By Tania Phillips
Five Southern Downs and Granite Belt riders will head to Chinchilla next week for the Australian National Polocrosse titles.
The five include Warwick siblings Madeline Gleeson, Annabel Gleeson, Ted Gleeson and Qld women’s masters teammates Stanthorpe’s Melissa Kerr and Warwick’s Anita Shepherd.
The event from 24-30 June will include the cream of Australian polo crosse competitors from across age groups and divisions.
Held annually the event is being hosted by Queensland this year with several lead up events held in recent weeks including the Barastoc Cup held in the Southern Downs.
For Anita Shepherd and Melissa Kerr it marks a return to State teams and for Shepherd it’s a chance to help Queensland seek revenge over their NSW rivals who beat them at the Barastoc Cup recently. Kerr, who was out due to other commitments will strengthen the ranks even more as the team takes on Qld and a third team assembled from players from around Australia.
For Shepherd playing polo crosse was almost inevitable.
“I’ve been riding since I was nine years old,” Shepherd explained.
“I started in eventing and showjumping, coming up through pony club at Ashmore on the Gold Coast.
“My family the Franklins and my late aunty Angie they got me involved, that’s how I started with Gold Coast and pretty much I owe everything to Warwick Polocrosse club and my husband Cameron as well. He’s played for Australia but he’s had back surgery so I’ve got his horse. It’s really nice I got to compete on his horse Charlie. We named him Charlie after local Polocrosse stalwart Les Fraser who bred the horse. He’s a pretty good horse, he’s won Cameron some prizes.”
She said it was her third run in the Qld team, competing in three Barastoc Cups for Qld. The last two in a row.
“It’s great to have two of us in the team together,” Shepherd said.
“I’ve played with Melissa in teams before at zone level, pretty much all the girls in our team know each other really well.
“I made my first nationals at 40, ten years ago and so glad I’m actually 50 and ten years later I’ve got another go at Nationals.”
She said horses played a big role in how well a rider goes in a polocrosse game.
“It’s a partnership, it’s everything really, without a good horse. This will be Charlie’s first time playing for Queensland because Cameron has only had him for three years and he’s just trained, he’s only been playing for three years. I get to ride him first for Queensland – I’ve teased Cameron a little bit about that.”
Both players said NSW were very dominant but the Queensland team has been playing pretty well.
“We were excited at the Barastoc, out of three games we won the first game by two, we had a bit of a bad game and they beat us by seven and they only beat us by one in the final game,” she said.
“We’re going to Chinchilla, to do better – to win it because we were nearly there.”
Melissa Kerr said while they don’t have every state in their division would still be hard fought.
“We don’t have every state but the Polocrosse Australia Association has put a team together which is made up of a group of people from around Australia, a lady from Tasmania is even in the team,” she said.
“Having three teams makes it more competitive. It depends on the year too. Sometimes the competition is a lot and some years it’s not, it’ just depends.”
While Kerr has been playing Polocrosse at representative level for “sometime” she said she hadn’t played for Queensland for about 10 years.
“Due to Covid and change of business, buying Mitre Ten, it’s been quite some time,” she said.
“But I have played at Ballarat, I’ve played at Camden in NSW, two Sydney Royal Shows.. I’ve played a lot of Barastoc’s at Warwick over the years too. It’s nice to get back into the Queensland team again.“
She said it was a nice chance to ride the horses they’ve bred for the discipline which was one of the many drawcards for polocrosse along with being a good sport for physical fitness and as a social event.
“Mum, dad, the kids, even grandma and grandpa can play, it’s a good all round sport that caters for every age group,” Kerr said.
She said she was looking forward to the Australian titles.
“I didn’t play at Barastoc which was at Warwick a couple of weeks ago – only because we had a birthday event for an old friend,” Kerr said.
“But the girls in that team came very close to beating NSW so hopefully this time we might be able to win it. I believe it will be the first time the Qld Masters ladies will have won it if we do.”
