August 30, 2023
Three members of the Tansey Polocrosse Club will be packing their bags next year to head off to South Africa to represent Australia at the Polocrosse World Cup.
The event is being hosted in July by the Durban Shongweni Club in KwaZulu-Natal.
Booie residents Tom O’Neill and Sam Allen, and Tansey resident Beth Hafey, are members of the Tansey Polocrosse Club, which has produced a string of top competitors over the years in State, national and international competitions.
Polocrosse, which combines polo and lacrosse, is a team sport invented in Australia which has since spread around the world.
Sam said it had been a part of her life for as long as she could remember.
She competed in her first polocrosse Nationals when she was aged just 12 or 13, and she met Tom when they were competing at a polocrosse carnival in Albury.
The couple now has a 12-month-old son, Jon, who looks destined to have a future on horseback.
“Even now he picks up the ball and puts it into the racquet,” Sam joked.
Tom has just returned from South Africa where has been riding at the Shongweni Club, and is looking forward to going back there next year.
Beth also started polocrosse as a youngster, aged 10, and has taken part in events for about 13 years.
She has also competed internationally before – in South Africa, Zambia and New Zealand – and was part of the Australian team which went on to take out the final at the 2019 World Cup, which was held at Warwick.
All three riders are now getting ready for pre-runs with the team, and the Nationals which will be held in Chinchilla a month before the World Cup.
Australia is sending a mixed team of four men and four women to KwaZulu-Natal.
