That's a horse of a different color
Polocrosse players battle it out last month at Sycamore Creek Farm in Pennington. Next weekend, June 20-21, the Bucks County Polocrosse Association brings the fun to Pipersville.
By Steve ShermanSports Editor
Imagine a sport that combines polo and lacrosse with just a touch of badminton. If you can visualize such an athletic endeavor, than you’ve stumbled upon polocrosse, a sport that was originally founded in England as a riding exercise for horseman.
Like polo, the players compete in the sport aboard equine animals. Instead of polo mallets though, polocrosse competitors carry a stick that is a combination of a lacrosse pole and a badminton racquet. The original polocrosse sticks were badminton racquets, only the tight webbing was removed in favor of leather netting similar to that which is found on a lacrosse stick. The racquets were also made longer to accommodate play that takes place on horseback.
To the spectator, polocrosse offers an action-packed feast of galloping horses, thrilling ball-handling and clashing racquets. For those competing in the sport, it provides a fast-moving and exciting team sport that takes speed, stamina, and lightning-fast reflexes from both the horse and rider in order to excel.
“It is amazing to watch, how fast the people who are good at the sport can fly down the field on a horse and score a goal,” explained Bruce Lewis, of Newtown, a newcomer to the sport. “I’m not at that level. I’m more or less trotting down the field with the ball than going back to pick it up when I drop it.”
“The people who are good at it are going full speed ahead; it’s amazing what they can make a horse do.”
Polocrosse offers the horse enthusiast the opportunity to combine their love of horses and competition with a game of teamwork, strategy, and agility. It’s a three-a-side game, and like lacrosse, has players in the attack, midfield and defense positions. The battle takes place on a grass field 160 yards long and 60 yards wide that is divided into a large midfield and two end zones.
The game is started by an umpire who throws the ball in and the game progresses as teammates carry and throw the ball down the field with the ultimate goal of putting the sphere into a goal. Normally, the horsemen wouldn’t have any problem marching up to the 6-by-4 foot cage and blasting the ball in but the players must shoot from outside an 11-yard semicircle that envelopes the goal.
Unlike polo, which requires a string of horses, polocrosse players are allowed only one horse per competition, so it demands outstanding fitness of horse and rider. That fact makes polocrosse much more affordable than its sister sport.
Developed in Australia beginning in the 1930s, polocrosse is now played around the world and is growing in the United States, particularly on the east coast. More recently, the sport has been introduced to the Bucks-Mercer region by the Bucks County Polocrosse Association. In existence since 2005, the club is a group of enthusiastic athletes from both sides of the river with all levels of experience, including up-and-coming juniors as well as adults who are enjoying a new experience on horseback.
Polocrosse players have no real defining characteristics apart from their devotion to the sport. The sport attracts players of all ages from all walks of life.
Bruce’s son Chris, an 8th-grader at Newtown Middle School, came into the sport with an advantage. He’s a club lacrosse player for Council Rock and has been playing that sport for years. He doesn’t particularly like massaging the horses (riding them in a circle to exercise the animals) but he sure likes polocrosse.
“Riding the horses in a circle wasn’t much fun for him,” explained Bruce. “He’d rather be flying down the field on his horse full speed ahead.”
Chris and his mother Manya, Bruce’s wife, are experts at their craft. Bruce and daughter Kyra, a 1st-grader at Newtown Elementary, are the beginners in the family. Level of expertise doesn’t matter, says Bruce. It’c the fun quotient that counts.
“It’s something the whole family can do; that’s what first drew us to it,” explained Bruce.
In addition to those just learning the sport, the association also has players who are competing at the highest level, representing the United States in international competitions.
Sara Cifelli, 18, of Pennington, is one such player competing at the highest level. She’s currently in South Africa taking part in a test match for the US Polocrosse U-21 team. Last summer, she traveled to Australia as part of the USA’s U-17 team.
But not everyone has the freedom to travel the globe or the expertise needed to compete on an international level. Club directors realize that and they’re always trying to attract new players. They do it by hosting events in both Bucks and Mercer Counties.
A little less than a month ago, the club hosted what they called a Polocrosse Play Day at the Cifelli family’s Sycamore Creek Farm, which sits along Pennington-Harborton Road in Pennington.
On the weekend of June 20-21, the association will be host its fifth annual American Polocrosse Association sanctioned tournament at Come Along Farm in Pipersville. The weekend promises exciting entertainment for the horse lover and non-horse lover alike and is a great opportunity for a get-together and picnic with family and friends.
Because polocrosse involves an equal combination of brains, brawn, and agility, polocrosse is one of the few team sports where men and women play on equal footing. All this makes polocrosse an ideal and highly popular family sport and it is not uncommon to see three generations of competitors camping and competing together at a tournament.
***
IF YOU GO: This year’s Bucks County Polocrosse Club tournament will have all levels of polocrosse, with a peewee division, two junior divisions, and four or five open divisions divided by skill level. There will be two playing fields to accommodate all the teams. Play starts at 9 a.m. and continues throughout the day.
Come Along Farm is located at 55 Municipal St., in Pipersville. For more information on Bucks County Polocrosse and for directions to Come Along Farm, visit online at: www.buckscountypolocrosse.com or call (908)797-8778.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home