Tourney: EHBPC 2012 - Paris - 2012/07/19-21

The late bets win hmmmmmmm

No chance I'm honouring that! It must have been down to 4 teams by then!

Well done everyone, 5 th is pretty fucking good, spring break for the worlds!

Get in wild for da worlds :-)

And Luca's team

John H - Edisons v Call Me Daddy.

#justsayin

Badger was my MVP. Killed it all weekend!

Big up Bisons I reckon. When they showed up at Bristol, everyone was all like 'who are these headbutting guys?'. But now they're top-ten in Europe, and had to fight harder than most to even get the chance to show it.

Well done Call Me Daddy. I really hope (and expect) teams from Europe will dominate this year's World Championships!

Bison didn't try to kill anyone at bristol and were nice dudes, glad they did well. So jealous I missed all this and am gonna feel the same come worlds, thank fuck for the open.

Anyone still in Paris for the tour there's a group meeting at 2pm in little plaza in front of Palais Royal metro station, just north of the Louvre. Apparently there's a good corner near there to watch and drink beers in the sunshine.

Badger was my MVP. Killed it all weekend!

+1

Hooks and Edisons rank the same as last year in the end... I really wanted Edisons to take it!

I'll meet you guys there Ian.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kettlegun_dan/7617272294/in/set-72157630669407464/

Thanks for having me le big MAC! Sorry we didn't make it but it was fun.

Some great polo, the UK representing really well.

L'equipe vs. Spring break one of the cleanest most inspiring games of the tournament.
Well done erin and boagey for bossing it all weekend! And everyone for keeping the London corner rowdy!

Yeah polo!

So before it's lost in the ether, I'm keen to understand just how the 20 team 'wildcard' tournament suddenly became a 12 team event - just how much notice was given to the organisers by those countries and did the organisers consider or not have a shortlist of teams to fill those spots?

If the reasons for the non-take-up of those slots proves to be insubstantial then I would expect that those represented countries will be docked slot allocations in 2013 - it makes a mockery of all the long arguments and various qualification processes we and others have undergone if they can be tossed aside without repercussion.

Is it not reasonable to say that the UK could/would have filled a substantial number of those vacant berths with a 10 day notice period and I dare say the eastern Europeans would have been able to do the same?

and I dare say the eastern Europeans would have been able to do the same?

Nope... don´t think so. Non of the eastern european teams qualified for the wild card tournament went to Paris.

My team, Banana Thieves decided against it because one player couldn´t play in Paris due to work commitments. We could have played with a sub but decided to save our money and go to other tournaments (Karlsruhe and Pardubice) instead (after all thats what we "new scenes" were told to do ... -.- ). We did let the organizers know in advance though that we were looking for a team to take over our slot.

well done SB !

My team, Banana Thieves decided against it because one player couldn´t play in Paris due to work commitments.

So why did you attempt to qualify?

So why did you attempt to qualify?

At the time we went to Szeged to qualify for the Euros, we did not know that our 3rd player would not be able to make it to the Euros.

Also spending 300-400 Euros for just the wild card tournament ( knowing that it is likely that you will not make it through due to your 3rd teammate missing) was not very encouraging.

I enjoyed EHBPC very much, and playing with Passing Wind was great. Joe & Erin were fantastic, could see them both growing as players during the 2 days.

Favourite team by far: Gold. Young, fast, clean, skilful... if only they had NOT been commuting each day from Rouen, they might have gone further.

My MVP was Ryan, he was doing things on his bike that were just unbelievable.

The courts were really good, surface was smooth, and really grippy, especially in the heat. I think there was a slight slope on the 2 big courts, which I think is the reason that they were playing half-time; or it could be because of the sun, which was right in one team's eyes.

The boards were about as good as anything I have seen.

Everyone probably knows that Podium fell over in a big way on Friday, which led to some crazy match-ups, of which we were seriously on the wrong end of. I can't say, hand on heart, that we would have qualified if the games had came out different, but it was very discouraging to be win 0-3 loss, and find yourself playing Edisons 3-0, and then going in to the last game 0-5, and finding that we were playing Cosmic 4-1.

Overall, though, a great tournament, and yet another epic weekend with the London Polo Community, and the European Polo Community, merci Paris!

Thanks for tweeting Bill; kept people in the loop almost single-handed!

Those boards looked amazing. Looking forward to seeing more photos/video.

Thanks for tweeting Bill

It was my pleasure to tweet. It got so that no-one would say anything to me, for fear that it would end up all over the internet!

Seconded thanks for keeping us informed with the scores Bill. Sad not to be there but it made a dull Saturday go a lot quicker reading your entertaining bulletins .

So a few more teams dropped out, and some got promoted from the wildcard, so there are now 12 teams fighting for 4 spots, in 7 rounds of Swiss.

• Peinture French / FR
  
• Mum Lovers / FR
  
• Gold / FR
  
• Rat Trap / UK
  
• Passing Wind / UK
  
• Le Big Mac / UK
  
• Team Fishsticks / BEL
  
• Gipsy Kings / SPA
  
• Polotov / SPA
  
• Bike Pollo / ITA
  
• Milano Alfa / ITA
  
• Wheels of Fortune / GER
  
  

Guess we can't avoid a few all-London games...

I'm trying to find out which teams got 'promoted' from the 'wild card' without having to play - as far as I can tell, it was only Los Defensores from Spain? Be interested to know how the promotion was judged?

The countries posting no-shows for the 'wildcard' appear to be Switzerland (Ride or Die); Germany (Puzzles); East Central (Banana Theives/Tora Tora/Brown Bears); Benelux (Los Cavalhos). What teams/countries are missing from this list?

Teams were promoted via their country allocation. So if a main event team dropped out, then the best wildcard team from their country was promoted, and in turn the next team from the national qualifier was promoted to the wildcard.

So for example, say one of the UK teams couldn't have made it, Rat Trap would have been promoted to the main event, and then next best team in the qualifiers would have had a shot to go to the wildcard.

So for example, Alte Herren couldn't make it from Germany (at the last minute), so Schlammbeisser were promoted. As there weren't any more teams from Germany who could make the wildcard at such short notice they didn't fill up their wildcard allocation.

Puzzles did come, but as various other German teams needed subs they decided to split up, and fill those spots.

^ That makes organisational sense. If countries have fulfilled their initial slot allocations in this way then and at the organisers behest then that is fine. There are still countries/areas that couldn't/didn't do this though and therefore their allocation was proven to be incorrect from the outset.

Do we not believe collectively that 8 empty slots is plain wrong for such a prestigious event and that a modicum of procedural intelligence could have avoided this?

It sends the wrong message to the grass roots that the Euros is really an 'invitational' in sheeps clothing IMO if it isn't seen to try to extend and grow the polo family at every opportunity and level.

Worth noting that all 3 French wild-cards qualified, and London only managed to squeak in 'cos someone dropped out of main event. No more bitching about the French allocation.