2007 Polocrosse season Holland – keeping the sticks up!

[[Show as slideshow]]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!

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgPolocrosse Holland Season 2007

In 2008 de number of members doubled, caused by decreasing the contribution and a number of polo players who were getting interested in the sport. Polocrosse is played in 4 different regions in Holland; South-west, Middle, East and North.

The board of the dutch polocrosse association decided to do things different to promote the sport. In the years before we have done 100 of demo’s and clinics; everybody liked the sport, but was not keen enough to become a member. That is why we decided to organize 3 tournaments on the different regions in Holland; to do locale promotion of the sport by inviting local media (newspapers, television) and promote the sport to locale horse riders to participate the tournament.

[[Show as slideshow]]The first tournament was in April in the middle of Holland. On the Saturday Guy Robertson coached us and there was a competition on the Sunday. Guy helped us a lot and it was a fantastic weekend with a lot of new members who got addicted to the game!

The second one was in August in the South-East part of Holland. This was organised together with the Belgian polocrosse players. Desmond Phelan was invited to come over and coach us. A lot of local people were involved with the organization or sponsoring and also a lot of people came to watch. Also the Belgian Unfortunately the weather was not that good and the field got to slippery, but Desmond gave us good game tactics by using a board.

The last Dutch tournament was in September in the North-East part; the Dutch Open. It was the 3th time this took place. Like the years before the German players came, but also this year the French came! Saturday the preliminaries were held in 3 categories A, B and C. The C-category was won by Holland C. They ended just above the very good playing French Juniors and a Mix Team of players from Germany, Belgium and Holland.

In the B-category the Dutch B2-team became second behind the French Junior B team. The other Dutch B-team won only their last game against Stelingen and became fourth in the B-poule.

But the most important games were in A-category. The Dutch team (Jochem Elsinga, Florien Luitse and Fleur Bartels) had beaten Kananohe from Germany (winner Dutch Open 2007) on Saturday. On Sunday the match against the French was won by 7-4.
And so Holland won the Dutch Open Polocrosse Tournament 2008.

Best male no. 1: Andreas Rieger (Germany)

Best male no. 2: Jochem Elsinga (Holland)

Best male no. 3: Bruno Wallet (France)

Best female no. 1: Alexandra Deurinck (France)

Best female no. 2: Joanne Szezesny (France)

Best female no. 3: Jessica Deurinck (France)

Best international debutant: Mathilde Bizet (France)

Best horse-rider combination: Brigitte van de Hoef with Dribbel (Holland)

Best horse: Cimarron (owner Fleur Bartels)

This season we had two tournaments in Germany. This first one was at German club Stelingen. Everything was good organized and everybody had a great time. The competition was also good and Holland became 2nd, 3rd and 4th of 8 teams. Also the German Kananohe club organized for the first time a tournament. This tournament was also very good organized; we had a swimming pool party, so everybody had a lot of fun. Together with the Belgian players we played with 3 teams and became 1ste, 4th and 6th of the 7 teams.

We also went to French to have a trainings weekend up there at their new accommodation. The Friday before Holland had to play against French in the European soccer competition. We were very lucky the Dutch won. It was a great weekend with the Hensons and the French players.

The highlight of the 2008 season was the EU-challenge in Kent and the test match UK-Australia. The organisation was very good, the horses were great (thanks to the horse owners!), the landscape was beautiful, the test matches were thrilling to see and even the sun was shining! A week before the challenge Jochem Elsinga came to Holland to go to the university here. He played polocrosse whole his live in Zambia. Thanks to him and the wonderful horses we were riding, we won the B-poule and even almost beat the Irish who got first in the A-poule.

The Dutch polocrosse association made a plan in 2008; grow in width and in height. So everybody is welcome to play, do a great thing with your horse (doesn’t matter what kind of horse) and have a great weekend in a nice atmosphere. But get also the playing level higher by more competition, improving our horses and international coached. We will follow this line for the next years!

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.org2008 Polocrosse season Holland

Since 2005 The Dutch Polocrosse Association is official. It started with former South Africans Richard and Martine Griffiths who introduced polocrosse in 2003 at their stable. Everybody was wondering what they were doing with that net-stick-thing and the rubber ball. But after trying to pick a ball up and play a bit, riders got hooked to it and polocrosse was born in the middle of Holland! Through an internet-horse-forum they contacted other people who got enthusiastic for polocrosse and created an internet homepage which proved an important step in developing polocrosse in Holland. Peter Cross from the UK Pennine club found the webpage and invited us to the Pennine tournament in May 2005. From this first sighting of real chukkas, Dutch inspiration grew to develop polocrosse in Holland. At the beginning we didn’t have a field to play at, only an inside arena. Holland is so crowed that the farmers use every part of there land and don’t want that to be destroyed by galloping horses.

[[Show as slideshow]]In 2007 the Dutch polocrosse Association became an associate member of the IPC.

European Polocrosse

Since the beginning we have a very international calendar every year; tournament in France, Germany and EU-challenge in the UK. It is great to meet all players of different nations every time with one passion. We have close contact with France, Germany and Norway (also “new-european-polocrosse-countries”) and get our knowledge from players from the UK and Ireland who help us a lot.

Promoting the sport in Holland

Promoting polocrosse in Holland is a bit difficult, because most people ride dressage or jumps and are afraid of a contact sport with horses. Also pony clubbing or gymkhana is not a big thing here; at most pony clubs they get dressage or jumping lessons. Western, barrel racing etc is also not big in Holland. Also polo is not very popular;  that is played by around 90 players, with around 35% professional players from New-Zealand or Argentina.

But once somebody had a stick in there hand and played a chukka… they are addicted to the game!

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgPolocrosse Holland – history