Inverell Polocrosse Club thundered to a double win at the Cunningham Polocrosse Carnival at Warwick over the April 8-9 weekend.
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Inverell tipped the scales of excellence in Grades C and H over a weekend with two decisive wins in their groups and Inverell’s Cody Woodward earning Best Player for the C grade group.
The event was a sprawl of talent which saw the line-up of grades explode to accommodate the number of teams qualified to compete in the event, which was headlined by the Cooper’s Cup, played between the Queensland and New Zealand teams and taken home by the visitors.
Inverell club president Alex Wrobel said the main events supported by the national and international talent made for a very competitive weekend.
“It drew people from further afield, which created bigger competition which then has to filter the people down the grades, because of a limited time of just the weekend to play the competition, you can’t play every team, so that’s why we’re relying on our points,” he said.
Each weekend for polocrosse is a fresh competition, with clubs nominating their teams, and the grades are compiled based on the cumulative handicap of the players on the team.
Alex said the venue was packed, with four or five teams per grade, and six players per team, not including the national sides or preparation for another international match, ensuring the paddocks were well travelled by hundreds of hooves.
“Also on the weekend following Easter, there’s an Australia versus South Africa test match in Warwick, so there were also teams there, they had a Queensland selected team, versing the Australian team as like a prelim, match – like a training match, and there was a men’s team and a women’s team.”
Alex said their C grade side of himself, Cody, Jade Collins, Brett Woodward, Emily Gentry and Tom O’Brien played a C-D grading game to start the event, and a win ensured they graded up. They had four round robin matches and were undefeated.
Inverell’s four H grade players Josh Woodward, Darcy Brennan, Lachlan Brennan and Jade Anderson had two Toowoomba spares to make up the numbers, and won their grade.
Inverell head back to Warwick over April 21-23 to play alongside the Australia/South Africa international test match, with two Inverell players competing in the additional interstate NSW versus QLD matches. “Tom O’Brien and Cody Woodward are in the intermediate boys NSW team,” he said.
Alex said the event bonus are ringside seats to the international tests after the day’s action. “At Warwick, they have a main field that they play games of a night, under lights,” he said, “which is pretty exciting to sit and watch on each of the evenings.”