Pimp My Mallet

Two polo tournaments on the same day: First is the annual London Bicycle Film Festival tournament on Sunday 27th September. This will be the third time it’s been held. In 2007 there was glorious sunshine, last year there was torrential rain and half the teams stayed in bed. This year… who knows? Oxford should have three teams there if everyone gets their act together.

And for anyone living up North (or who just hates London) Edinburgh are holding The Scottish Inter-City Hard Court Bicycle Polo Tournament on the same day. Bit of a mouthful, but it’s a leisurely 1pm start and if it’s raining in London you can guarantee it’ll be dry up there (and vice-versa).

The final results for the European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships.

13th – The Toffs
25th – (tie) Drof Ox Flailer 3
31st – (tie) 3 Less Horse

Well everyone’s back and recovering from an incredible weekend. Unfortunately Three Less Horse and The Drof Ox Flailer Three were knocked out after the first two games, but The Toffs got pretty far…. maybe amongst the top 16 teams in Europe according to the scoreboard. I think. It’s double elimination, (winner’s bracket on the left, loser’s on the right) which makes interpreting the results slightly confusing. Hopefully EHBPC will publish some official results, in the meantime the top three teams in Europe are:

1. l’Equipe Genève (Geneva, Switzerland)
2. Malice International (London, UK)
3. Poloholics Toros (Munich, Germany)

Here’s some highlights from the tournament, courtesy of Cycle Oxford

All three Oxford teams made it through the group stage! Watch tomorrow’s action live online.

The Guardian suggests bike polo as a sport to try this summer. Bit loose on the facts/details and no mention of the upcoming European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships but nevermind.

Then there’s the Bicycle Film Festival polo tournament in London. And maybe more polo at Bike Blenheim Palace alongside the Brompton World Championship but I’ve only just read that on their website so what actually happens is anyone’s guess.

In the meantime come and play polo, 7pm Wednesdays in Marston (click for map).

We’ve registered 2 teams for this tournament. Info from the organisers:

“Ok, we’re going to have to close registration at 21. We’re pretty stoked that we’ve got that many teams coming up. It’s going to be great.

Registration will start at 10:30 AM on Saturday 11th. Play will start at 12:00 PM (NOON!) promptly.

The play will be Double Elimination. After registration we will randomly place all team names into the tournament brackets. Games will be FIRST TO FIVE or TIME OUT AT TEN MINUTES whichever is first. If the score is tied at ten minutes we will go to SUDDEN DEATH with the next goal scored winning the match. To keep turn around time as low as possible we will let teams know a few games in advance as to when they are playing next so teams can be ready to jump on as soon as the previous game finishes.

Before play we will also have a quick run through of a few rules (just to clear up any regional variations such as goal height limits etc etc) and then get straight in”

Better late than never… click here for the final scoreboard for the Cycle Oxford polo tournament, won by SEX-E.

The weather was perfect, 17 teams entered and everyone had a great time. Thanks especially to the 13 teams who travelled to Oxford from all over the country.

It’s almost summer and Oxford Cycle Workshop are launching their new training centre. To celebrate we’ve got a weekend of cycling festivities, including Oxford’s first ever proper hardcourt polo tournament! Games will start at 12:00 on Saturday 9th May, on the Marsh Lane court in Cowley. Try and get there for 11:00 so we can work out how many teams are playing and match up any extra players.

If you can stay around for Sunday too when there’ll be a few informal polo games, an alleycat, music, a bike mechanics competition and loads of other stuff.

If you thinking of coming you can register at www.oxfordpolo.eventbrite.com or drop an email to tournament [at] bikepolo.org.uk. Or just turn up on the day, we’re quite relaxed about this whole polo thing.

Two teams for this event, April 19th

1: ‘The Toffs: Corey, Dan and Alyn
2: name tba: Simon, Matt and Sarah

We’ll be camping in the peak district on Saturday night, heading into Manchester for the tournament on Sunday at 12