Coaching Camp was held in early January with good numbers attending. Joy Poole & Graham Bennett reported back to the Board on their attendance at this camp and ideas for improvement.

The Horse of the Year Show, held in Hastings in March, was very successful both in Polocrosse played and exposing the game to a larger audience. A lot of positive feedback has been received from this weekend.
Thanks to Ken and Allison Wrigley for their donation of playing shirts and trophies, and to Bruce Hundley and Russell Tye for coaching the Intermediates and Presidents teams respectively.

Preparation for the World Cup continued over the January to April period. The team was named as  - Tony Schrafft, Dean Gower, Kane Matthews, Shane Hill, Sue Hodges, Megan Staples, Calley Mullany, Casey Mullany; Team Manager – Ruth Tye; Coach – Gary Malcolm; Assistant Coach & Horse Liaison Officer – Robbie Telfar; New Zealand Umpire – Bruce Hundley.
As well as attending coaching weekends, the team attended a Sport & Nutrition course in Hamilton in their lead up to the World Cup.
The World Cup Supporters Fund Club continued to make steady progress and apparel was purchased for re-sale, as well as for members of this Club. The Team, and management, undertook numerous fund raising activities to help with costs involved in competing in the World Cup.

As part of New Zealand Polocrosse’s ongoing exchange scholarship with New South Wales, New Zealand had two Australian boys here earlier in the playing season, with Josh Bradford being hosted by the Holmes family and Kyal Martin by the Cunningham family.
This year saw five nominations received from New Zealand players for the New South Wales Junior Scholarship, all of which were of a very high standard. The successful nominees were - Mareka Prentice and Florence Cumming.
Queensland Polocrosse Association requested that a similar scheme to the New South Wales Scholarship be set up with them. The Board accepted their offer and the first New Zealand recipient is Sam Cunningham.

Australian Chief Umpire, Dave Sillis, along with two other Australian umpires attended our Inter Association Championships. These Australian umpires met with members of the New Zealand Umpires panel to go over rule changes that were to be discussed at the IPC and to gain a better level of understanding of coaching between our two countries.

At the conclusion of the World Cup in Australia the International Polocrosse Council (IPC) held their General Meeting including discussing and voting on the IPC Constitution and rule changes. The United Kingdom successfully submitted their bid for the 2011 Polocrosse World Cup.

Coaching Syllabus- Wayne Bushnell has agreed to take on the position of Coaching Administrator encompassing the jobs of Administrator, Secretary and Convener for the Coaching Panel, with the view of implementing the new Coaching Syllabus along with other aspects of his new role.

Board members will continue to attend SPARC seminars this year including “Intro to Sports Governance”; “Specialist Governance” and “Growing Revenue from Sponsorship”, and will endeavor to attend other suitable conferences or workshops as they become available.

New Zealand Polocrosse, through our affiliations with SPARC and NZEF, will accept the new Sports Anti – Doping Rules that come in to affect on the 1st July 2007.

The Board continues to submit funding applications with two successful ones resulting in full funding for the printing of new brochures and safety signs, and for a portion of air fares for the World Cup Team.

It has been extremely hard finding suitable people for the draw committees for National fixtures this year. This is a matter that the Board will have to address for the coming season.

The issue of late entry fees for national fixtures was discussed, as some Clubs / Associations are not getting these in on time resulting in difficulties for the people organising these events. Although not wanting to penalize player, and wanting to encourage growth and participation, the Board needs to address this matter.

New Zealand Polocrosse has placed an advertorial in the New Zealand Pony Club Manual  2 , which is currently being revised and reprinted.

Safety Notices have been purchased with Pub Charity funding and distributed to Clubs and Associations to place on their grounds, advising of conditions of entry.

Kerriann Duff has been appointed by the Board as a member until the AGM in September.

The web site has recently been updated with a new web master, Jason Willis, taking over from Kat Cave in February. Thanks to Kat for all the work that she has done on the web site.

Thank you

Robin Cave
(Board Chairperson)
3rd June 2007