Henson Polocrosse France has moved

Henson Polocrosse France has moved and is now located in Le Clos du Hamlet. We are still in the bay of the Somme in France but on an up and coming equestrian and spa resort, which is due to open summer 2008! See map.

The year 2007 was an exceptional Polocrosse year for us on the French team. We caught the polocrosse bug pretty badly. We trained intensely from the beginning of the year onwards, preparing for our participation in the World Cup in Australia. This was a major objective but it also boosted us to carry on afterwards, all through the year, whenever and wherever we could (the beach, a sandpit, grass field, you name it!) We organised a kids’ training week at the end of February to get them hooked and keep them occupied during the school holidays. At the end of March we had a great training week-end at Kent Target in the UK to held us prepare for the world cup trying out new horses, some of which where Jason Webb’s stock horses.

In April, just before setting off for Australia we had two national and one regional TV crew do a cover on polocrosse in France, one of which was a 30 minutes show aired on a major, national audience, animal show. Then came the world cup, TAH DAH, the highlight of the year, during which we met very friendly and positive people, especially the Warwick juniors who lent us their great horses and helped us adjust to the whole thing, for the duration of the Cup. Thanks to them, the Cobbon and Paroz families, we were able to finish a grand (for us!) second of the Club Carnival in which we were entered. It was all pretty brilliant and memorable. We had quite emotional farewells to say.

The year 2007 continued in this vein. There was no stop-gap. We have now set ourselves the goal of building player participation in our country for 2011. We brought new players into the fold and youngsters more particularly, to play in the May tournament at Kent Target. We also braved floodding, bringing 12 horses and 20 kids and adults, to attend the Doncaster Tournament, UK, wining our rounds, followed by desperate attempts to attend the Midland Camp which ended up in York of all places and turned out really well, no small thanks to Anne-Lise Richardson. Then during the Midland Tournament our luck turned a bit with one lame horse and player just when we were offered the opportunity of playing a visiting Australian Juniors’ team. Shame we didn’t perform well.. But never mind, it’s the fun that counts ! We also got to do a polocrosse demo courtesy of the Edenbridge and Oxted Show organisers in August (UK again! We spend more time there than in France last year!!!).

 

 

And last, but not least, we now have our own premises in the bay of the Somme (see www.francepolocrosse.com) from where we hope to develop polocrosse playing in France and Europe – which started no sooner than Novembre 2007 as we host a workshop with new local players and the visiting  Dutch team. December was a good month too, ending the year with a demo at the Paris Horse Show in the main Hall on thursday the 6th ! All in all, a polocrosse-packed year and we hope to keep it that way for many years to come and certainly for 2008. No small thanks to all the overseas’ people we’ve already mentioned who’ve helped us, especially Jason Burbidge and his Arden gang who got us started : Hamish, Simon, Torr, Sophie, Hannah and Richard, but also Kirsty and Dave.

 

We have a great calendar of events for this year, beginning with some training sessions with a new polocrosse club located in Corsica who is visiting us in February and another in located in Pas de Calais coming to us in March.

 

That means there are now 3 clubs in existence in France and over 50 polocrosse players (though a lot of beginners still!) in the country overall.

 

We are also currently envisaging a European project with Kent Target Club in the UK and a polocrosse camp in Australia for some youngsters this summer!

 

CALENDAR of Events for the Polocrosse Season in France in 2008 :

 

16-18 February : Polocrosse Training with Epona Polocrosse Corsica

 

22-23 March : Polocrosse Training with Centre Equestre de l’Ecusson, Blendecques

 

March : visiting Dutch players (to be confirmed)

 

28-29 June : eventual participation Arden Tournament, UK

 

12-13 July : Kent Target European Championship, UK

 

28 July – 1 August : Midland Camp, UK

 

2-3 August : Midland Tournament, UK

 

July – August 2008 eventual polocrosse training in Australia

 

22-24 August : UK National Championship

 

September 2008 : Visiting South African players – to be confirmed

 

13-14 September : Dutch Polocrosse Tournament