Pimp My Mallet

Sunny weekends and long summer evenings are slowly returning to Oxford, so why not venture out for a game of bike polo? We’ll be holding an informal introductory day on Saturday 8th May from 13.00 to 17.00 at the Croft Road playing fields in Marston.

It’s open to everyone, experienced or complete beginner, and we’ll have a mix of hardcourt and grass polo. If you ‘re feeling lazy bring a picnic and watch everyone else play. If you’re definitely coming sign up on our Facebook event, otherwise just turn up and have a go.

If that’s not exciting enough, there’s a few other cycling events going on that weekend too.

Bikeradar are currently featuring a mini documentary from saddle makers Brooks, looking at bike polo. Obviously any good news story needs an accompanying photo, and what could possibly be a better match for a classic Brooks saddle than an Oxford Toff?

We’re still looking for a 3rd person to play for Oxford in the UK Champs next month (17-18 April in Manchester), get in touch if you’re interested.

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

.

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.

Last year Brendan, a London polo player, made a short film that was shown at the Bicycle Film Festival all over the world. And here it is.

This is what our other court looked like last week in the snow. It’s all gone now so bike polo (hopefully) returns tomorrow evening, 20.30 at the Curry’s car park on Botley Road.

Having said that there’s more snow forecast for tomorrow, so if you’re thinking of coming send an email to oxfordbikepolo [at] gmail.com.

It’s all over… see you next year for more bike polo. To keep you going here’s this year’s Christmas Number 1.

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.

Since 2008 the US Library of Congress has been loading some of its historical photo collections onto Flickr. Nothing on bike polo yet though they’re continuing to upload photos and there’s bound to be something in their archives. In the meantime we’ll have to make do with an even crazier sport….

If you’d rather stick with the bike version, come along on to our weekly practice on Wednesday, 20.30-ish, Currys car park, Botley Road, Oxford.

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