IPT Noodsberg - June 2009

From the 26th to the 28th of June Noodesberg polocrosse and southern natal held the annual Interprovincial Tournament where the top provincial sides from all over south Africa competed for the coveted title of IPT champions.

The weekend started on the Friday morning, with clear skies it all looked pleasant until you ventured from your vehicle, where you were met with ice cold wind that chilled you to the bone. So although an early 830 start was expected play only got going at 900 and even then some games were late, and those who thought it would get better later on in the day couldn't have been more wrong as the wind picked up more and more as the games pushed on, passes went flying up to teammates but more often than not the passer had to look on in vain as the pass flew off the sideline after being picked up by the wind. However even with the cold wind we got to see some glimpses of good polocrosse across the board from u14 through to the seniors with a thrilling ladies game between southerns A and Northerns A going to sudden death which had the southerns ladies cantering away to take it in a nail biting finish.

Saturday looked to start well with the chaps having a good attempt in the bar the night before, some bleary eyes and weary heads watched on as the weather looked at being a lot better than the day before, as did the polocrosse as most games were being played with a view to the final the next day, again we had some great polocrosse from the juniors across the board and with the rugby at 3 the fields were promptly deserted for seats at the bar. After a thrilling game of rugby the DJ brought out his music and i believe the festivities carried on into the early hours of the morning, but am not sure as some of us got to bed early....

Sunday had the final, plate and loser games. The u14B winners were Eastern province and the u14A winners were midlands A. The u16 cup was won by southerns. We then had western province take the u19 A and B trophies. In the veterans we had some good polocrosse again with Eastern province taking the B cup and Midlands running away with A team trophy. In the ladies division there was a real cat fight for the trophy with some great games in the end though we had midlands taking on southerns for the title where in a great final midlands triumphed and took home the silverware.

The mens final had the southerns A side taking on the Northerns A side in an all Natalian affair, and if the first 2 chukkas were anything to go by we were in for a great display of polocrosse, with a sea saw affair for the lead in the middle chukkas some solid line out work form the northerns 3 's and some pinpoint finishing from their 1's had them on for the last chukka with a commanding lead which the southerns team just couldn't make up. Northerns winning the mens IPT 2009 .

Our best junior horse and rider trophy this year went to Travis Timm and the most outstanding u14 trophy went to Natalie McLarty congratulations to our deserved winners