British Horseball Association Horsezone Championship Weekend 2016

On the weekend of 07/08 May 2016, The Nottingham Knights team arrived, with some trepidation, at Onley Grounds, Rugby all geared up to take part in the Horsezone Championships.

Horseball is out and out a team game but not only do you need to be a team player with your fellow humans, you also need to become a team with that half a tonne of four legged power that you somewhat ridiculously strap yourself to. Some combinations within horseball look like the horse and rider know exactly what each other are thinking, many newer combinations however, seem to be on slightly different wavelengths…

I think that it would be fair to say that some of us were a bit nervous. The previous league weekend had been rather challenging for a few of the team. We are mainly quite new to the sport and had played on horses that are also new to the sport and a couple of team members had thought that their mounts might be better suited to the rodeo rather than horseball. That said we came back for more, foolish or brave, only time would tell.

The first game was against our old friends (and foes) Harley’s Greys. We lost the game but this doesn’t really give the full story of the match. Canter pickups were made, tackles were unleashed, goals were scored and generally horses went in the correct direction at the correct speed. This was progress, real progress! Never has a team come out of losing a game quite so happy.

By the second game our blood was up and there was the faint whiff of victory in the air. Up against the Nottingham Lionhearts we knew that this was going to be tough match and we were not wrong! In an epic battle the Knights just managed to snatch a 2-1 win against a determined team of appropriately named Lionhearts.

Come Sunday’s triangle we were all well up for it! Back in with Harley’s Greys we put up a great fight, giving them more than a bit of a fright with the 3-2 score line. Given a bit more time who knows what would have happened!

After a small break we were back in against the Lionhearts, once again eking out a hard fought victory, securing our second place in the tournament.