We have a date! EHBPC 2010…

16-18th July is when the Europe’s best Hardcourt Bike Polo team will be found. Hosted by Geneva this should be one hell of a tourney. For more info click here.

How did I forget this… Polo Manual

From Brendan, Blunt Films:

Played at the 2009 Bicycle Film Festival in many cities around the world. This is my small and very quick love letter to the london polo community. An instruction booklet of sorts, encompassing the things you need for bike polo. In reality all you need are: bike.mallet.ball.5friends.

To view Polo Manual Click here

Dr Chan is LOL cat (repost)

As well as playing some great polo in London we also have plenty of time for computer “banter” (sh!t talking). Hopefully these next set of images wont get lost in internet translation.

So a thread started about polo players looking like cats. Dr Chan a player from Team Netto (Manchester), Seen here in the middle (photo taken of the 2nd place winners of Londons BFF. By Agata)

He looks like this when playing polo…

Someone found this picture…

…so then…

Buffalo Bill…

Todd…

Roxy…

Our beloved goals…

Last but in no means least…

If you dare to read some more check out the LFGSS thread

EUROs 2010, Only 4 of Londons best can go through

Tension is mounting as Geneva are hosting the 2010 European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships. Here’s Europes allocation:

There is enough space for 48 teams.
The names of selected teams need to be know by first may 2010.

1) Each of the thirty cities that pre-registered gets one team
2) Each city that requested 3 or more spots gets 2 spots.
3) Each city that registered 5 or more spots gets 3 spots.
4) The biggest polo community (and organizers of EHBPC 2009) gets 4 spots.

List:
City: number of teams allowed to come to Ehbpc 2010

London:4

Genève:3
Paris:3
Hollande:3
München:3

Karlsruhe:2
Frankfurt:2
Berlin:2
Catania:2
Barcelona:2
Manchester :2
Rouen:2

Wien: 1
Bern:1
Lausanne:1
Basel:1
Copenhagen:1
Hamburg:1
Leipzig:1
Grenoble:1
Toulouse:1
Lyon:1
Cambridge :1
Birmingham:1
Oxford:1
Milan:1
Rome :1
Vicenza:1
Fano:1
Budapest:1

The names of selected teams need to be know by first may 2010

London as one of the main polo players in Europe as you can see have been allocated 4 spots. In London players are getting pretty excited (me included), no less than 13 teams have expressed an interest in qualifying for the Euros.

Teams from London are:

1. Rotten Apples (Em, Gabes, Rik)
2. Cosmic (Mat, Todd, Tom)
3. BAD polo (Aidan, Brendan, Dave)
4. Los Coños (Ali, Jo, Sarah)
5. ELKs (Ali, Jon, Ray)
6. Sparkle Motion (James, BDW, TBC)
7. ZU (Brian, Hassan, Mike, Yorgo)
8. The Fifth International (Andy, Iain, Matt)
9. La Schmoove (Dave, James, John)
10. Spinal Tapout (Aram, Ed, Prav)
11. Fiasco (Adrienne, Tony, Josh)
12. Three Beards (Bill, Mark, Rupert)
13. Massive Cogs (Cameron, Emmet, Jon/TBC)

This tourney alone is shaping up to be pretty hot. Lots of frenzied discussions are going on about more teams wanting to enter the London qualifiers. This is probably going to be held in late April. Stay tuned here to find out more developments with the 2010 Euro’s and London’s Qualifiers.

Polo photos by Wigan Will

So in London… we have this really annoying guy that comes to the court and constantly takes photos of us, his name is Will but boy he does take some really good photos.

I don’t know what it is but he seems to capture the court side behaviour spot on.

Keep up the good work Will!

New polo kit.

Fellow Elk (east london knight) Ali has got a bit of a cold. So for our fixture this week against the Dinos wore new polo attire!

Tomasito and B are back…

… and what they bring with is a 10am start to polo this Saturday at Downham

Breakfast polo is where its at.

Dapper Dan and his broken thumb…

We haven’t had any major injuries for a while. Dan came off his bike this week from a slippy drain cover at Mitchitson Road polo court during throwins…

A few quotes from the polo forum to get a flavour of what actually happened:

from me:

found myself just editing the League blog…. and news just in from Dr Chukk…

Quote:“chukker_norris Dapper Dan just broke his hand, bone popping out of skin. #bikepolo #wet#hardcourt. black rebel down. #lbpl”

from Golden wheel:

“He slipped out on a muddy drain cover at mitch. Xd up bars and went down hard. We had to call for an ambulance. Vidal waited with him, but only so he could get on the gas! Dan was cool as could be.”

from Dapper:

“Cheers everybody, and a massive thank you to everyone who helped me out last night. You are all lovely people.
The thumb is broken, got a cast on it and an appointment at the fracture clinic this morning. Bummer.
Disappointingly didn’t get any gas in the ambulance as he couldn’t find some kind of attachment for the canister, “good job you’re not in screaming agony” he quipped. Yes, I though, good job. I did get my heart rate tested which was in the 40’s which had them worried but then they just figured I was really fit, like some kind of superhero.”

“Just got back from the hospital where the nice men tied surgical tape round the end of my thumb to make a strap which one of the pulled full-on hard outwards along the length of my thumb whilst the other pushed it sideways into place, properly mauling it in. Nice. Seems to have done the job though. Thank Jesus for local anesthetic.”

From Jesus:

“It’s the least I could do for such a fine chap.”

Heal up Dan.

Oh my… Rearing its ugly head 2 on 2 Valentines tourney 2010

THIS IS JUST A GENERAL WARNING.

Greif Masters 2010 – 1st Bikepolo Tournament Karlsruhe 05-07.02.2010

Holy Crap!!!! Not very long now to see whos gonna top the tourney that’s happening in Karlsruhe in a couple of weeks.

London is showing up in full effect with with no less than 7 teams. For full team lists check it out here and for the main site. Woop!

Lets hope someone from London brings home the trophy.