The New Zealand Polocrosse Board has held meetings in March, April, May and June of 2008. These meetings have been held in Hastings, Palmerston North, Taumarunui and Wellington.

The date for the 2008 Annual General Meeting of the New Zealand Polocrosse Council has been set for the 27th September and will be held in Palmerston North. Lawrence Tye will be retiring as a Board member.
As in previous years, a conference will follow the AGM.

Reports on the Prime Ministers High Performance Coaching Scheme and last year’s Investment Schedule have been returned to SPARC. The new Investment Schedule for 2008 / 2009 has also been submitted to SPARC with an increase in funding being expected. The Board is currently working on a new Strategic Plan. Copies of the both the Investment Schedule and the Strategic Plan will be forwarded to the Coaching Panel and the Umpires Panel administrators once they have been accepted by SPARC.

The president has attended a “Goverance and Effective Performance” seminar run by SPARC and the Board has six more members, or associates, either attending, or on a wait list, for SPARC seminars that are running between July and October.

Upon receiving conflicting advice on the pros and cons of registering as Charitable Trust, the Board decided to register as a “Charitable Trust”, but this decision can be reviewed at a later date and changed if needed.

New Rule Books have been printed and distributed to all playing members – thanks to a generous donation from the Cunningham family, which paid for the printing of these.

A new Club – “Redvale” was formed with Wayne Bushnell as President. Information has also been sought by people in Taranaki and the South Island wanting information on playing polocorsse and the possibility of setting up a Club.

The Board received no response from anyone regarding the running of a Draw Committee School. Although this was disappointing the Board will look at other ways of educating people to help with draws, as this is a valuable skill that more people need to learn for the future of polocrosse.

Michelle Higgie has taken over as the Administrator for the Coaching Panel and Jill Moaut has become the new Gear Custodian. The Coaching Panel and Umpires Panel are working well and are forwarding informative reports to the Board on a regular basis with recommendations and suggestions.

Publicity Officer, Carey Wenn, continues to do a remarkable job with regular features in many equestrian magazines and now with television coverage also becoming a regular occurrence. The web site continues to grow with the highest number of hits recorded in a month being 29,567!

The Juniors and Intermediates competition was held in January and was hosted by the Tuwharetoa Club at Turangi, following on from the Coaching Camp.

February saw the first Sponsors Carnival run at Taupo – this was also a huge success with a New South Wales team playing the feature game. This Sponsors Carnival will become a yearly event with proceeds going to the 2011 World Cup Fundraising & Sponsorship Committee – who organized and ran the event.
New Zealand Polocrosse took part in demonstrations at the Horse of the Year Show in Hastings in March, with a touring Under 21 team from New South Wales playing against a New Zealand Under 21 team at this event and the following weekend at Kaitieke Clubs 40th Anniversary carnival. Reports were received from the New Zealand Under 21 Team Coach, Manager, Team Captain and Horse Liaison Officer – these reports were extremely helpful and will benefit the Board and Coaching Panel in making future selections.
The Roke and Rockwood was run later this season, being held in April, as there were no Nationals this year.
King Country hosted this event and it was held on the Te Maire grounds at Manunui.

A Junior team, with Paddy Cornelius as Coach and Miriama Prentice as Manager, will be travelling to Maitland in Australia in July; a Development Squad, with Tony Schrafft as Coach and Julinda Marshall as Manager, have been selected to travel to Queensland, also in July.
The Development Squad will challenge for the Cooper Trophy, which is currently held by New Zealand, and it is hoped that this will become a yearly competition again.

Dates for the National fixtures have been set as 17 & 18th January 2009 for the Juniors and Intermediates’ and the 4 & 5th April 2009 for the Nationals. With more Clubs wishing to hold carnivals, the playing season may need to start earlier this year – possibly the first weekend of December 2008.

New Zealand has been invited to take part in a Quadrangular tour to be held in Australia in April 2009. The Board is calling for expressions of interest for the Coach position, which will be selected by a panel, including one person from outside of Polocrosse.

The United Kingdom Polocrosse Association has advised of new forms to be filled in by player’s wishing to travel to the United Kingdom. Presently there are two players travelling to the United kingdom, with the Board being advised of another player travelling shortly.

The Board received six nominations for the New South Wales (2) and Queensland Junior Scholarships. All applicants were of a very high standard with the successful recipients being – Kyla Hill and PJ Dempsey going to New South Wales and Leroy Jolly going to Queensland.

An invitation was received from the Gould family in Queensland, Australia for a strapper – Kurt Hearsey has taken up this position.

The Board has been advised of offensive language being used on and off the field and has sent letters to those involved. New Zealand Polocrosse does not condone this behavior and players have been advised of this through Notices to Clubs. Umpires have the right to penalize players on the field for using offensive language.

Over the last six months various items have been sought and purchased to be used as gifts when travelling overseas, or for visiting officials. These gifts include etched glasses, caps, pens and coaster sets

Thank you

Robin Cave
(Board Chairperson)
9th July 2008