The UK polocrosse season is nearly upon us! It starts in just two weeks at the UKPA’s early season tournament and the UK clubs have been busy strengthening their line ups ready for the season. In addition to a high level of Australian imports there is also a fair amount of transfer activity between clubs. As always there have been some winners and losers in this merry go round of players with Kent Target, Welsh Dragons and Vale Impi probably being the clubs that have benefited most from the transfers. The Welsh Dragons and Kent are also bringing in two Australian players each while Vale Impi are bringing in Sam Roke from New Zealand.

Rugby are also bringing in two Australians, Luke Lossberg, who was one of the top players in the B Grade last year, returns to them and brings with him Corey Buys to further strengthen the Rugby team as they look to launch an assault on the A Grade this year. Kent have brought in Alysha Pearsall from NSW and Harry Vines from Victoria while the Welsh Dragons have confirmed that they are bringing in Bradley Thumm from Queensland and are looking for an additional player as well.

In domestic transfer news, Kent Target and Vale Impi have taken most of the players that have left Canterbury Colts, who have undergone a name change to Colt Shire Polocrosse to reflect the new geographical areas that their players are in. The Harwood brothers, the Felce siblings and the entire Henning family have all headed to Kent as have Joel Sic and Emily Gilfillan, who have left Pennine for Kent. Pennine have also lost Jonathan Swift to Celyn.

Kerry Bean and Uncle Pete Wherret have moved from Canterbury Colts to Vale Impi. However, Mark Davies and Angela Watson have moved the other way from Vale Impi to the newly named Colt Shire. Vale Impi have also gained Pip Rowland and Layla Henshaw from Arden but have lost Daisy Adamson and Henry Christiansen to Rugby. Arden have compensated for their losses by persuading Shane Borland to come out of retirement to act as coach and occasional player and have also signed Iain Heaton, who was at Canterbury Colts last year.

As well as their Australian imports the Welsh Dragons have signed Debbie Harris from Kent and Lizzie Shearing from Cotswold as they aim to run out an A grade team this year. They have also gained a clutch of younger players from Ledbury, undoubtedly attracted by the thought of working more with Debbie, who is the current UK under 16 coach. Ledbury, however, have stated that they want to run out a team in the B grade at points this year and have got John Whitehead and Will Hunt into help progress that aim. They have also agreed with Arden to join forces at points in the season to run out teams at different grades.