London Bike Polo Court discussions

Yep, at the moment I'm doing this for the London Cycle Show proposal, so it would be bike polo specific but could also be London's pop-up court (easily disassembled and re-assembled) if they go for a build rather than hire approach.

fingers cross

ah.

Angled FTW!

Great work Jono!

Great work guys!
We'll bring a van from Paris and pick the court up right after the show, thank you for that, we really needed a court here.

haha

Yorgo, when you bring the van, can you bring those ski poles you promised ages ago?

ha!

OK a bunch of used ski poles VS a full court. Deal. Need a signed agreement from Jono asap.

He's from Devon, he can't even write his own name.

That's only slightly true.

Sweet banter.

On the corner thing, I don't remember there being a problem in with the court in KH. Am I remembering wrong, and what was the corner configuration there?

Also, my recollection is that the dimensions of that court were pretty much perfect.

The corners were 1 of the panels across at 45º.

If this is a pop up structure couldn't we have different versions of the corners and try them all?

the corner sections could still be 3m square, and the only difference in trying curved/flat 1m/flat 3m is the border?

Maybe every corner could be different, just to spice things up a bit!

Pop-up court logistics aren't making sense... they make sense for a very low walled court, but the cost for storing and transporting a court (potentially two courts) with 1m walls are huge. I'm of the opinion that low walls are pretty rubbish to use and don't really want to go down that route unless someone can convince me otherwise?

I'm now talking to a nice company that build skate parks, they're keen to do the build for the ExCel event and I'm trying to convince them to create two pop-up style courts that they can store for us long term and we'll then hire from them when needed (they can also then hire them out to roller/street hockey players and the like), might work, we'll find out this week... perspex walls behind the goals, hockey door entrance/exits, any other nice-to-haves?

Really hoping the ExCel people go for this, it could be awesome (we still need an enthusiastic event organiser if everything gets the ok though).

Is 35m x 15m too small for a court? From other tourneys (e.g. Greif Masters) and London's 'ideal' court it seems like the length is in the right ballpark, but will 15m wide be a really bad thing?

From my highly accurate comparisions (holding up a piece of paper against Google maps) it seems like this is about the same width as Downham.

Downham is wider than that (can't find my measurements now), plus it's still roughly an elongated square. My personal preference would be for a 25m x 21m shape (same square footage, extreme example, 19m x 28m would probably be better) as you can still "use" the space, but have no real length, meaning the game just gets a bit slower.

If you play within a long thin rectangle, the game changes in my opinion... people "dicking" the ball past each other to sprint to goal, very little space either side to play into and no opportunity for team plays/sweet passing (although long lobs could work?). It's the same for every team though, so if it's the only option, then it's still a level playing field?

people "dicking" the ball past each other to sprint to goal...

You've just dissed my entire 'game'... ;P

It's the same for every team though, so if it's the only option, then it's still a level playing field?

This.

Better than a poke in the eye with a cheater mallet though. I'll let the council know we want two courts for our tourney...

The bigger the better I think.

I think our court is 40x20m (a bit bigger than Newington) and it's awesome.

I reckon 20 X 30 is about right. More length than that, and it takes too long to move the ball up, and leads to negative play.

Bigger courts make the game faster though, no?