2022 Review – Arden

As we prepare for the 2023 season, our Clubs take a look back at their 2022 successes! As Arden Polocrosse Club, based in the Midlands, kick off with the first event of the year today, we can read all about their 2022 season:

We had another thoroughly successful year again in Arden last season. Our juniors saw great success throughout the year, bringing home multiple wins and best numbers awards. They created great bonds on and off the pitch, developed their ability and we got to see multiple junior players stepping up into the senior grades at Cotswold Tournament.

We saw our C Grade team consistently run out together, training hard, improving all year and winning numerous tournaments. We are very proud of them finishing of the year as Nationals C Grade Winners!

Our A Grade side once again fought for everything they had at every tournament, this year. We may still be waiting for that first tournament win, but we are always so proud to see the little steps of development with each player. But of course these great successes are not possible with out every single member of Arden making it possible and supporting each other!

Arden also got to see some of our members represent our club and the UK internationally. We are very proud of Maisie Slight, Millie Wilson Fitzgerald and Theo Cornforth, who all played in the UK U21 Team in Zimbabwe. They all played brilliantly and especially for some of their first run outs overseas, returning home winners!

We also are very proud to congratulate Chris Milburn and Millie Wilson Fitzgerald who were selected on the UK Open Squad long list. This pair fought hard in A Grade, showcasing the skills they have and their determination throughout the year is an inspiration to the club. We are very excited to see what they have to show in 2023!

The Arden family grew even bigger this year, having a total of 53 members. So we got to enjoy even more socials, from escape rooms to go karting. We started the season with our Chairman’s Challenge, which was another great success, with even more members joining in.

The Arden Bake Off was as competitive as ever and did not disappoint with the drama. With a store bought cake revealed last minute and a disaster meringue bake, that is best not mentioned. To finish off the year we celebrated our club and all of its members, at our Christmas party. We had a great day at a trampoline world, a delicious evening meal and finishing off with our annual awards!

Arden is one of the largest clubs and puts so much back into the sport, that we know and love. We are very grateful to George Wilson Fitzgerald, Chris Milburn and Quintin Cornforth who all work very hard in the UKPA executive. As well as Jack Page and Seona McCredie who have recently been named as appointed officers for the UKPA.

The Arden Arena Leagues were once again a great success in 2022, seeing an array of new players joining the sport and existing players stepping up into new grades.

Lucinda Hayes has also been integral in running Area 7 Pony Club Polocrosse, organising plenty of training opportunities for Pony Club members, who can try the sport for the first time. With the help from Seona McCredie, Iain Heaton, Chris Milburn and Theo Cornforth who coached throughout the year.

At Arden we are always very proud of our annual tournament and the workforce we have in our club, which makes the whole event possible. We want to thank all of our members who helped throughout the weekend, to run a fantastic tournament and most of all another quality Saturday night party. We are very excited for 2023, as we will be celebrating 25 years of Arden Polocrosse Club, making Arden the longest standing UKPA club, so expect exciting things at our tournament this year!

Lastly to end the year, we sadly had to see our Chairman George Wilson Fitzgerald step down, as he will now be Chairman for the UKPA. George was in the role for 5 years and had done an unspeakable amount of for our club. His tireless work effort, determination and love of the sport is an inspiration to all of our members. He may no longer be the head of the club anymore, however we can guarantee he will still be between those white goal posts at every tournament, supporting the entire club.
From all of Arden THANK YOU GEORGE!