Rugby and Celyn are Main Winners at Rugby’s Tournament

Rugby tournament ran on the 13th and 14th of July and Rugby themselves and Celyn were the main winners. However, it was Cotswold who won the A grade, albeit a weakened A grade with the UK team themselves away in South Africa and a number of other top players not playing at the weekend. They won all their games in the round robin competition quite easily, while Vale Impi ended up second, having beaten Welsh Dragons and Coltshire.

Rugby opted to not run out a A grade team, instead splitting their top players between the B and C grades. As a result they won both grades and in the end fairly easily clinched the B grade, having initially struggled slightly in their opening match against Arden. However, after that their Australian stars Luke Lossberg and Corey Buys got fully up to speed and they cruised passed the other teams to emerge victorious. Kent ended up in second place, particularly impressive perhaps because Mikey Turner played three and a half out of four games unaware that his ankle was broken, having had his horse Bambino slip and fall on his leg in the opening match. He is now unlikely to play again till late August.

However, though Mikey suffered the worst injury by far, Vale Impi’s Jake Hall managed to completely steal his thunder when he suffered a crashing fall on Sunday morning playing against Kent. Jake’s horse Serroco fell with him after colliding with another horse in a freak accident, he ended up underneath Serroco and suffered blows from her hooves as she tried to regain her feet. However, both Jake and Serroco received very prompt treatment from the paramedics and the vet on site and though Jake was taken to hospital he ultimately emerged with just some bruises and three stitches in his cheek. Serroco is also doing well and both are expected to be back and playing in a few weeks. It has been quite a while since there was a fall of such severity in a polocrosse tournament and it was a sobering moment for players and spectators alike, reminding all that equestrian sports can be dangerous and that the presence of paramedics and vets on site is essential.

As previously noted, Rugby also won the C grade as they beat the UK Under 16 development squad in a hard fought final. Rugby managed to build themselves lead and held onto it throughout to win by a few goals. In the D grade and the E grade it was to be Celyn’s day as they won both grades, with Vale Impi in second place in the D grade and a combined Rugby/Limemere Sparks side in second place in the E grade.

In the PJ’s it was a combined Arden and Ledbury team that won the day with the Northern Lions team in second place, an excellent result for them in their first season of playing as a club for quite some while and bringing on new young players to the sport.

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