London Bike Polo

Hey all!
in town for a few days, hoping to swing by the Bricklane courts, or at least meet up for a pint?
just got back from Beijing's first ever Polo Tournament and Alley Cat, and lookin to hang . . .

i'll come looking on Sunday, but any suggestions of where to head to monday or tuesday evening? im just in town til wednesday afternoon [work work work]. and oh. i have no bike, so its the underground for this one.

yippee!
.fin.
[alexis]

Munich is where you want to be...
http://www.londonfgss.com/thread17992-7.html#post780949

Brick Lane doesn't really happen any more. Sat and Sun generally happen at Downham now. http://www.londonfgss.com/thread6372-62.html

Tuesday will probably be a team night at Downham, but you can show up and get some games in.

Dowhnam is NE Court on this: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=102387196949071276016.000457dc513638666284c&ll=51.528397,-0.109177&spn=0.21359,0.497131&t=h&z=11

Monday, either south beers or west polo, your choice... i'll be going to both :-)
There's threads about both and the first post of both (I think) have directions/maps...

OK I've been trying to motivate people to start playing bike polo here in London, after having played a lot in NYC this winter, but everyone seems a bit limp about it. Keith from Condor told me he plays sometimes with a freewheel MTB on grass or something.

I wanna import the real thing here:

It's obviously funnier and more challenging on a fixed!

Who's up for it?

We need:

• Concrete tennis court, walled.
  
• mallets
  
• traffic cones
  
• 6 players to start with
  
  

and that's it!
I know the rules, super easy:
**general rules for bike polo:

-teams of three players with no alternate players permited. equipment subs allowed. ie bikes, wheels, mallets.
-any two wheeled bicycle is allowed at the discrection of the judges.
-mallets must have a pipe of some sort for a striking surface. also the judges call. size and materials are the biggest safety factors.
some examples of shaft material are ski poles or golf clubs cut to size and bamboo. 32 to 42 inches in length. Mallet head materials are various plastics and sometimes wood, NEVER metal. 6 to 7 inches in length and not larger around than a street hockey ball
-the ball will be a street hockey ball
-goals will be a pair of orange cones 150cm wide for each team
-if a goal is disruped it is the responsability of the player who disruped it to fix it. no bull shiting around. anything scored on a disruped goal is at the discretion of the judges to count.
-the games will be timed. games will end with a team scoring 3 or 5 goals OR time expiring at ten min. finals will be five goals or 15 min.
-start of a game both teams will be stoped on there own goal line and the ball at center court. play will begin with a "3 2 1GO!" from the judges.
-players may not play the ball with there feet at any time.
-scoring. goals must be made from what started as a hit. a hit is made from the end of a players mallet. shuffels do not count as goals.
-after a goal is made. the scoring team returns to there half of the court. the scored on team brings the ball into play after both teams are on there own sides.
-call out the score after a goal.
-passing thru the back of a goal. when passed thru a goal a ball can not be hit into the goal till two differnt players have made contact with the ball. however if a ball is shot from in front of the goal line and does not score but bounces off the back wall and comes out thru the goal, that ball is in play and can be scored.
-foot down. a "ring the bell" rule will be in effect. "circle out" is not allowed. on a footdown or "dab" that player may not hit the ball till they ring the bell. the bell will be on the side line at center court.
-contact rules. like contact is allowed. player to player, except grabbing with hands. mallet to mallet. bike to bike.
-everything else is not allowed. such as mallet to player. player to bike. mallet to bike. ect.
-throwing of mallets is not allowed at any time
-shit talking is allowed**

Fucking awesome.

I'm up for it... though perhaps not on the Jackson.

But are these the NYC, Swiss or Danish bikepolo rules?? I'll give it a go though.

where are these guys now?

wow you unearthed the sacred polo tables!

i think you mean tablets yorgo.

tablets?

no, tablets, of the religious variety.

Oh dear. I sense a bunch of age-related jokes in the not-too-distant future.

Oh dear. I sense a bunch of age-related jokes in the not-too-distant future.

YouTube - Radiohead - Just

I'm assuming this is by a friend of yours, Yorgo?

http://mashakarpushina.blogspot.com/2009/04/to-backtrack-little-more-here-is.html

Priceless!

It's missing a caption: "hairy legs"

I did notice a number of London poloengers rocking the cropped shorts/jeans yesterday, however.

Yorgo Tloupas, inventor of London bike polo fashion.

one leg hairier than the other.

Oh bliss beyond imaginings.

damn how did you find this??? That's my friend Masha, she lives right around the corner from downham and is an illustrator. Very hot russian girl too.

hook me up

Ha.

"Well, I'm the inventor of this thing...." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Orly"

look how Marc is following all the mentor moves

look how fascinated lance is!

Yorgo - "i've done some showbiz"

Lance - "i didn't know those creatures from star wars were real..."

yorgo - "ah ah! yeah, make up was only, like 5 minutes... good times"

Lance - "o'rly?"

yorgo - thoughtful gaze into the distance - maybe focusing on a galaxy far far away...