Tourney: 2009-10-17/18 - BFF Paris Polo Tourney

You should have come to philly, see how those Americans do it. ;)

Yea, and I understand Marc was there...

I don't feel resentful about paying €20, I got a sweet t-shirt, and played some great polo, on both courts. You make do with what's offered, that's how you roll when you got to someone else's event. You don't jump up on stage at a concert and re-tune someone's guitar, do you?

I did lots of reffing both days, I enjoyed it. I had a goal dissallowed the second day because of the on/off balljoint rule, but actually, the geneva goal ref and luis the main ref both called the goal, It was a LONDONER who called it a non-goal. That says a more about us as a community than paris.

Gabes, I feel like you're re-iterating my point.

No, you don't jump on stage at a concert and re-tune someones guitar but that's exactly what we had to do in order to get some organisation.

I did a lot of reffing on both days, both courts on one day... your point? It's always the best seat in the house when you ref!

"I had a goal dissallowed the second day because of the on/off balljoint rule, but actually, the geneva goal ref and luis the main ref both called the goal, It was a LONDONER who called it a non-goal. That says a more about us as a community than paris."
--I don't quite get your point here. Yea, it says that London as a community is honest and will stick to the rules even on it's own kind?

You should have come to philly, see how those Americans do it. ;)

What happened in philly is not representative of most tournaments in the states! Those were the worst tournament courts most of us had ever seen.

Thing is, when two courts are separated, it makes things difficult. i think that each court requires a full-time person (you would call them "whips", right?) to do the communications between courts and make sure everything is working out--we didn't even have cell phone contact this weekend between courts. Despite that, there was fairly little lag time between games, and what there was was filled with a couple throwins that are so essential at tournaments. A few unnecessary trips back and forth for a few people for sure unfortunately.

Overall i had a great weekend, awesome polo despite the small and uneven courts, great atmostphere.

Ray, Horatio, and the rest of BAD, i may forgive you someday for not showing up.

;1015871']Yea, and I understand Marc was there...

Gabes, I feel like you're re-iterating my point.

No, you don't jump on stage at a concert and re-tune someones guitar but that's exactly what we had to do in order to get some organisation.

I did a lot of reffing on both days, both courts on one day... your point? It's always the best seat in the house when you ref!

"I had a goal dissallowed the second day because of the on/off balljoint rule, but actually, the geneva goal ref and luis the main ref both called the goal, It was a LONDONER who called it a non-goal. That says a more about us as a community than paris."
--I don't quite get your point here. Yea, it says that London as a community is honest and will stick to the rules even on it's own kind?

How am I reiterating your point? I had fun, I enjoyed the polo, you didn't. I made the most of it. I'm not here to bitch, I know the courts weren't great, but Marc and Luis put in a lot of work on this. Maybe they didn't have the support they needed, but they made the effort nonetheless, and for that I am grateful, rather than critical and ungrateful. I'm sure they are capable of learning from the things that weren't great this year and next year will be more brilliant.

i actually preferred the rubber court. that surface was great to play on for consistency. flubbed shots can be avoided with a proper swing. the boards were shit, but all that was really needed was some plywood that could hold up to a proper shot.. i think everyone knows what needs to go into a great tournament, yet everyone is so excited to play that sometimes things get left. marc and luis did a really great job to get games played and lots of them, that was clearly their main focus and they did that well. i've never been to a tournament where you could play 7 games by winning only two, yet thats what my team did in paris!

kev is right, each court needs a full-time ref or manager, and i think 3 copies of a printed rule book. in this instance, multilingual rule books would have been helpful.
also the stonewall court learned us to consider the sun for fall/winter tournaments in the future- what a beautiful day we had there!

edited to not sound so negative, because the weekend was great!

Absolutely. I told both Marc and Louis thank you for a great weekend. They brought together so many people for a great weekend. I also told them my opinion on the courts. Marc and I had a short discussion about how much of a learning experience it can be.

