A FULL weekend of polocrosse activity is planned in Ōtorohanga this weekend, kicking off with an international match between New Zealand and Australia tomorrow evening. PHOTO SUPPLIED
THE Australians have landed, the horses are picked and two teams are gearing up for the first international polocrosse test to be held in Ōtorohanga since Covid-19. Ōtorohanga Polocrosse Club member Bridget Woods has been selected as a reserve for the New Zealand intermediate team following a weekend of trials to face the visiting New South Wales side. Ken Woods from the Ōtorohanga club said matches would be held tomorrow at 5pm, Saturday at 4pm and Sunday at 12 noon in what would be an early start to the season. “Everyone is keen to get started,” he said. Yesterday, the teams met to select horses from a pool of New Zealand-supplied horses by pulling numbers. The system was designed to make the horse allocation as fair as possible, ensuring the Australian team wasn’t the only one playing on unfamiliar horses. The Kiwi team is coached by Rick Murray with assistant coach Jarrod Richardson, and managed by Sheree Marlow. All matches are free to watch this weekend, with food and coffee available for purchase. The matches are being held at Ōtorohanga Island Reserve. The polocrosse grounds are past the stop banks next to the river. Being held on the same weekend is the Te Mata Polocrosse Carnival at the reserve on Saturday and Sunday, making for a full weekend of polocrosse activity. The official polocrosse season runs from January to March with other international teams pegged to travel to Ōtorohanga. On the cards was an American women’s team and an American men’s team, an Australian men’s team and a women’s team, and a South African team had been invited, Ken said.
