2021 Review – Yorkshire Warriors
As we prepare for the 2022 season, our Clubs take a look back at their 2021 successes! Yorkshire Warriors, based in the North East and East Midlands, tell us all about their 2021:
After a sociable start to the year seeing the club hold several online club events during the winter months, including a murder mystery to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Research and a quiz night, we finally got back together in person when restrictions allowed, organising a number of training events at Thoresby Polo Club and at our new base near Edinwstowe, courtesy of the fabulously generous Bealby family, with Guy Robertson once again coming along to lend his expertise as the season got underway. Our alliance with the Northern Lions continues however their current core of players are from close to Aberdeen and have not yet travelled out of Scotland.
Our C grade side went from strength to strength and we saw considerable growth in the club’s younger membership with some very strong junior sides starting to emerge. We represented at every tournament but Kent, seeing some hard fought battles with some very well-established sides and some outstanding results. We were delighted to be able to financially support our 4 players selected to represent in the Nations Cup too, seeing Philip Watney, Ross Horne, Ilja Puccianti and Perdy Gale doing their respective countries and Yorkshire proud.
We were absolutely delighted to land a fabulous new sponsor, G2M Group, for the Great Northern Tournament along with a raft of really exciting prizegivers, and to have received two fantastic grants off the back of inspired work by Michael Watney, allowing us to buy much needed equipment for the club. We were also delighted to get Jo Gale on board as Sports Development Officer who is doing stellar work organising events in Lincolnshire and encouraging newcomers into the sport; in 2022 this effort will be doubled as Kate Mckee moves into a Northern Sports Development role.
We had a brilliant Nationals, including a fun Saturday night club party, with our Intermediate Junior and C grade teams bringing home the trophies! We also had Best Numbers for Clarry, Karl and Emily, and Best Horses for Trixie and Vera. Liv also won Best Junior Newcomer! As well as all that we also sent a number of players to the Festival of the Horse demo at Belvoir Castle, took part in the This Esme filming, and held a successful end of season Club Cup!
In 2022, we’re looking to start sending out a solid B Grade team, increase the quantity and quality of our trainings, continue to grow and raise awareness of polocrosse in the North and maintain the fantastic culture of support, friendliness and ambition we currently have within the club!
