Pimp My Mallet

Well done Cardiff, winners of the 2010 Bike Blenheim Polo Tournament! Thanks to Bristol, Cardiff, Cherwell School, Cycle Oxford and everyone else from Oxford who braved the rain and made it a great tournament. Here’s a few photos from the day.

The tournament briefing

Blenheim bike polo tournament

Cherwell School

Soggy tweed (it rained a lot)

Blenheim bike polo tournament

The sun makes an appearance over Blenheim Palace

Cardiff, winners of the Bike Blenheim Polo Tournament

Bike Blenheim Bike Polo winners

More photos on Flickr.

We’ve spent the day setting up the polo court at Blenheim Palace, hopefully it won’t rain too much tomorrow! Don’t forget to be here by 10.00 if you’re playing, if you want to spectate the first match starts at 10.30, and we’ll be holding public try-out sessions through-out the day.

If you’re free next Sunday (12th September) come down to Bristol for their first tournament. Oxford have two teams entered, if there’s enough interest we could even have a third! The tournament starts at 11am and should be finished by 4pm, and there’s a whole weekend of other cycling events on.

A video of the recent European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships in Geneva, from Dan (or one of his many pseudonyms).

Bike Polo – EHBPC 2010 in Geneva from Cycle Oxford on Vimeo.

A warm-up for the Euros… the first ever UK Bike Polo Championships will take place in Manchester on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th April 2010. Registration has now closed with 36 teams, one team from Oxford assuming we find enough uninjured people who haven’t left the country.

Updated with flyer from Adam Russ

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It’s official! The 2nd World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships will be held from Friday 13th to Sunday 15th August 2010 in Berlin.

There’s only space for 64 teams and with more than double that number wanting to play they’ll be some sort of pre-tournament qualification, details still to be decided. The hosts are promising plenty of hospitality for everyone though… so book you tickets now.

Geneva are organising next year’s European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships sometime in July (probably), and being Swiss they’re ultra organised and are asking all cities planning to enter to pre-register and supply the name of an ambassador.

Fresh from the editing suite, The Cycle Oxford Festival 2009, including Oxford’s first bike polo tournament.

A nice set of photos from John Spooner on Flickr. And a few more from road.cc’s pretty extensive coverage of Bike Blenheim Palace.

Don’t forget we’re now playing at 20.15 Wednesday evenings in Curry’s car park, Botley Road.

The team briefing

Months of worrying by Dan and co finally paid off with an excellent day of polo! All the teams made it, the sun was out for most of the tournament, and the combinations of grass and hardcourt rules with a slightly bumpy pitch seemed to even out the teams.

The Toffs v Cambridge

Cambridge put on an amazing show win the tournament, just beating the Oakendon Pedallars (grass specialists). London were third, followed by the two Oxford teams (in our defence two people pulled out at the last minute with the flu… and we had to save our energy for running the tournament… can anyone think of other excuses???).

Public session. A real (horse) polo player joins in.

The public sessions were really popular, and we had at least one real (horse) polo player joining in, as well as a few traditional bike polo players and quite a few post-race Brompton riders.

London v Cambridge

Kids practice session. Reminder for next year: check they can ride one handed before allowing them on the court!

Group Photo

More photos here.

And a quick blast from the past- a photo from last year’s tournament. Is it just me or does everyone look disturbingly young in that photo (as in, more than a year younger).