Narrabri teenager represents Australia at Horseball World Cup in Argentina

A new name was recently added to Narrabri’s impressive list of Australian sporting representatives when Blake Fielder pulled on the green and gold at the 2025 Fédération Internationale de Horseball World Cup in Argentina.

The Narrabri teenager was part of a six-player team that competed at the event in Buenos Aires and finished in 11th place out of 16 teams.

Blake, the son of Mark and Mary Fielder, was a late addition to the side after it was named last year when he impressed at training sessions that he was invited to attend.

The 16-year-old has shown talent in many sports, two of which are rugby and polocrosse, which horseball is essentially a combination of, so he took to the new sport with ease.

The World Cup kicked off on March 25 with seeding games to determine which teams went through to pool A to compete for the championship and which teams were placed into pool B.

The Aussies were dealt a tough battle as they drew the eventual champions Spain in the first game. The Spanish side was far too good in that clash and took down Australia 14-3.

Blake and his teammates bounced back the following day as they took on Japan and scored a dominant 7-3 win to start their pool B campaign on the front foot, then next up for the Aussies was a match against Chile that they won even more comfortably as they got up 7-1.

The side’s fourth and final match at the tournament was against Mexico and a spot at the top of the pool B table was on offer for the Aussies. However, they went down 5-4 in a nail-biter which saw them finish third on the pool B standings and 11th on the overall standings.

Spain went on to win the World Cup after taking down France 7-6 in the final, and the ladies’ division was also won by Spain.

Blake told The Courier he enjoyed the tournament and was honoured to represent Australia.

“I enjoyed it a lot actually. It was really good to go over there and play for Australia,” Blake said.

“It was actually very special playing for Australia. I’ll probably never get to do that again. It was all a good experience.

“I felt like I got better as the carnival went along. I set a couple of goals up and I scored one too. Missed a couple as well.

“The quality of the competition over there was pretty good. They were hard to verse and they were all pretty good at the sport.

“I made some good friends over there and my teammates were good to play with.”

Blake said that although there is no horseball close to Narrabri, he was keen to keep playing whenever he can at events like the Royal Easter Show in Sydney and at tournaments that his Aussie teammates play at in the future.