Polocrosse Holland Season 2007

2007 Polocrosse season Holland – keeping the sticks up!

Polocrosse is still an unknown sport in Holland. “Polocrosse Holland” exists now for about 3 years and has about 15 players spread over Holland. So our season 2007 consisted of promoting the sport by giving demonstrations at horse events.

With eastern we opened the season with a trainings weekend. We needed to practice very hard before we went to Australia World Cup. About 10 people came with their horses and the weekend consisted of exercises and chukka’s. It was a great weekend with a lot of attention of the local media.

The world cup in Australia was absolutely the highlight of 2007. We were allowed to send a half team and played on lowest grade. The Queensland club “Cunningham” welcomed us with their arms open and provided horses for us. They helped us a lot with coaching and telling everything about polocrosse, but also with introducing Bundies! It was an amazing experience to see that polocrosse is not only a game, but a way of living. Everybody learned so much and we were gone back to Holland with new energy and new ideas. 

In June and July we crossed the border to play; tournament in Germany with our own horses, France on the Hensons and Doncaster in the rain. The atmosphere between all the “new-EU-polocrosse-countries” is good and always a pleasure to meet and compete everybody. Many thanks to all the horse owners who lend the horses in Doncaster.

In September we organized our own small tournament. We had 5 teams of three people together with the Germans. Visitors came to watch the games and the weather was good, but the Germans beat us.

Unfortunately the whole season we were confronted that we really need to improve our skills. Not only stick & ball, but also to improve our horses and play more chukka’s (competition). We talked a lot with people in Australia, UK and other countries about developing the sport. In the season of 2008 we like to organize small tournament on different places in Holland and Belgium which everybody can participate. In this way we have competitions to improve our skills and can promote the sport in that area by inviting visitors and media. So in 2008 we’re still keeping the sticks up!