By Tania Phillips
New South Wales won the Barastoc Interstate Challenge as the sound of horses hooves thundered at Morgan Park for Warwick Polocrosse Club’s big three days of competition.
From Friday through to Sunday competitors from across the Eastern Seaboard took part in the three days of action which included the Interstate Challenge and the Shell Cup Club Championship.
Warwick club secretary Robyn Fraser said there were 22 teams in the Barastoc event from NSW and Queensland – which was a state of origin.
She said it was held over a lot divisions with Queensland winning the open mens and women’s events, Under 21 men’s and the mixed while NSW won the remaining seven.
“We had 40 club teams and 22 in the Barastoc competition made a total of 62 teams,” Fraser said.
“There are seven players in the interstate and six in the other so we talking about 140 in the Barastoc and 240 in the Shell Cup. It was a little bit smaller than normal because we would normally have Victorian and Western Australian teams in the Interstate series but in seven weeks we have the national titles in Chinchilla but with the price of diesel, they chose to attend the national titles in lieu of our event. So a bit down on previous years but we still had 62 teams. And NSW and Qld teams did use it as a warm up and in the next couple of days the teams for the National days will be announced so it really was used for a warm up.”
She said club teams came from as far north as Tambo and Walcha in the south.
“Friday’s weather was a disadvantage and disappointing so Friday night our crowd was down a little,” she said.
“But the crowd was great on Saturday night and of course with the better weather on Sunday, it was like a proper summer day.
“It’s the 17th year we’ve won the Barastoc Interstate series and it’s the 65th year of the Shell Cup Club Championship Club Championship so they’re two very well known events on the Polocrosse calendar.”
