PDP Vs Holland Test Match Report
This summer has been a great one for European polocrosse, and one of the highlights was a young UK PDP team taking on Holland as they prepared for their European Challenge campaign. Eloise Stanford Meisl had her first International run out as part of the UK team, and gives us her report on the event…
Malkia, Megan, Seren, Millie and I started the week with the UKPA camp at Henley in Arden. We had training sessions with Bruce McLarty, Jason Webb
and Tom Simkin (our tour manager) which involved tactics in line outs, horse work and goal scoring. I found all these sessions incredibly useful as I was not on my own horse, Twinkle who had injured herself in the field – thankfully Olly Gardner came to the rescue and allowed me to borrow the legendary Peeps for the week.
The five of us trained closely through the temperamental weather of the UK. During this same week, the U16 UK team were battling against the U16 SA team in separate test matches. We closely examined these test matches, whilst walking the team’s horses to see if we could use anything to our advantage at the weekend against Holland. We were also bribed with the fact that if we walked the U16 horses they would then be in debt to us at the weekend!
On Thursday our coach Rachael Duhig joined us along with with Jack for chukkas and to learn our team sections. In the end it was Millie, Malkia, Megan and Abi in the first section and then me, Seren, Jack and Ryan in the second section. We did multiple chukkas testing different positions. Friday was the day my Mum and I found out whether Twinkle would be ok to play,
but unfortunately, her injury was just too risky to a future in polocrosse so once again Olly became a hero allowing me to borrow Peeps for the matches.
On Friday afternoon we all went to Jack’s lorry and were given our saddle pads, stickers and ribbons. In the evening we all got takeaways and ate together for some team bonding under the watchful eye of Tom. As a team we voted for our captain on Saturday morning after a team horse walk and a stick session to warm us up. Ryan was chosen as our captain and was so positive, he also kept a concerning eye out for the team.
Our first game was at 12pm and I was ecstatic to be carrying the flag for the UK. We sang the National anthem and shook hands with the Dutch team. We went on to win our first game 12-5. Thanks to Jack and Malkia for bombing in the goals, some crazy marking up from Seren, Abi and Millie, and with Megan and Ryan constantly ready for some stick swings! Our second game was at 5pm on Saturday and this time Holland were going hell for leather. Thankfully due to some amazing link ups from all players we won again, 16-10.
After a great Arden party in the evening, we woke up bright and early for another team horse walk in the morning. Our third and final game was at 12pm and after a horse swap as Ryan’s Flo became lame, he charged back out on Beth Scott’s horse, Alaska. The team really came together for the last game, long balls were thrown, bounces were caught, rackets were smashed, and it came to the score of 19-7 – a 3-0 win of the test series to UK. For my first and some of my teammates’ first International games it was the best score we could have asked for!
At the prize giving, we gave a Best Horse & Rider combination to Leanne Boekholdt. As a team we would like to thank Rachael, Tom and all parents for their help!
COACH’S COMMENT
It was a privilege to coach such a great group of UK players to play against Holland. Considering the team hadn’t played with each other before, they worked so well together, both on and off the pitch, and displayed a huge amount of sportsmanship. Ryan Sweeney was voted as captain and he kept the team in great spirits throughout the weekend with his witty Yorkshire humour!This may have been a young, development side, but I have high hopes for each one of these players. They should all be very proud of themselves in how they played and represented their country. I am looking forward to training with them more throughout the winter in the PDP and to hopefully coach them again in another test series. GO UK!
Rachael Duhig, UK Coach
UK PDP vs Holland Test Match Highlights – find the full games at www.ftasport.com