By HARRY CLARKE
DESPITE the Emerald Polocrosse Club barely having enough players to scrape together full open team, its dedicated committee pulled off another successful annual carnival which again gave the town an economic boost and continued to promote polocrosse in the Central Highlands region.
Teams from Tambo, Bowen, Roma and Calliope were among ten sides which participated in the Emerald Isuzu Polocrosse Carnival, which competed with a higher profile carnival being held over the same weekend in Oakey.
Bauhinia beat Nebo to take out the A-grade competition, Wandoan overcame Capella-Tambo to win B-grade, while Roma beat Emerald in the C-grade final.
Best female horses and riders were Melinda Edminstone, Brooke Trail and Emma West in A-,B- and C-grades respectively, while in the men’s devision prizes were given to Mace Edminstone, Michael Kerr and Dennis Moy.
Sportsmanship awards were given to Brenda Taylor and Grant Wells.
Emerald Polocrosse Club spokeswoman Tamsin McBeth-Wells said the cameradie and sportsmanship displayed throughout the weekend was highlighted by the efforts to include the lone junior polocrosse player who came along.
“We had only one little junior turn up and obviously she couldn’t compete,” McBeth-Wells said.
“My husband (Brian) got together some senior players, they got on the field and trotted around with her and gave her some coaching tips and let her have a bit of run. She really enjoyed it.
“Our club member Emma West was our superstar. She is the only member who lives in Emerald so she kept the fields green and maintained them for the last few months to get us to the weekend.
“She’d go down on her work lunch break to move the irrigator and she’d go down at night time again to move it again. Then she’d go down on the weekend to mow.
“The rest of us are spread around the district and she’s the only one who lives in town, so she really stepped up. Everyone commented on how good the fields were, considering we’re such a small club.
“That was the voiced opinion all weekend – people could not believe that we pulled of such a great carnival.”
McBeth-Wells said the club was very grateful for the local business which re-committed to sponsoring the event this year, after it was cancelled due to lockdowns in 2020.
Sponsors were Emerald Isuzu Ute, DGH Engineering, Centurion, Coates, R&R Coolroom Hire, Flexihire, Regional Waste and Aggreko, among others.
“The thing I enjoyed the most was seeing town folk turn up just because they saw the signs, and just came down for a look because they’d never even heard of the game before,” McBeth-Wells said.
“The were quite a few people who rocked up with the kids, just for a look and to have some lunch.
“Polocrosse is a great sport and we were very happy to show it to the community.”
GALLERY: All images supplied by Terry Hill Photography.
