By Casey OÇonnor
Morgan Park has been rated among the best Polocrosse grounds in the world by one of Australia’s leading exponents of the game at the weekend while the site played host to Australia’s decisive 3-0 men’s test win against the rest of the world.
The Rest of The World Test series, hosted by Polocrosse Australia in conjunction with the Warwick Polocrosse Club, drew the best Polocrosse players from South Africa Zimbabwe, Zamba USA , and New Zealand.
They played a Men’s and Women’s Test series against the Australians. Twenty-eight international players made the trip to play in the series which is the first time the International series has been played since 1988.
Les Fraser, one of the driving forces in Australian and particularly Queensland Polocrosse for many years, was on-hand to oversee the events.
Fraser was part of the most recent ROW series, played in Chinchilla.
He said he was delighted to see the return of the format and the response from international, national, local and state players to the weekend of competition at Morgan Park rating the facility among the best Polocrosse venues, if not the best in the world.
“Six hundred players and 850 horses took part across three days of competition which began on Friday and ran through Friday night, Saturday, Saturday evening and wrapped up with the finals on Sunday,” he said.
“The evening events prove more popular each year and the games on Saturday night drew a very big crowd. The atmosphere was simply electric” he said.
The Australian Men made a clean sweep in the Rest of the World Test series winning all three of their games. They won their first game 35-20. Their second 30-23 and wrapped up the final 34-23.
Despite the scores, especially in the final chukka of the third and final game on Sunday the competition was very tough. Not entirely unexpected when you bring together the best exponents of the game in the World.
Running in tandem with the ROW Tests was the annual The State of Origin Barastoc Interstate Series.
Fraser said organisers had introduced a 21-26 year division for both men and women in the Barastoc Series which takes the comepitition to nine divisions.
“The standard of Polocrosse across the board was outstanding throughout the weekend. “Australia leads the way in Polocrosse across the world and that was very evident by the standard of competition from International to State and Club level,” he said.
Horses and riders came from Western Australia, Victoria, NSW and Queensland for the Barastoc Series. The series providers an opportunity to play at state level annually. The National championships are only only held every two years .
In the Barastoc Horse Open Women final it was a win for the Maroons with Queensland defeating NSW 24 – 15. The Queensland Open Men’s team added to the maroon magic with a 23-18 win over Victoria.
The prestigious Shell Cup Club competition saw teams 60 teams from as far south as Victoria and north to Rockhampton playing.
In the Shell Cup Club Championship Final the home team Warwick defeated Tansey. The score 20-14.
Attention now turns to the annual Rosebowl series which will be played at Morgan Park on the 20 and 21 August.
Results
Abbott Grills was named Player of the Series.
Champion Horse of the Series – Turnbulls Lady Gaga, owned by Katie Peeck. Lady Gaga was in the Australian pool of horses.
Champion Australian Stock Horse of the Series – Berragoon Ida, owned by Michael & Maz Glasser. Ida was in the Australian pool of horses.
First Test Series >
Carroll Truck Sales Player of the Match – Abbott Grills.
Rosebrook ASH Stud Horse of the Match – Turnbulls Lady Gaga, owned by Katie Peeck.
Second Test Series >
Carroll Truck Sales Player of the Match – Jim Grills.
Rosebrook ASH Horse of the Match – Berragoon Poem, owned by Berragoon ASH Stud.
Third Test Series >
Carroll Truck Sales Player of The Match – Will Weston.
Rosebrook ASH Horse of the Match – Turnbulls Lady Gaga, owned by Katie Peeck.
Carroll Truck Sales Queensland
Rosebrook ASH Stud
The Australian Stock Horse Society
