There are three life members of Tas Polox

 

                                         Fawdry, John 

 

                      John Fawdry’s Polocrosse history

A dedicated player & club person for Tasmanian Polocrosse, John was introduced to Polocrosse through the Kentish club in 1982. He was a playing member holding various positions through to club President for many years.

With the growth of Polocrosse in the state he could see the potential to start another club and he became the first President of Central Coast Polocrosse Club and is still a strong member of the club.

From the states point of view John went on to be state President from 2002 for 4 years during which time staging the Nationals in conjunction with Albury in 2004.

John has been a level 1 coach and an active umpire for several years.

John is a great believer in Polocrosse being the ultimate family sport and has supported his wife Maxine through many fund raising events .They have 3 sons Justin, Damien & Clayton are strong players that have represented the state.

John Loves the sport and is still very much a part of it.

                                 Hughes, David

 

                    David Hughes, polocrosse history

          A distinguished player and Patron of the Tasmanian Polocrosse for many years

David first played polocrosse in Tasmania in about 1961 with the Northern Midlands club, then with the Longford Polocrosse Club, which had a name change to the Northern Polocrosse Club.  He also played a season in Western Australia in 1969.

He was instrumental in forming Tasmanian Polocrosse Association in 1975 – State president from about 1977 to 1991 During that time he also had the T.P.A admitted to the Polocrosse Association of Australia in 1985

He was the first level one coach in 1986 and became level 2 coach in 1989.

He played in the National competition at Narracorte in South Australia 1986, where also umpired

For the 1990 National he was the president of the committee that conducted the national at Launceston – I think the first ever nationals to make a profit and national ever since have followed his model. At these national 2 of his horses were played “REO” by Bruce Archer and “PENNY” by M Erwin.

His dedication to the sport is shown by the amount of teams he has coached

1. Senior mixed at Forbes 1992
2. Intermediate open at Werribee 1996
3. Open men at Camden 2006
4. Junior Tri-state 2006/7/8

David still maintains a keen interest in the sport and can often be heard coaching from the sidelines in club games

                                        Murrell, Joe                        

                    Joe Murrell’s Polocrosse History

 

Joe began playing in 1967, having been introduced to the game by two shearers who would practice on their horses after work each day. 

He was instrumental in forming the Richmond (Qld) club and played with them until the family moved to Tasmania in 1979.  His horses, in order of succession, were Smooger, Ivan and Skeeta.  They were all excellent stock horses, working stock during the week and playing polocrosse at weekends.  He played as a 1 for most of his career.  The original mode of transport was a crate on the back of a Toyota (very quiet horse), followed by a 4 ton Mazda truck then he purchased a very thirsty V8 petrol Comma truck which could cart the full team, which he did many times. It was heaven, we camped in the back of it with a tarp for cover, and one cold, wet night at Gowrie Park we woke to find 14 people asleep in the back of the truck! 

Joe believed strongly in training and feeding his horses properly, this usually meant extremely early mornings or very late evenings but was never neglected. He has always believed that if two teams were evenly matched, then the team on the fittest horses would usually win. 

The first memorable win was beating Tambo (Qld) at the Zone Championships in Longreach in 1975.  For some years the chukka consisted of Joe (1), Sue Nott (2) and Gordon Nott (3) and they were a formidable team.  It was in the days prior to the blood rule and there were many fast, furious and bloody games, all celebrated with gusto in the evening.  The distances travelled to north-west Queensland carnivals were amazing and all were at least 2 day carnivals with a day to get there and then a day home again. 

After moving to Tassie he was instrumental in forming the Smithton club in 1980 and played with them until he retired in 2000.  Both sons, Geoffrey and Richard played for Smithton as well and now Richard and his son, Jack,his Grandson are playing for Central Coast.. 

Joe represented Tasmania in Darwin in 1988, alas ending up in hospital after a fall at high speed while playing against Queensland. There were also trips to Victoria, playing in Sale and Bendigo and he discovered that the Comma could do 70 miles per hour downhill on the Hume Highway.

Joe was Chief Umpire for Tas in 1989 – ….., then State President from about 1991 until  2002.