The 2026 Home Nations competition took place at Priors Norton in Gloucestershire between the 24th and 26th of July, all kindly hosted by Cotswold Polocrosse Club and the Whitehead family, and saw some amazing play from the three teams involved; Wales, England and the Celts (made up of players nominated to represent the Celtic nations).
Each Nation had a secton of four Minis (12 years and under), four juniors (15 years and under) and four Seniors (up to 25 years old). Each section played individually for their own age group title and then depending on where they finish in their grade they contributed points towards the overall triple Diamond Trophy.
The 36 members selected came from 22 different Branches across the UK, showing the continual growth of polocrosse within the Pony Club in recent years. The event was supported by a wide range of sponsors, with Hurlingham Polo 1875 very kindly providing the membesr playing shirts free of charge and companies such as Polypads and Saracens and Polocrosse Extreme all providing support for all the teams. Dyke Yaxley, the chartered accountancy firm sponsored the commentary box and Waterco, the water projects engineering firm, sponsored the pitch.
There was also a number of team sponsors, with Wales sponsored by their long term sponsor Smurfit Westrock, the packaging company, while England were sponsored by a range of companies, namely Oakwood Finance, ACT Environmental, NC Foot health Clinic, Brackenspa Stud, Smalley Hot Tub Services and Chandlers Contry Stores, and Celts were sponsored by Bedmax, Equine Products UK, Rub a Dub Dog Grooming and Equiphage.
The members initially took part in a training camp, which saw them train in their teams for two days before doing a joint team building exercise at a local waterpark on Friday morning. The competition started on Friday evening, with three “round robin” games being played over Friday and Saturday and then the individual grade finals took place on Sunday.
There was some fierce competition across all the grades and some very close results, including the final for the Minis going to golden goal. However, ultimately is was Wales who won the day and achieved something no nation has achieved before; a clean sweep of all the trophies, including the Field Shield for the best overall performance in the training camp, as judged by a selection of judges over the three days.
Both England and the Celts pushed Wales hard throughout the competition but ultimately they proved to be just too good. The Celts Minis team defeated Wales in the round robin matches but in the Minis final it was all tied up at the end of normal time and Wales grabbed the all important ball from the next line up and went down the pitch to score the winner. England finished second in both the Seniors (sponsored by the Scott family) and the Juniors (sponsored by Elvers Properties) after tough finals against strong Welsh sections where they just couldn’t get enough ball as Wales, and Wales were fairly ruthless in converting their oportunities into goals.
The overall result saw Wales lift the triple diamond trophy but it was very close for second place with England and Celts tied on points. The overall match result between the two teams was then used to determine who was second and England just proved victorious as they had won their overall match against the Celts by 17 goals to 15.
However, in many ways the results on the pitch are secondary, with members having a brilliant time across the training camp and competition, learning new skills, making new friendships and having fun!
A huge thank you must be said to everyone who made the event possible; our wonderful volunteers, the coaches and managers, the umpires who officiated the games, the brilliant sponsors, our wonderful members and their parents and, of course, Cotswold Polocrosse club and the Whitehead family for hosting the event! We look forwards to doing it all again in 2028 and making it even bigger and better!