Queensland Open Women’s Polocrosse Team Scores Place in History with First Barastoc Interstate Series Win

Queensland locked horns with rivals in a fierce polocrosse battle for State and National pride at the 11th annual Barastoc Interstate Series hosted by Warwick Polocrosse Club over the weekend.

The Barastoc Interstate Series, which was held in conjunction with the Shell Cup Club competition, this year boasted the largest number of teams to date. As part of the three day, two night polocrosse extravaganza, 21 Interstate Teams from New South Wales, Queensland Victoria and Western Australia plus a team from New Zealand took to the field in the Barastoc Interstate Series in an early indicator of team strength in the lead-up to the Nationals Polocrosse event being held in Swan Valley, Western Australia at the beginning of October.

Many Nationals selected players for 2018, as well as World Cup contenders for 2019 competed at the highest level in the Barastoc Interstate Series. The series comprised of 8 different levels of competition: Mens, Womens, Under 21 Mens, Under 21 Womens, Junior Boys, Junior Girls, Mixed Masters and Mixed Under 30’s.

Hosted at one of country’s premier polocrosse grounds, Morgan Park, spectators were treated to almost 600 riders playing across the 2 different polocrosse competitions (Barastoc Interstate Series and Shell Cup).

Warwick Polocrosse Club Les Fraser said the fields played the best that they ever have, despite the region being in the middle of a drought. The Club spent considerable money on irrigating the fields to ensure the playing surfaces were safe for the horses and could provide fast competition.

Mr Fraser said the Barastoc Interstate Series was the only yearly interstate competition held throughout Australia. “This competition is an important annual event because it gives each state a chance to trial their players in the leadup to Nationals competition, as well as giving players a chance to showcase their skill level and horses in front of Nationals selectors. We are fortunate to be able to host it in Queensland each year.”

New South Wales again rode high in the saddle after winning 6 of the 8 categories in the Barastoc Interstate Competition. In an exciting Open Mens final, New South Wales went head to head with West Australia, taking out the win 26 to 14.

The Queensland Womens Open team triumphed over New South Wales for the first time ever since the inaugural Barastoc Interstate Series with a final score of 20 to 14. Best Horse and Rider in the history making win went to Queensland’s Beth Hafey. Best Australian Stock Horse was awarded to New South Wales’ Lucy Grill’s Berragoon Hallie.

Mr Fraser said the Mens and Womens competition was the best it had been since the inception of the Barastoc Interstate Series 11 years ago. “It was a great exhibition of horsemanship and racquet skills with a lot of speed in the mix,” he said. “The fact that the New Zealand team asked to be involved shows the value that teams place on the competition for gauging where players are at on an International level.”

Queensland also took out the Intermediate Mens Competition with Best Horse and Rider named as Queensland’s Callum Brook. His talented horse SteptoVictory Ginger was awarded the Best Australian Stock Horse.

As part of the weekend extravaganza of polocrosse, 72 club teams from Queensland and New South Wales competed in a separate competition - the Shell Cup Championship Carnival. The 72 teams comprised of 3 sub junior, 12 junior, 8 mixed and 49 open teams.

Home side Warwick 1 missed out on the Shell Cup Championship final this year, leaving Tansey 1 and Gold Coast 1 to battle it out for the title. In what has become commonplace, Tansey 1 were too good and took home the trophy. Best Horse and Rider was awarded to Tansey’s Andrew Phillips.

In the Open competition, the winning team in A Grade was Wandoan 1 who played a fast game against Lake George to take out the win. Best Horse and Rider went to Wandoan’s John Bowling.

In a well supported Mixed competition, Quirindi beat Inverell in A Grade with Best Horse and Rider Female going to Quirindi’s Mandy Smith and Best Horse and Rider Male awarded to Quirindi’s Jordan Street.

The polocrosse stars of the future showed their skills with 12 junior and 3 sub junior teams taking to the field on Saturday and Sunday. In the A Grade Junior competition, Wandoan 1 beat Jugiong with Wandoan’s Jasmine Bowden awarded best Horse and Rider. In the B Grade Juniors, Gold Coast started off 2018 with the way the finished 2017, taking out the win in clean sweep of all 4 games. Gold Coast’s Annie Brosnan showed fine form to take out the Best Horse and Rider Award.

The next Polocrosse Action in South East Queensland will be hosted by Killarney Polocrosse Club this weekend. Killarney, one of the oldest in Queensland, has continued to build on their riding membership over the past 3 years. In 2015 they no players and this year have enough riders to field more than one team. Together with a large group of dedicated social members, the players have spent the last 2 years increasing the infrastructure at their home grounds to make the venue a great one for players and spectators alike.

Polocrosse is a fast paced team sport played on horseback. It combines the speed of polo, the strategy and tactics of netball (in terms of the field being divided in to 3 sections), the toughness of rugby and AFL and the ball handling ability of lacrosse.

This unique sport originated in Australia in 1939 and is dubbed as the “King of the One Horse Sports.” Polocrosse is currently played in 18 countries and boasts more than 10,000 players worldwide.