European Challenge 2019 Report
This summer saw the return of the European Challenge, now a well-established event on the European polocrosse calendar. The 2019 event was hosted by Polocrosse France over 10th-11th August. UKPA International Liaison Officer** Wayne Henning** reports…
This year’s European Challenge had 8 teams competing: Holland, France, Germany, Finland/Norway, Italy, Ireland, England (veterans), and Scotland! The atmosphere was constantly warm with smiling faces and laughing to be seen in almost every direction you looked, even though there was a strong competitive attitude behind the smiles.
The venue was good and the food very good! The level of play in Europe has continued to improve, with most being a combination of top C grade up to B grade, making most of the games exciting to watch. The Irish fielded a very strong team that were the overall winners, but it was the English Veterans team they met in the final. At this point I would like to add that our veterans team age was more than double that of their opposition, and as their coach I would say that if we were given a goal for every time one of my team fell off, or play had to be stopped due to them injuring themselves, we would of had an easy victory! They really pushed some boundaries fighting in the final!
It must be said that Shaun Gillanders’ team of Celtic Warriors made quite an impression as the underdogs, putting up a good fight in all their matches and securing a great win in their last match against last year’s champions, the Dutch!
There were many superb and inspiring performances from players across the continent – France’s Gael Beaufils (Best Overall Player), Italy’s Luca Lamberti (Best Combination with his Horse El Tero) and certainly not least my wonderful wife Kate and Marimba (Best Horse).
All in all it was a great tournament, and I’m certain the biggest ever held in Europe so far! The French tournament organisers did a really great job. Also this is a great new venue for the future, only 45 minutes from Calais. It was great to see the level of UK and international commitment there, with Rachael and Danny Duhig coaching Finland, Grant Hayes coaching the Dutch and Chris Milburn coaching the Scots and helping with more than his fair share of umpiring! This is polocrosse at it’s best – the future of polocrosse in the Northern hemisphere looks bright!
Full Results
- 1st – Ireland
- 2nd – England
- 3rd – France
- 4th – Germany
- 5th – Scotland
- 6th – Holland
- 7th – Italy
- 8th – Finland / Norway
View the highlights from the Ireland vs Germany game. All European Challenge games can be viewed with a subscription to FTA Sport – visit www.ftasport.com