Red wine €1.42 per bottle. Awesome weekend! So much fun risking life and limb riding drunk around those mad roundabouts...

What an exciting tournament to watch and Los Coños were definitely better at cheering than scoring goals.
Well done to Sarah for struggling on with bosted wrist and ankle!

We didn't play the german girls officially but me and Jo played throw ins with them yesterday. We now know we're not that rough after all!

ooh, what were they like to play against? a lot of mallet hacking?!

Yeah loads of mallet hacking but I gave it back and scraped the skin off Angie's knuckles, I felt well guilty and had to stop.
Got really annoyed with Jo when she started hacking me too!

Who's up for Karlsruhe in Feb?

less than the 7 year old but more elbows. dirty girls. nice off court though.

from what i can gather the whole tournament, that we just experienced, from friday to sunday was organised by two people. in a very short amount of time. amazing feat that i would be more than proud of.

paris was awesome, great people, great polo, great bread, great roundabouts, great chevre...

Who's up for Karlsruhe in Feb?
Yes.

great roundabouts

Bastille is so much fun to go around!

Chan de triomphe is the best!

[..]
from what i can gather the whole tournament, that we just experienced, from friday to sunday was organized by two people. in a very short amount of time. amazing feat that i would be more than proud of.
[..]

That's a good point, considering that there really is a massive shortage of playgrounds in paris, it's a lucky thing they found 2 courts so near to each other.

I agree there could be more people officially assigned to ref the tournament, and communication between the courts, but it somehow all worked out at the end.

Overall amazing weekend, bring on Karlsruhe !

oh and 8 hours of throw-ins on monday were so much fun. No Wheelie no goal.

less than the 7 year old but more elbows. dirty girls. nice off court though.

from what i can gather the whole tournament, that we just experienced, from friday to sunday was organised by two people. in a very short amount of time. amazing feat that i would be more than proud of.

paris was awesome, great people, great polo, great beard, great roundabouts, great chevre...

fixed.

@kev i'm ginger you have to forgive me. WHen are we gonna do the 'hair consistency and colour tournament'~? You me and the FAG are gonna rule!

oh and 8 hours of throw-ins on monday were so much fun. No Wheelie no goal.

That's why I'm so knackered! Forgot we played for that long.
My bruises are coming up nice now too.

Mike[trampsparadise] Basically I feel as though half of London polo just paid to travel to Paris, paid €20/each to enter and organise a tournament.

oh thank you so much man. I ll keep that in mind.

Sorry to hurt your feelings Louis. Like I told you Sunday night, regardless of anything it was a great weekend that yourself and Marc created.

Absolutely no offense. Just read and remember.

Everytime I assisted a tourney, I thaught it was the best time ever. And everytime it keeps improving. Taking part to the organisation an seeing all the smiling faces makes me not only very proud but also very happy. Despite drunk heads, violence, accidents, rules, refs, courts, rush, no sleep, netto snoring, beeing sick past week, making sure everyone had a place to sleep, Marc and I managed to play. We did our very best on and off court. Marc said it : we maybe organized it but all of you made it happen.

Monday throw ins from 12 till 5 with Cento Agata Conos Braley Netto Malice and all the Germans was loads of fun. No wheelie no goal - John tried so hard. "I can feel it, give me the ball now!"

Oh yeah and I forgot to say :

it was my first final in an international tourney, so playing against l Equipe (that I saw win the Euros) was a total honour

"U loose, but still feel you've won"

And Adam is the best goalie.

That's it

more pics:

and more here:

Bbf?

I had a goal dissallowed the second day because of the on/off balljoint rule, but actually, the geneva goal ref and luis the main ref both called the goal, It was a LONDONER who called it a non-goal. That says a more about us as a community than paris.

Are you implying that a Londoner should have sided with you because you are a Londoner?

I was thinking this too- it would be rather a positive sign if a person who obviously wants your team to win is a fair judge and gives a no-goal according to the rules.