More than 1500 camp out for Chinchilla Polocrosse Nationals
Thousands of polocrosse players and supporters have been enjoying Chinchilla’s Polocrosse Nationals this week, with the event injecting significant money into the town. Find out more about the event here.
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Organisers of Chinchilla’s first polocrosse nationals finals tournament have hailed the event a success with thousands streaming through the gates throughout the week.
The event kicked off on Tuesday morning with the finals due to wrap up on Saturday and Sunday.
Polocrosse Nationals chairman for Chinchilla John Mullins said it had been an action packed week with dozens of exciting matches.
“We started on Tuesday and had 300 horses on display which was fantastic, it has been going great, the fields are playing well and now we have got to Friday the crowds are getting larger by the minute,” he said.
“We have 300 campsites with about 1500 people camping on the ground between spectators and players, the first day was free and we had a huge crowd that day.
“There’s something happening every night, on Wednesday night we had the State of Origin so we had it on a big screen at the bar and there was hundreds of people to watch that, last night we had some novelty events like the polocrosse bungy which is a bit like a four way tug of war and this afternoon we will have a demonstration of the thoroughbreds.
“We are up to the last few semi-final games today and by lunchtime tomorrow we will be on finals and on Sunday there will be only be one field operating and that will be all the main finals.”
Mr Mullins said the event had brought significant profits to the region.
“This is fantastic for Chinchilla, the council told me they will be able to work some figures out as to what sort of cash injection this has put into our town but as you can see by the crowds it must be huge,” he said.
“All of the campers have been here for two weeks already, so they have gone to town to buy supplies and when they all leave next Monday they will be buying fuels to the economic benefits will be massive.”
Mr Mullins said they hoped to be able to host the event again and make it bigger and better.
“We are no strangers to large carnivals, we have run the Queensland Championships multiple times with up to 98 teams and playing wise there aren't as many teams but the length of the tournament and the sheer number of spectators far out ways any polocrosse carnival you’ll see anywhere,” he said.
“We want to host it again, we wanted to get in and show people but we can offer and what the fields are like. When you’re playing a horse sport the surface you play on is very important and we’ve got nothing but praise for our surface here.”
The event will run for two more days with the finals to be played Saturday and Sunday.
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