Hardcourt is simply exploding in popularity now. I know that I’m preaching to the choir with most of you but hell this photo pretty much says it all.
Polo is everywhere!
The picture credit on the bbc says "John Barrowman joins the cast of the musical La Cage aux Folles in London's West End, playing drag queen Albin/Zaza."
We have secured a fantastic venue! Next to Borough Market and walking distance from London Bridge station. The best part is, no one has ever played polo here, so no home court advantage. We can’t wait to break in the hardcourt. And don’t worry, we’ll be supplying maps and directions from where most of you will be staying. Map Below
View European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship in a larger map
Rumour has it there are a few bike polo players that love the “beautiful game” as well. I’m not sure how they’d have the time to watch any footie if they’re true poloistas. However this Saturday they can get a touch closer to the football with their Polo-ing. Check out the news at Arsensal!
Come join us, say hi, and check out all the activities going on at Emirates Stadium. Details Here.
We’re playing from 12pm-6pm at the Southwest entrance of the Stadium. Look out for our brand new banner, it was just delivered today and looks awesome! We can’t wait to see it in the sun, and, well, hit it with polo balls…
We just had a fantastic day out playing for London’s 4 spots for the Euro’s. We had 9 teams competing and did a full round robin to determine who will represent London.
So, please welcome The Malicious James Brown Experience (seriously!?), Cosmic Cubed, Zombie United, and Rotten Apples to the Euros. I’ll get photos up here soon, the team page is now updated.
Many thanks to the other teams who competed (in no particular order), Freaky Sexx, JiHaD, Sitting Ducks, Polo Seagal, and Team Cinzano.
photograph by Slamm
Many of you know that last year for the Shoreditch Invitational Brooks gave a saddle to every player. It was great to see so many of these saddles on polo bikes at the ECMC’s last weekend. I guess Brooks can even withstand polo!
Well, Brooks have gone a step further this year. They have worked with the directors and designers of 5 of the major urban cycling events this year to make custom saddles in new colours in limited editions of 250 for each event.
I got to see the sample of the Euro’s saddles last week and it is gorgeous! Not only will we be giving away 3 of the saddles as prizes but they are saddles 1/250, 2/250 and 3/250, numbered and in limited edition (minimal) packaging giving credit to each of the designers.
Not only that but participants of the Euro’s will be able to buy our limited edition Swift saddles for less than a normal Swift. Brooks has really stepped up to back polo over the last two years and this is another step in the right direction.
Here are pix of the other saddles:
Tomorrow Arte will be showing London polo on their Tracks program at 11pm. While we have faith in Arte we don’t have much faith in our television personality skills. It must be said that we think it’s going to be quite a giggle. You may be able to see Roxy and friends get their butts kicked in Oxford and Mike build a mallet with no bolt. Yes, well, we can’t win them all.The good thing for us is that it’ll only be shown in Germany!
We’re sure it will be fun to watch so by all means, if you’re in Germany tomorrow night check us out at 11pm. Maybe you can even translate the German dubbing and let us know what we said.
If we’re not too embarrassed maybe we’ll post it here after airing so stay tuned.
The final game of the ECMC polo tournament this weekend in Berlin was nothing short of spectacular! The level of play in Europe has just exploded over the course of 2008. The Shoreditch Invitational, held last year in London, was won by a fantastic team from Munich, known cleverly as Munich 1.
However, the ECMC didn’t have quite the happy ending that Shoreditch had for those lovely Germans. Geneva, becoming known as a city to beat, snatched the trophy after a hard won battle between the two teams. Geneva came through the tournament without losing a single game and certainly deserved the win.
But now what?!? Rumour has it that Geneva has not bought their tickets to London to compete for the title of European Hard-Court Bike Polo Champions. To make it a bit easier for them to come we at the EHBPC have offered free entries to the Euro’s as 1st Prize for winning the ECMC’s.
So Geneva, the ball is in your court! Write to us and let us know that you’re not to chicken to come and play at the Big One!!! Get your butts to London you now have free entry and a place to crash. No doubt that should leave you with enough Pounds to buy the guys from Munich a pint when you get here.
Email info @ ehbpc . org to let us know that you’ll be taking us up on the offer.
The players at The Shoreditch Invitational 2008
With so many people traveling from all over we thought it best to let you know a rough schedule for the tournament. This will change in the lead up to the tournament but I don’t want people missing out on the awards (late Sunday night), or registration (mostly friday).
Like I said, this will change but just to give you an early indication of what we’re thinking, it looks a little something like this:
Friday July 31st, 2009
Time What
3:30pm Tour of London
6:30pm Registration of teams begins
Meet your landlord (meet who you’re staying with)
9:00pm Off to the pub:Meet & Greet
Saturday August 1st, 2009
Time What
7:00 Volunteers Arrive at court.
8:00am Players Arrive at court.
Late registration begins.
8:30 am Late Registration ends.
Welcome, t’s & c’s, ref intro, day brief.
9:00am Play starts.
8:00pm Play finishes.
Ride to party
8:45pm Sun down
Sunday August 2nd, 2009
Time What
7:30am Volunteers arrive.
8:00am Players Arrive.
Refs Arrive
8:30am Day brief
9:00am Play begins.
7:00pm Play ends
Ride to party
8:45pm Sun down
9:30pm All at party (after court tear down)
10:00pm Awards Ceremony (at the party)
We have a possibility of play going on until 9pm, so please don’t plan on the 7pm deadline.
Monday August 3rd, 2009
Time What
11:00am Player Breakfast
12:30am Pick up games
Last month we went to the bank to set up the bank account for our event.
The nice man who set up our account said, ‘how would you like to be greeted on your letters?’ and we said, ‘huh?’.
‘How would you like us to address you?’ he said.
And so, without missing a beat, we told him …
It seems though that Paypal and our bank are not a match made in heaven. It’s taken weeks to finally get the two to talk to each other, but now that we seem to have finally resolved their quarrel, we’d like to say sorry to anyone who had problems trying to get registered. If you’ve had trouble paying for your spot, you should also have received an email from us with an explanation of what to do to sort that. If not, drop us an email at info@ehbpc.org and we’ll find your details and let you know what you still need to do.
I am so excited to announce that Brooks Saddles has stepped up as a fantastic friend to bike polo.
Brooks will be sponsoring the North American Championships, the World’s and the Euro’s this year.
They have stepped up to make custom saddles featuring the logo of each event and they are also making a Barbican bag which will feature all 3 tournaments.
But they have gone even further! Brooks will be flying the winning team of the European’s (up to €2,500) to the World’s in Philadelphia!!!
If your team has already bought flights to the World’s we can refund the money (up to €2,500) if you win the Championships here.
The World Championship is also offering free entry into the tourney for the winners of the Euro’s. They have opened registration so make sure that you get registered. Again if you win the Euro’s they will refund your registration.
But oh no, that’s not all. Not being satisfied with awarding only the best polo team in Europe, Brooks would also like to award the team who made the tournament special just by showing up. Perhaps it was this team’s style, personality, grace, or sense of humour but Brooks will be awarding it with the Talent & Style Award at the European Championships. This team will also be flown by Brooks (up to €2,500) to the Worlds.
This award will be voted on by Brooks, myself, and the refs at the tournament, so make sure to treat our referees with respect.
So here is my big thank you to Brooks for stepping up and supporting our community by helping bring all of us together.
