“The concensus of opinion at yesterday’s meeting, to discuss the proposed rule changes to be debated at the IPC Meeting in April, was that the UK delegate should back the call for banning the overarm throw for International competition. In fact it was suggested that the UK should adopt this, WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT, for domestic competition.”

This is the statement that Polo-X-treme have received from the UKPA in the aftermath of the meeting held on Sunday to discuss the suggested rule changes for polocrosse which will be discussed at the IPC meeting in April. The meeting was to discuss a large number of rule changes but the key one was the banning of the overarm. Polo-X-treme could unfortunately not free up a member of staff to attend the meeting but we have been in contact with some of the UKPA Exec to discuss the decision.

Iain Heaton, Player Representative, said “I didn’t attend the meeting personally but I hear it was poorly attended and there was little representation from the playing memebership.” When asked why he didn’t attend, he added that no one had asked him to attend to represent their views as a player and then refused to answer any more questions. When our reporter continued to try and question him he turned nasty and drove off at great speed, almost running over a small puppy in the road. Sue Brookes, UKPA Secretary, and Martin Brookes, UKPA Chief Umpire (who was hosting the meeting), also confirmed that attendance was poor and therefore it would seem people don’t care about saving the overarm throw.

Recent polls conducted by Polo-X-treme suggests that only 37% of people want the overarm banned so this decision comes as a great shock. Our political expert said, “This is just another example of voter apathy, people all assume that someone else will turn up and vote for them. They do not take the responsibility to vote themselves and attend these sort of meetings. Maybe in the future the UKPA could look into postal voting and voting by proxy.”

So could the overarm be on its way out? Not if we can help it! Right here and now we launch our Campaign “Save the Overarm”. After all, as our editor said, “I have only just about perfected throwing the blooming things, there is no way I’m letting them go and ban them and spoil all my hard work!” We may well release T-Shirts!

SAVE THE OVERARM!