USA v. New Zealand women, and South African v. Australian men, World Cup 2011, UK

Polocrosse, a curious fusion of polo and lacrosse, may be played in New Zealand but it isn’t anything more than a middle class hobby.

There aren’t any professional NZ sportsmen or NZ sportswomen who make a living out of it, yet. It doesn’t put bread on the table, so to speak.

It must cost a lot to keep a horse, feed it, transport it to events, ship it overseas for competitions, shoe it, pay vets bills etc. Not something that poor or disadvantaged people do, one would need a great deal of money to be able to compete at  a high level in this pastime.

Team South Africa won the men’s Polocrosse world cup, which was held in the UK in 2011.  Team USA beat the NZ women to win their round.

No word yet as to the location of the next one, but it does appear to be quite a big sport in Australia, who takes the credit for inventing it.

“Australian Made, Internationally Played!

The Polocrosse Association of Australia boasts a membership over 4000 players nationwide spanned over 119 clubs within the 7 states and territories. We are the largest Polocrosse country in the World…”

The 2011 world cup was the first to be held outside of Australia.

The previous 2 World Cup events were held at Morgan Park in Warwick Queensland with “Australia taking out the World Champions trophy in both 2003 and 2007 from New Zealand and the United Kingdom respectively.”

It’s good to see New Zealand mustered up teams for these competitions, they must be very keen to take some silverware home next time.

But it must cost a small fortune to ship a horse over to Australia and compete with the world’s best. Of course finance is not the only obstacle, presumably one would need the correct visa and a clean criminal record to be allowed into to the country to compete.

Perhaps a sponsorship deal would be a good idea, any takers? Given the close association between alcohol and sport in New Zealand perhaps a drinks company may be interested.