South London Bike Polo (Tues/Thurs/Sun) - Newington gardens SE1 / Agnes Riley gardens SW12

Interesting thread (not the personal stuff).

In Birmingham, we constantly come up against this problem, but in a much smaller scene our solution has to be different. Recently we split into three regular ABC teams, so that we could play competetively against each other when enough people are present. More recently, we've had a few new players coming along, and a few of the established team-members going AWOL, so games have got a lot slower/less competetive/more adventurous/more lighthearted or whatever, and there have been far fewer team games.

I think the whole 'throw-in/shuffle' tradition doesn't help, to the point that we often now use that only to decide who is playing. After the mallets are shuffled, we mix players up to create roughly even games. There is an emphasis on our A players bringing B and C players into the game, encouraging them, setting them up in goal scoring situations etc etc. Those games aren't really about winning, more about having fun and trying new things.

When we have a mixture of team-members and beginners, we'll alternate between team games and throw-ins, so beginners get a chance to pick up skills and learn the game, but more experienced players also get to play a few games where the focus is on winning, not wheelie goals/flashy passes...

Somebody mentioned once about how this is similar to what they do in Geneva, albeit at a higher level. Ultimately you need to improve everyone's standards if you want to raise your own teams' standards.

One thing I don't get about London though, is how come you don't make your league into two (or three) divisions? I guess geography represents a big challenge, but a smaller division would mean fewer games which would make organising games easier, right?