THE future is bright at Cunningham Polocrosse Club with five of their younger players selected to represent Queensland at the upcoming National Titles in Darwin.
Ella Waugh will take to the field as part of the States’s Open Mixed team, while her sister Ryle Waugh will represent Queensland in the Intermediate Women’s team.
Anthony O’Leary has been honoured with role of captain of the Junior Under 16 Bays team and will be joined on the team by fellow Cunningham Club member Dougal Strahley. Sophie Forster will play for Queensland in the Junior Under 16 Girls team.
Cunningham Polocrosse Club president Andy Burton said it was the club’s dedication to training, with a strong focus on younger players, that had proven to be successful in helping club members to be selected for the representative teams.
This past weekend, Cunningham Club showcased their talent at their home carnival. With representative players from many clubs using the Cunningham Polocrosse Carnival as a warm-up for National competition in July, 270 players and their horses took to the field for two days of strong competition.
Andy Burton said cubs travelled far and wide to the carnival, with some making the trek from as far away as Inverell, Bingara and Grafton in New South Wales.
“It was wonderful to see the future of polocrosse so strong with so many of the junior players coming up in the grades and a few even playing in the A grade competition” he said.
“There was fantastic competition in all grades and the quality of horses is improving every year.”
Cunningham’s first mixed side were undefeated all weekend and came head to head in an action-packed final with Tansey 1 on Sunday afternoon.
The six by six minute chukkas had the crowd on their feet. Cunningham Club members and siblings Todd Waugh and Ryle Waugh won best horse and rider male and female in the A Grade mixed competition.
The 45-team carnival had some unexpected results with normally dominant teams suffering losses. Cunningham Club member and member of the Queensland Open Mixed Team for the Nationals Ella Waugh said “No team did it easy to make their finals.”
Inverell and Warwick went to battle in the A grade final with Warwick 1 coming out the victors.
