Teams announced forPony Club Polocrosse Home Nations International
The inaugural Pony Club Polocrosse Home Nations, will see teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compete across two days, 25th and 26th July, at Backford in Cheshire.
Over 100 players applied to take part, in a selection process involving a written application and observation of players by managers and coaches across the country. Standards were high, with selected junior sections for England, Scotland and Wales teams containing five of players recently named in the UK Polocrosse Association’s own Under 16 team; Ruaridh Gillanders (Scotland), Annabel Mahoney (Scotland), Annabel Twinberrow (Scotland), Jack Brown (Wales) and George Parrish (England) have also all been named as part of the UK team that will play against Zambia in a test match series in early August.
England Manager and Pony Club ambassador Chris Milburn comments, “The standard of play and the level of competition for spaces was incredibly high across all the Nations. All the managers and coaches have said how hard they found it to make their final team selection. I would like to congratulate all the successful players and I look forwards to a very close contest in July.”
The selected teams are:
|
England |
Scotland |
Wales |
Northern Ireland |
|
Open |
|||
| James Allen(Cotswold Vale) | Harry Twinberrow (Wyre Forest) | Alex Brown(Romney Marsh) | Toby Fynn(North Down) |
| Megan Smith(Ledbury Hunt) | Hamish Gillanders (Over Dalkeith Stables) | Freddie Leith (Ledbury Hunt) | Thomas Kileff(Killultagh Old Rock & Chichester Harriers) |
| Stuart Dyson(Rockwood Harriers) | Hannah Drew(Over Dalkeith Stables) | Erin Tufnell(Ledbury Hunt) | William Armstrong(Iveagh) |
| Katie Loutsiou(North Warwickshire) | Jennifer Crittenden (Over Dalkeith Stables) | Jemma Leigh Alderson(Hurworth Hunt) | |
|
Juniors |
|||
| Fintan Bristow(North Warwickshire) | Ruaridh Gillanders (Over Dalkeith Stables) | Jack Brown(Romney Marsh) | Archie Nield(North Down) |
| George Parrish(Ashford Valley Hunt) | Annabel Mahoney(Over Dalkeith Stables) | Rosie George(Ledbury Hunt) | Ruben Nield(North Down) |
| Emma Joslin(Essex & Suffolk Hunt) | Annabel Twinberrow(Wyre Forest) | Emily Goding(Carrington Centre) | Hannah Kileff(Killultagh Old Rock & Chichester Harriers) |
| Joshua Smith(Ledbury Hunt) | Olivia Mears(Over Dalkeith Stables) | Jack Rees-Elford(Brecon & Talybont Hunt) | |
|
Minis |
|||
| Tegan Bristow(North Warwickshire) | Megan MacColl(Over Dalkeith Stables) | Sally Watney(United Pack) | Harry Thomason(Rockwood Harriers) |
| Paige Wilson (Rockwood Harriers) | John Ferguson(Over Dalkeith Stables) | Kate Tranter(Cheshire Hunt North) | Eve Thomason(Rockwood Harriers) |
| Libby Crisp(Percy Hunt) | Isla Hood(Over Dalkeith Stables) | Philip Watney(United Pack) | Charlotte Keers(North Down) |
| Boy Wilson-Fitzgerald(Grafton Hunt) | Olivia Litster(Over Dalkeith Stables) | Tilly Nield(North Down) | |
The unique format for the competition sees each Nation’s team consisting of one section of *Minis, one section of **Juniors and one ***Open section, meaning that players of all ages will take to the field during the weekend. Each section within the teams’ consists of three players, but with an option for Nations to select four players in each age group and swap the players in each section around between chukkas.
Each Nation will play each other once, with six matches over the weekend each consisting of nine chukkas, at six minutes each. After each chukka the sections of the teams will change over, meaning that each of the three sections will play three chukkas in each match and get twelve minutes of rest for each six minutes of play; this structure, with built in rest periods, means that each player will only have to use one horse during the weekend.
Jan Whitehead, the Chairman of Pony Club Polocrosse, comments “It is wonderful that 23 years after it was first introduced as a Pony Club discipline, Polocrosse has now grown and developed to a point where we can select strong and competitive teams from all four Nations within the United Kingdom. We hope this will be the first of many competitions of this nature, and with the sport continuing to grow both within Branches and Centres, we would love this event to act as an inspiration for up and coming players all around the country.”
All the teams involved are also benefitting from support towards their clothing and equipment from Redrow Homes, Ollard Westcombe and Polocrosse Extreme.
Further information about the Pony Club Polocrosse Home Nations can be found on www.pcuk.org
