Pimp My Mallet

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.

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.

Wednesday polo at the usual time of 20.15 ish, Currys car park, Botley Road. You’ll be following in the footsteps of these 1958 kids… watch and learn.

Register to vote!

There’s going to be an online vote from the 25-27th November to decide the host city for EHBPC 2010. It’s open to all European players, but you’ll need to register at bikepolo.ca and join the Europe group before the 21st November to be eligible.

We played. It rained. We got wet. Heres a few photos taken by a German superstar.

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.

It’s winter and we need more people! We’ll mostly be playing Wednesdays only, 20.15 in the Curry’s car park off Botley Road: http://tinyurl.com/botleypolo. If you’re definitely coming contact us and we’ll let you know if we decide not to play due to rain or for some other reason.

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).