Tourney: European Hard-court Bike Polo Championship - 01/02.08.2009

Got to say I had a marvellous weekend, amongst the prodigal polo children.
The organisation was top notch, food, sponsors, mechanics, Philly will have to go a long way to top this event, big big respect to Roxy and Otters and all the others who put in the hours to make this such a superb, well organised championships.
Some observations:
Watching the intensity ratchet up as the competition got into the final stages was amazing.
Seeing such a great crowd, cheering and yelling, and providing a great atmosphere for the players to perform in and to.
the camaraderie between every team in every match, whether they were winners or losers.
changing mallets on the fly
being caught in the dilemma of wanting to watch Horatio and the French/North American's play whilst also trying to watch BAD and Zombie United face off, decisions, decisions.
the taking over of the cat and mutton on friday night, with polo bikes galore...
seeing how close the matches became, how hard fought the struggle to five goals, and the relief once they got there...

great people, great weekend, great prizes, great competition, great hospitality.
What a great forum we are! Everyone involved you did real good. Thank you.

Oh and can anyone remember what the name of the Ice cream company was?
fuck me that was great ice cream.

Finished going through second card, click the photo for full set. Many thanks for a great day guys, superb (if stressful!) organisation

Oh and can anyone remember what the name of the Ice cream company was?
fuck me that was great ice cream.

Max and Daddy, I think?

Thats it! can't find a website though, and I know it was printed on the stand..arses.

I didn't see any of the Toros - Malice game, but I find it hard to believe that any of the refs cheated

Who said they cheated? I doubt that as well.

Cisco was crying when i told him that i had gone to polo and didn't take him :(
bad mum

Oh no! I particularly liked the small kids in the far corner who were chanting MALICE! MALICE! MALICE! throughout the final.

Ok guys i just got a call form Iain and they are woefully short of hands to help clean the site, please please please go down and give them a hand if you are able to.. even if just for an hour it'll make a massive difference. I know i'm posting this form work and lots of other are working too, but if like horatio your just being a hoser then get down there Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!
xb

thank you all from les debutantes team..
first polo tournament for us together, that was great.
thx roxy, ray, bill and volunteers.
thx londoners..

back in paris on wednesday, and already want to train for next one.

(agata, got a medium we can swap)

The whole thing was just perfect.
Thankyou LHBPA and the crew. You did everyone proud.
I love London polo.

Special mention to Netto and of course my heroes: Cosmic Tom & Cosmic Mat. ♡

Was a special weekend.

My final blog posting: Arkitip

the reffing was great, apart from the munich toros vs malice. That was a sham. Munich must have gone home feeling conned.

it was hard to tracking those situations via the online-stream. i thought there were more than one unclear situations? can anyone explain? many thx!

that was an amazing weekend

the goodwill, generosity of spirit from all involved (organisers, players and spectators) the good nature in which games were played, quality of polo etc etc

extreme unconditional love for the forum needs to be expressed

+rep to all involved

max you sneeky bastard! hahahaha!

LMAO! ^ genius!

I didn't see any of the Toros - Malice game, but I find it hard to believe that any of the refs cheated.As far as Yorgo's comments go, I have to say that these come from the same guy that took out a player at speed, got nowhere near the ball and then said that what he had done was a fair move.
I know that in one game I reffed (I think it may have been a Malice game), there was a shot which wasn't called a goal. The shooter thought it was a goal, but the goal ref, who was closer, and had an unobstructed view said it wasn't. In that situation, the line ref has to trust the judgement of the goal ref.
Mark, I was offered the slot on Discordia, but I turned it down because I had already agreed to ref. So I think you really have no right to criticise any of the reffing.
And I have to say, if you didn't like the goal-reffing, well, tough. We didn't have enough people to goal ref, because all the best London players were in the tourney - next time, let's have less London teams, and more properly briefed goal refs?Yeah, right.

Bill
the reffing was pretty much top-notch all over the weekend, apart from these 2 "goals", and I can tell you London's reputation will be tarnished by that. Munich were not happy, and I understand them.
But I guess this is the common lot of all ball sports, and there is no real way to avoid situations were there is an element of doubt. Criticism will always arise from all sides, there is no point in trying to suppress it.

re: my move on Stefan, in the moment it felt fair, just a bit physical, but I took my 30 secs out of the court, reluctantly but obediently.

My only worry is that in the long term, the free spirit of polo, which is what drew most of us to the sport, will be lost on an array of rules and regulations. Kev said it was the first time in his 6 years of playing that he saw proper reffing and penalties.

Hahahah! that's what he was talking about! He was standing in front of me and muttering something about if they held it up, they'd see the underneath in the pics!
I also just remembered, one of the female staff in strongarms thinking that the trophy was some sort of bong - and saying 'what the fuck is that' to one of the security - before being told and looking a bit silly.

Who said they cheated? I doubt that as well.

Calling it 'a sham' means you think it was 'a trick that deludes' - Webster's definition.

WICKED weekend and event!!! Well done everyone!

the guys from the us in the chat laughing all the time when i've explained them why these or that isn't allowed.

@yorgo: Cmon Yorgo you’ve been playing for 4 years and that’s all you can do?!
who was that? :)

Calling it 'a sham' means you think it was 'a trick that deludes' - Webster's definition.

Pedant. OED says: "a person or thing that is not what they are claimed to be"

;)

I'm off to help with this tear down stuff (thanks Brendan).

Awesome. There was so much passion in the final. I loved every moment.

Here's some photos what I took...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/supersim65/sets/72157621931316220/

bill the thing about malice v toros was that the crowd started to boo toros, (which was bullshit) and even the refs had a couple of difficult decisions, ray was really good in just calling it because i think both goal refs were unfairly pressured by the crowd. Such a difficult game to ref, credit to the toros for just sucking it up and not bitching though.

funny as fuck max.
:D