Action packed A Grade Polocrosse decided by goal count back at Toowoomba’s Annual carnival

Almost 300 riders and their horses from all over Queensland and New South Wales took to the field to battle for club pride at Toowoomba’s annual polocrosse carnival over the weekend. Toowoomba Polocrosse Club President Joanne Lossberg said they had a great roll-up with 40 senior teams plus the future of polocrosse, Juniors and Mini Juniors competing over 2 action packed days.

In the nail biting A Grade competition, play was fast paced and hard fought with traditional rivals Tansey 1 and Warwick 1 going head to head. Both teams won 2 games, and lost 1 game, so it went to a count back of goals to decide the winner. Warwick 1 came out on top with 53 goals to Tansey’s 51 goals. Best A Grade Player was awarded to Tansey’s Shane Gehrke and fellow Tansey player Beth Hafey picked up Best Lady Player of the Carnival.

Warwick Polocrosse Club was also successful in taking out first place in C Grade and F Grade, as well as the Warwick/Roma side winning the A Grade Juniors.

Unfortunately, host club Toowoomba didn’t place this weekend but they did count themselves lucky that the weather stayed fine. Mrs Lossberg said the weather gods smiled on the Toowoomba Club this year after last year’s carnival was trained out overnight on Saturday. She said, despite cooler overnight temperatures, Toowoomba Polocrosse Club.

members were grateful to escape the heavy rain that has plagued many of their carnivals over the past 10 years.

The drought conditions in the area did however cause other issues for the Club with them having to spend many man hours preparing the fields at Oakey Showgrounds to ensure a safe playing surface for horse and rider. Mrs. Lossberg said the fields were in amazing condition after being plowed. “The fields were soft and were great for horses to stop and turn on safely,” she said. “We were proud of the playing surface, and that combined with perfect weather conditions allowed for hard and fast competition.”

Toowoomba, which has always been known as a family Club, has experienced peaks and troughs in membership over the years as people move to and from the area. Mrs Lossberg said in 2018, they have enough riding members to field 2 teams but would like to see that increase. She invited anybody thinking about trying the sport of polocrosse to contact Toowoomba Polocrosse Club. Anyone who can ride a horse can play polocrosse at an amateur/club level and unlike polo, only one horse per player is needed, making polocrosse an affordable family sport.

The next carnival on the South East Zone Calendar will be hosted by Stanley Rivers Polocrosse Club on 14th and 15th July.

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Toowoomba Polocrosse Carnival Results

A Grade
Winners: Warwick 1
Runners Up: Tansey 1
Best A Grade Player: Shane Gehrke (Tansey)
Best Lady Player of the carnival: Beth Hafey (Tansey)
B Grade
Winners: Gold Coast 1
Runners Up: Warwick 2
Best B Grade Player: James Bredhauer (Chinchilla)
C Grade
Winners: Warwick 3
Runners Up: Roma
Beaten Teams: Tansey 4
Best C Grade Player: Braydon Beck (Warwick)

D Grade
Winners: Wandoan
Runners Up: Inverell
Beaten Teams: Cunningham 2
Best D Grade Player: Emilee Bowden (Wandoan)
E Grade
Winners: Gold Coast 4
Runners Up: Chinchilla 2
Beaten Teams: Cunningham 3
F Grade
Winners: Warwick 7
Runners Up: Gold Coast 7
Beaten Teams: Cunningham 4
A Grade Juniors
Winners: Warwick/Roma
Runners Up: Cunningham
B Grade Juniors
Winners: Stanley Rivers/Chinchilla
Runners Up: Gold Coast
Best Junior Player in the Junior Competition: Charles Fitler (Guyra)

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For further information about this media release, please contact:
Carolyn Line
Public Relations Officer
South East Zone – Queensland Polocrosse
Email: carolynLMIM@gmail.com
Phone: 0403 386 053