UK Polo Champs 2013 Discussion

Echoing John's comment but the massive bulk of effort for us was boards, goals, and permission to use the land.

Bristol's 2 courts = to Birmingham 2012 in terms of surface and size, with the bonus of being already boarded (cheaper/less organisation heavy) and having bonus facilities like toilets and showers, but the surface is not billiard-smooth a la Hackney 2011.

For what it's worth, polo now has set its bar too high on surface issues for other cities to begin to prepare to this 'standard'.

Bristol is therefore a perfect location and venue for a sub-30 team event, plus they have a great polo attitude and roast dinner resource.

UK Champs could be run over a May BH weekend, the Champs on Saturday/Sunday with, say, the top four qualifying for the Euros. A new qualification event could then take place at the same venue on the Monday for those teams outside the top four. Hey, the top four teams' players could even step up and ref the damn thing... ;-)

LO/regional tournaments are for polo player recruitment - UK Champs is the UK Champs/route to the Euros.

Bristol's surface is certainly better than the Birmingham UK Champs' courts. We had drains and weird holes to contend with, there's none of that at Bristol.

I'd say it's a bit slippier when wet than the weird painted (Brighton, Downs, Birmingham N Power) courts but not by much and definitely not enough to worry about.

I like Neil's idea about the top four qualifying and then another tournament for the remainder.

I would say most people's comments that have played the Bristol courts are spot on, I would like to emphasise how good the courts are: Large courts = fast games, boarded shoulder high = safe, toilets, showers. Good spectating area. It is a little slippy when wet but not that bad. It's a good balance and yes agreeing with Neil, the bar has been raised in standards and expectations of surface. Remember, nowhere is perfect but I reckon Bristol is about as good as it gets.

I think this week the Bristol group should get heads together and agree on whether we should host the UK Champs, the Euros not really feasible on 2 courts but we may be happy to host if no one else bids.

I don't think it has to though. If you look at somewhere like Newington, or the Cambridge Warehouse, where the courts are ready to go, it's pretty easy to put on a tournament.

Player fees will cover the court hire, no need for sponsors, you'd just need to sort out some places for people to sleep (the cheap hotel thing in Birmingham was ok for most people, or find a camping site), turn up on the day with a few gazebos, and you're good to go. Anything more than that is an optional extra.

But of course, it still needs you guys to want to do it.

Agreed, no different to NS for example.

Apologies we haven't met about this yet, mainly because we haven't played due to bad weather. I'll push for something this week at least for UK Champs.

I guess we need to know what month we will be expected to do this, something for the UK scene to decide on.

To comment further on court surface and compared to Hackney Downs and Brighton (University), I would say not as perfect as those painted courts, a tad better than Birmingham and much better than Newington.

Ideally what month are we looking at here? May?