses at the competition home with us!

The following three days saw even more excellent polocrosse, culminating in the finals of each division on the Sunday. Every match was nail-bitingly close, with most teams only separated by a goal or two and the Men’s Open final was so close it had to be decided by a fantastic golden goal. Western Australia won that particular division, as well as the Junior Open, Intermediate Women and Open Women, making it a very successful Nationals for the state. It was great to see the supporters get behind their states, especially WA who gathered behind the goals to form a yellow and black tunnel for the players to walk through to meet the opposition on the pitch (below), not to mention the acrobatics displays between chukkas!

The evening entertainment was also good, including live crocodile racing, karaoke, live bands and discos. Us Pennine members made sure we enjoyed ourselves and got quite a taste for Bundaburg Rum!! There was plenty of dancing and even singing, with Mr Goodfellow doing a wonderful rendition of DJ Otzi’s Hey Baby, putting plenty of effort into the “Ooh, aah” part!! The song will never be the same again – which can only be a good thing!

On the other hand, Mrs Goodfellow preferred to concentrate on some funky dance moves (maybe to go with Mike’s singing!) and attempted to Fosbury flop over a fence, claiming it was a “short cut” back to our camp. If anyone sees Dawn at the Inter-Regionals, have a look at her legs to find out how successful her fence climbing was!! Unfortunately though, Dawn and Mike's partying ways occasionally caught up with them!!

Needless to say, we all had a fantastic time joining in the fun and watching polocrosse. It was great to catch up with people, including Chris Robinson, who played for Pennine in 1999 and Salli Lyster who played for us a couple of years before that. We all met new people and everyone had a soft spot for 2-year-old Jessie Grimmond (Jamie’s son and Kenny’s nephew) who is possibly the cutest child ever and his stick work already shows he’ll be a force to be reckoned with!

The polocrosse played throughout the 2002 Nationals was just a taste of what can be expected at next year’s World Cup so it’ll no doubt be worth the 24-hour journey to Australia in 2003.