2002 SEASON REVIEW

Before the playing season had even begun, Pennine had been particularly successful. Seven of our members were selected for the UK's Ladies', Men's and Under-21 squads at the end-of-season ball, which already stood us in good stead for the 2002 season.

Once again our membership has grown substantially over the last year, particularly with primary juniors and juniors which is essentially where the future of Pennine lies so this expansion was very pleasing to see.

Pennine took another step forward this year with the development of this website, dedicated to club news, reports and the odd embarrassing photograph! We have already received plenty of positive feedback from people who were previously unaware of polocrosse's existence and hopefully the increasing number of polocrosse websites available on the Internet will help to give our sport some much-needed publicity and promotion.

At the beginning of July a few of our members made the journey "down under" to the Australian Nationals in Darwin. The polocrosse was amazing and it's safe to say everyone enjoyed themselves while picking up some playing tips along the way.

Back on home turf a large number of Pennine players were selected for the Northern region's teams at this year's Inter-Regionals and the competition proved to be a good one. Our members' input to help the North win the Restricted Mixed and Intermediate as well as gaining second place in the overall competition reflected the numerous excellent training weekends Martin Brookes, Keith Mason and Penny Beaumont, our management team, had arranged for our club.

When it came round to holding our own tournament we were very lucky to have some wonderful weather, producing some fantastic polocrosse and helping everyone to enjoy the weekend, despite a few problems with the facilities. Thank you to everyone who supported us by attending our weekend at the Northern Racing College in Doncaster.

Although we weren't as successful at the Nationals as we would have liked, we did end the season on a high, winning the Juniors and Primary Juniors divisions very convincingly with the Primary Juniors notching up a total of 60 goals and only two scored against them! All of our players worked very well together in their respective teams, producing some excellent performances and consequently winning numerous Best Number awards at the final presentation. Also we were able to enter 35 players in the competition, a number that seems to increase every year.

Our members must be praised for contributions both on and off the pitch. We are lucky to have the support of non-playing members willing to help with time keeping, goal judging and scoring duties, without whom we would be unable to play. So congratulations to all Pennine members and let's hope we have an even more successful season in 2003.