The Australia Polocrosse Association have sent out letters notifying potential World Cup players as to whether they have made the World Cup 2011 squad, from which their final World Cup team will be picked. So far the only names that are known of are from Western Australia (we think that the post must be quickest in that part of Australia) and they are as follows:

Ladies – Suzette Thomas, Jodi Tiver and Lizzie Lyster
Men – Ben Thomas, Robert Sibley and Jared Martin

There are no major suprises in the list, all these players played well as Western Australia made both the men’s and ladies’ finals at the recent Australian National Championships in Ballarat. The WA Ladies were particularly impressive as they claimed the title against New South Wales, with Lizzie Lyster picking up a raft of individual prizes for both herself and her horse. The men lost to their New South Wales rivals and they are very likely to have to contend against those same men to make the final World Cup squad, men like Lance and Chris Anderson and Will Weston.

Suzette Thomas and Jodi Tiver have both represented Australia for the last few years while Robert Sibley tragically missed out on a spot in the Quadrangular tournament last year after the death of his best playing horses. Ben Thomas, Suzette’s husband, is also still looking for his first national call up, having represented his state at every Australian nationals since 1994, when he was 13 years old. Lizzie Lyster and Jared Martin are both young players at 23 and 20 respectively and look to have big futures in front of them.

The remaining names should be known shortly.