Beaten on Home Soil!

An insight into International Polocrosse...!

Saturday morning, the rain cleared and we were able to focus on the games against South Africa in the afternoon. Not the best preparation – my knee was playing up and I had to spend an hour icing it… not good for the nerves!

The ladies played first – a good, close game and they were very unlucky to go down by two goals… then after all the last minute checks, we rode on to stand for the national anthems. Trying not to look to the crowds, keeping my focus and thinking about the first ball coming into the lineout. Honey, my horse, has felt good all week and now I’m just desperate to get on the field.

Our section is playing the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th (last) chukkas… our first section has a dream start with three quick goals, before the South African teamwork swings into action to even things up at 3-3 as we take to the field.

The ball comes in, I am playing the defensive no.3 position, but something not right… Honey feels flat. Things don’t gel and we come off a couple of goals down. Ross Turnbull, our coach, mixes things up and puts me back to the attacking No.1 position. On for our second chukka and I feel like I am struggling for every ball, the flow isn’t happening and we are getting by on grit and determination to keep us in the game… we’re working our guts out for every goal and I am being hard marked by Nico Van Wyk on a top horse, Cindy Lee.

Halfway through the game and we’re a few goals down before our section had a dream chukka… sometimes a game opens up like that and the ball starts falls your way. My No.3, Jono Keen, is playing his heart out and Honey is finally starting to fire up… the crowd sound like they’re starting to believe we can turn the game around. The 7th chukka continues the theme and we take the field for the final chukka at 18-18… time to finish the game off. I can’t describe how gutted I feel that we went down by two goals for a 20-22 loss… all the work and planning has come to nothing.

We spent Saturday evening going over what went right and wrong and how we could turn things around on Sunday. I find it hard to get over the disappointment of losing the game and how Honey went… she is definitely not herself.

The Ladies game on Sunday was the game of the weekend. My father Doug, was coaching the UK side and he got them so fired up they came out smoking! They had the upper hand throughout the match and they didn’t miss a game the whole match. All of them played outstanding polocrosse and they thoroughly deserved their win by four goals. For me, Sarah Simkin, for the UK, was absolutely brilliant…

Our game was one of those scrappy affairs, and it was hard to keep any flow going. Again, I didn’t feel on top form, things weren’t quite happening and I was having to work hard on Honey to get in goal scoring positions. Our other section kept us in the game with our captain, Guy Robertson, on great form with his mare, Lauren. Down a few goals at half time and the same thing happened, we started to claw our way back… going on for our last chukka we were 5 goals down but I still felt that the game wasn’t lost.

The ball came in to the lineout, a quick goal to us… Honey feels like a different horse – why couldn’t she have gone like this the whole game! Then two more and I could hear the crowd getting worked up… soon we were within two goals of the South Africans – could we really take this match? The next ball in, the South Africans picked it up and scored… time is against us. Another quick goal for the South Africans and the final whistle has gone… a loss by four goals.

Again, the disappointment is hard to take and it is made worse watching Honey being lead away unsound… on closer inspection, her tendon looks suspect and we get the ice packs on her.

Sophie Lodder won best UK Lady Player and I was really pleased to be awarded Best UK Male Player at prizegiving but I would have given it to Guy who had two solid games. I don’t feel I was playing at my best but I must have bought the South African boys enough beers for them to vote for me! Sunday night was a chance to let our hair down after a pretty intense couple of weeks and at the end of the day, it’s what polocrosse is all about – playing hard and partying hard!