Cambridge Polo

unfortunately it was a "one off" production for some messenger event

POLO TODAY!

Bogey, Nathan, Lee and myself will be down Newmarket Road in about 20 mins.

Come one, come all.

Polo today was awesome. Lovely weather and some good games.

Unfortunately we were approached by a woman who works in (runs?) the community centre. Apparently she has received complaints from a few mums across the street that we have been turning away kids that want to use it and telling them that we have hired it for the day. We pointed out that we have never said that we have hired it. She said that if kids come down to use it we should let them. She doesn't mind us using it at all but the parents of the kids have been annoyed that we have used it all day and turned their kids away.

I don't really know what the best thing to do would be. She said we could hire it but that would be £10 p/hour (which between ten or so of us is not much but still, who wants to pay for a court that should be free). I think the best thing would be to see what happens tomorrow. I guess no-one wants to piss people off but at the same time being turfed off the court for a few kids to piss about on kind of sucks. Eddie has gone on another huge ride around checking out some other courts so we'll see what comes of that.

Balls, basically.

Early start tomorrow? 10 ish?

i've not been down, is it too small to share?
because everyone has a right to use it free, and we can be bumped off by a coupla kids...

oh well...

Eddie'll sort something out!

Yeah, that's kind of my point. It is for EVERYONE and even though it sucks there's nothing we can really do. Apart from punch them all in the teeth.

And yes, we definitely need the whole court!

Apart from polo mallet them all in the teeth.

fixed.

Anyway chaps, after 4 hours and 34 fenced courts i could find within the radius of 5 miles of cambridge centre I found nothing better than what we already have.
I am sad to tell this, but every court I went to either had grass/rubber surface or the fence was damaged and not connected properly to the court ground like this:

or even worse in nice courts like these:

There were poles sticking out for tennis nets like this:

I think about 70 or 80% of the courts were tennis courts with irremovable net poles - and you can't play with those things in the way.
Ive seen some seriously good ones, but they all have like poles and shit sticking out right in the middle of the court. Ive had to jump a few fences and invade private property to get to some (ripped knees and broozed hands) yet still i found nothing better than what we currently play on.

The only real better court minus the fact the it doesnt have lights is that Arbury community centre one:

But this court is always quite busy and there are even more kids there on a sunday wanting to play football, and if not kids then annoying chavs claiming it as their and getting in the fucking way. So I think this court maybe a no no.

However, i actually did find ONE good court. The surface is great, the size is great, it has 4 floodlights and little goal areas too. HERE:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=52.224471,0.150311&sll=52.224489,0.150577&sspn=0.001009,0.002843&ie=UTF8&ll=52.224474,0.150405&spn=0.001009,0.002843&t=h&z=19

But to get to it I had to climb over a fence (not a great idea to do that weekly), there is cctv there to watch you too. Its located in some kind of primary school, so I assume its not being used on weekends. I presume we can arrange some sort of hiring and floodlighting if matters come to worst. But as far as using a free court I think what we're using at the moment is the best choice. Here is the Chesterton Primary School's little playground.

So just to conclude my boring speech, the two courts we have to choose from are the one we use now on Newmarket Road and THIS one in Chesterton, everything else in Cambridge is worse.

Well scoped. I also admire your graphics. We should head down Newmarket Road tomorrow as normal and then if shit goes bad we can maybe discuss future plans I guess.
.

if we agree to hire the court in Newmarket road for 3 hours every sunday that's 30 quid between about 15 which is a couple of quid each . Maybe then find somewhere to go afterwards for free or during the week then at least sunday polo is definitely confirmed .

Sounds good. I'll try find contact details etc now.

We don't want to deprive the locals of their facilities , if we pay we'll get more games on the court. it would be cool if the council provided sports facilities for free but at least it's cheap. Feb's Roller derby girls pay £117 for 3 hours in cherry hinton hall .

Awesome. Email address is eastbarnwellcc@hotmail.com aswell if you need it.

I'll PM it if you want ?

I got the number for the place but it is open 9:00 til noon mon to fri. I might shoot them an email just to find out what the deal is and how to arrange payment etc. Also might try and wangle it down a few pounds if we agree to rent it every sunday for however long.

Maybe we could have some fundraising too pay for the court fees, balls and ski poles etc . Jumble sale, Gig, tombola ,raffle, beetle drive, sponsoring, or something ?

I love all of those ideas.

All at once? A sponsered jumble sale gig, with beetle driving, tombola raffle ? maybe a Bingo, dog racing, chav baiting rave after? or is that a normal evening in Great Yarmouth?

Ha!

Gig etc is definitely a good idea. Maybe some sort of polo event so people can really see what we're raising money for. It might get a bunch more people in Cambridge interested in playing and give us some more leeway with securing somewhere good to play on.

A free gig with a raffle of donated stuff and a jumble corner . Sometimes if the door is free then more people come, and then they spend more on all the fun and games than you'd of made on the door..... Trackstand comp + skiddy comp too ? portland or somewhere . Source bar is free .

well done eddie for scouring cambrdge, ou've done a good job. get the afternoons pics up though! no more to say other than we need to stump up funds every week. whoever isnt playing polo at the time, pleasae speak to the children who walk by, we dont want to infringe on the locals any more than neccessary. im happy to pay money to play, although i feel two hours worth of rent is worthy enough.

just a few PICTAZZZZ from saturday, up on flickr here
didnt bother putting them all up

cool pictures eddie

note to poloists on Tuesday - i'm going to book the newmarket road court for Tuesday night at 7:00 for one hour.

What about sundays?

I thought i'd book and pay for it for tuesday, and ask about sunday booking. However, i've tried four times and left messages without a response. At least we can say we tried! She has my number on her voicemail so when she gets it i'm sure she'll call.