NE London Bike Polo: Wednesdays: Mitchison Road N1 / Weekends:Hackney Downs E5

Thanks for letting me lie on the court. More pics tomorrow

                   ![](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7144/6414268689_20d559e4ef_b.jpg)

^ Great shot...

Sexy.

Since when was it capped?

It is a good idea to cap it at three teams. It's only 1.5 to 2 hours, which is perfect for three teams. Four teams would be too many.

When we used to do team nights, they were always capped at four teams, and that was often too many. Three is the perfect number.

I disagree, and in any case, I think, given the problem with NE courts, we need to start team games earlier on a Sunday, and finish by 1130.

or separate out into Downs and London Fields to start with, like we did a few weeks ago, that works...

Just split the games into Saturday/Sunday across the two courts. Cosmic team games at Downs on Sunday is a very regular thing (until midday or so).

London Fields is a great spot to pick up new players (although the court is shorter than Downs by a few meters which is a shame), the brewery is just around the corner and does awesome beer/BBQ plates every Saturday until christmas.

Teams will do their own things (in my experience) regardless of what the forum says, it's up the involved teams if they want three/four/whatever teams to play..?

(As always, if you turn up to a court you'll usually be included, but let's not rain on the "team games" parade.)

On another note,

I really think we should talk to gll(?) And open a discussion about block booking downs, and finding out what kind of discount/amount of cash up front we need. They might take us a bit more seriously and as someone mentioned courtside, the amount of admin for them will go down.

Currently they're trying to enforce that we pay more than £10 an hour as it's "unfair" to their other customers, would people want to block book if the price was in excess of £10 an hour? I wouldn't.

I think a better way for us to approach this would be to ask Hackney/London why we aren't currently allowed to use the court lights and why their sports facilities are "inaccessible" compared to other London boroughs?

GLL are a large profit-centric management company as far as I can tell... we may be pissing in the wind by further discussing Downs with them directly, etc?

I'll happily pass on a summary-to-date and all the relevant contact details if someone wants to take this on, Oliver would be an asset/great source of info too.

My advice would be to wait until we know more about the possibility of fitting timers. This will require patience and will no doubt be annoying in the meantime, especially as the evenings are getting shorter. It will be worth it in the longer term, though, and for both sides. It can't be rocket science to fit timers. The mills of officialdom sometimes grind slowly, but you get more sustainable results that way.

I'm also surprised that the London Fields court is so much shorter than the Downs court--was that always known when the specs were drawn up, Jon, or did it surprise you, too? I thought the MUGAs were usually done to a standard specification (and there doesn't seem to be any obvious reason here to save space, unless perhaps the London Fields User Group requested the court to be shorter). It might be worth discussing sizes again with the MUGA builders?

I agree, in excess of 10/hr is outrageous ,but have we asked about block booking? That might give us a better price (less admin/man hours for them). Might be worth one last try before plan b (which i like the sound of) just to get a figure?

I would like to take this up, but cant really email/phone people that much as i can only use my phone to check forum/email for 30mins on lunch. I feel like you need to be able to pester people all day long, am i wrong?

It is a good idea to cap it at three teams. It's only 1.5 to 2 hours, which is perfect for three teams. Four teams would be too many.

When we used to do team nights, they were always capped at four teams, and that was often too many. Three is the perfect number.

I disagree, and in any case, I think, given the problem with NE courts, we need to start team games earlier on a Sunday, and finish by 1130.

Which part do you disagree with. It is a fact that team night games were historically capped at four teams, and there was a lot of bitching about that being too much.

So you are suggesting that more than three teams should play during a 2-hour window? I've played a lot of team game sessions, and three is the perfect number: 2 games on, 1 game off. That is serious practice. Otherwise it's just another fucking party.

Alternatively, why don't we invite every single team to play every single team practice session, then we can get no serious practice and continue to suck on the international circuit. And Bill can bring his drums for a drum circle.

I'm also surprised that the London Fields court is so much shorter than the Downs court--was that always known when the specs were drawn up, Jon, or did it surprise you, too?

The polo community sent over our "perfect" court (at the time) which was 30m x 20m, I imagine this would have been a consideration (Bruce the Hackney Parks Development Officer did a great job of reaching out to different potential court users as far as I can tell), but for whatever reasons (unknown to me), the MUGA is the size it is... maybe the LF user group had a say, maybe it was a cost thing, not sure.

And Bill can bring his drums for a drum circle.

Not only do I not own a drum, I have never owned one. And as fas as being a hippy goes, well, it wasn't me that was giving anti-capitalist speeches to a bunch of soap-dodging layabouts, was it?

#sckbrn

Whatever Mr Lived in a Squat for Ten Years. How often did you shower then?

Whatever Mr Lived in a Squat for Ten Years. How often did you shower then?

Showers are for entryists, and other revisionist scum. Real subversives take baths.

Bathers unite, you have nothing to lose except your rings!

Can I request that Bill and Vidal give everyone plenty of notice regarding the scheduling of their league fixture?

I would like to ensure that I can attend.

Can I request that Bill and Vidal give everyone plenty of notice regarding the scheduling of their league fixture?

I would like to ensure that I can attend.

It's ok, Jono, you're going to be reffing, so don't get too excited. You can count up to 5, can't you? Because that's how many we're going to score in each game.

It's ok, Jono, you're going to be reffing, so don't get too excited. You can count up to 5, can't you? Because that's how many times I'm going to be sinbined in each game.

Ftfy

Jono wouldn't dare to sin-bin me.

Dr Chukker, on the other hand, Mr Light Touch Reffing personified, gave me a 30 second for a trivial, completely inadvertent & utterly insignificant minor violation. The puffed-up posturing popinjay.

I thought you said you never complain about refs...