Tourney: EHBPC 2010 Geneva - 16-18.07.2010

The organisation was superb. The courts, the scheduling, the bunkers, the lunches..

Absolutely. So impressive - 3 courts is the way forward for tournaments of this size I reckon.

An incredible weekend. I was so impressed by the high standard of teams from all over Europe. So many different styles and hardly any unfair/dangerous play in the games I saw. The new(ish) rules were tough for the refs to impose but that's another area which is improving with some people getting really good at controlling games and encouraging the best polo.

Thank you from Birmingham to all of the organisers and volunteers.

Any rumours for who's hosting next year?

how the fuck did you drive this morning? Mirek said you both slept at the court!

with great difficulty, at one point my cap on the dashboard started to change shape and morph, it was then i started to worry, but aido whipped out the cycle related hang man and i managed to hang in.

Thanks so much GVA
the food / courts / weather / city all top notch, best i've ever been to. Rules and reffing as usual caused a little confusion but as dave said, we got to enjoy the polo show. apples to come back form 4-0 down when they were really unhappy at getting knocked into L by cosmic was the moment of the weekend for me. The crowd got so behind them and lifted them with an amazing level of volume and support, Rik pulled off one of the individual performances to keep his team in it, and scored the funniest goal i've ever seen. "whooa argh ja ja ja" BANG! All the apples were brilliant, but Rik just had one of those moments. The match against toros followed, with lots of "nein eddie". I've never seen gabes with a bigger smile than toros 2-0 down with 3 minutes left.
Cosmic played great, in the last few games, to come back and beat el club in the L bracket, (super physical) and go on to play for 31 minutes against the fittest fastest players in the world in my opinion. They nearly edged them, so close, a glowing tribute to cosmic V.1

For me Manu is still head and shoulders above any player in the world, fast, calm, technical and accurate.

Thanks to Europe. x

oh yeh and doing all your group games on one court in one session, brilliant. take note berlin!

oh yeh and doing all your group games on one court in one session, brilliant. take note berlin!

+1, i thought that was going to be shit, but it was the exact opposite.

So many different styles and hardly any unfair/dangerous play in the games I saw. The new(ish) rules were tough for the refs to impose but that's another area which is improving with some people getting really good at controlling games and encouraging the best polo.

Yep, I think that was down to most players following the "don't be a dick" rule and avoiding lots of risky/dangerous play though, the refereeing was pretty inconsistent across the courts and non-existent at times.

The rest of the tournament was phenomenally organised, really impressive stuff, but I think it's pretty pointless having a comprehensive set of rules until we up the standard of refs, hats of to Cosmic and L'Equipe in the final... a beautiful game, loved every minute of it.

Yeah, the drive back was pretty trippy, those endless autoroutes just make you space out.

The drive to Karlsruhe was pretty amusing, Brendan needing new tyres in the middle of belgium. Officially the worst roads ever, and even worse drivers. Then the skid-pan ripping under the engine of my car as I hit 200kph (125mph) on the autobahn! Getting to karlsruhe late afternoon and it was 40ºC, heading to the court, and then epic storm and BBQ in a bus-stop. Fucking great day. Shame the rain stopped play in KHE. At least the next day it was 27º instead of 40º.

Thursday morning, convoy to Geneva of Hannes, Amelié, Me, Toddy, Brendan, Aidan, and MGM. That was fun (apart from the traffic jams).

The weekend was incredible, Elena was an amazing host, lots of food! The Tourney was just perfect, a really nice atmosphere, spread out over the 3 courts. Free food was a total win, now I see what the NAs are all talking about!

The group stages were really well organised, gave plenty of time to go to the lake and swim. Polo Riviera! Definitely the best tourney I've ever been to. The courts were all beautiful, goals great. Only downside was the lower two courts when the sun was low, but let's not start on that, what's done it done, and Cosmic were on winning form anyway, and played out of their skin in the final. A fucking amazing game to watch. Next year l'equipe, 2nd place for you.

Playing MGM was incredible, such a comeback from us, and Rik's play has got better and better and better, such a massive loss for us, gutted. Playing Toros was fucking hilarous. Sat in goal, not letting anything in, spent most of the rest of the game watching Em and Rik fuck up Toros' game, they couldn't do shit. 3-0. Ha. I even ended up jumping up and down on the bike in goal with joy of beating them, just to make for a new final.

Doing the drive with Norvern Andy was hilarious too. Captain Pink-eye. Aidan nonchalantly saying 'nobhead' while filming some dude trying to score a goal. Genius.

I hope Geneva hosts this again.

Play all the groupe game in one shot was an idea from Lukas i think. In too many tournament you wait hours to play one game, then you wait 20 minutes to play the other, then one hour etc... Between every game you get cold, and stay stressed. With the all in one (per court) you stay focus for 3 hours, and then make wa
hat you want, like swimm to lake or scream RIKI Rik IT!

For the rules and ref, we were so late for all point, you can't even imagine.
Thanks to players who help for ref. And thanks to player to play pretty clean polo during the tournament. A lot of game without wistle because non-ref clean organisation, but a lot of game without wistle because it was nice polo.

haven't seen the games of course but after seeing the level of play at ESPI last month I think europe is going to take a beating at the worlds. Manu is indeed amazing, but what I saw in NYC was mind-boggling. Machine Politics, Beaver boys, Seattle, MarK Capriotti, Chris Roberts, Alexis from Ottawa, Doug, Paul, Zack, ... all these players would destroy the best euro teams I think. Kev will probably concur.

i liked that marc spoke to the ref and opp team each game and said if you pull the wheel out from underneath your opponent, then you hand the ball back to them as a courtesy.

haven't seen the games of course but after seeing the level of play at ESPI last month I think europe is going to take a beating at the worlds. Manu is indeed amazing, but what I saw in NYC was mind-boggling. Machine Politics, Beaver boys, Seattle, MarK Capriotti, Chris Roberts, Alexis from Ottawa, Doug, Paul, Zack, ... all these players would destroy the best euro teams I think. Kev will probably concur.

I hope you're wrong yorgo. I watched the final of the ESPI, what was so amazing?

^ where buddy?

http://vimeo.com/12989205

those goals are really high....

that footage is really boring, the game may have looked great yorgo, but you can't tell from that.
:(

Great WE in Geneva. Great games, level is increasing a LOT !

We (MGM) make a stategic mistake in the end of the game against Apples, but the guys put them under pressure and my friend Rik was amazing.

We had such a good time in Karlsruhe and convoying to GVA with Gabes, Todd, Bredan an Aidan.

Thx to the Geneva crew for the organisation, that was impressive and thx to Brendan for lending me a saddle after mine was stollen. I'll bring it back to you next week. I'll be in london from wed 28th to mon 2nd, hope to have good polo with you guys.

greg

Aidan nonchalantly saying 'nobhead' while filming some dude trying to score a goal. Genius.

ahahahahaha! Have a day off Aidan

Highlight for me was our game against "le club" - one of the best games of polo i've played, even though we lost 4-5. Big respect to my Netto brothers. Congrats to Cosmic and Apples and the Geneva polo crew for hosting such an awesome tournament.

was that an on-going joke, or just at my expense?

p.s. it's "EL club", not "LE club", thet're spanish, not french. common error.

was that an on-going joke, or just at my expense?

put your hand in your pocket Josh, it's only 1 franc :)

I had a blast!
But typing isn't working for me right now!!!
I'm sat at work not able to do shit but with so many fond memories floating around my head.

Pics and comments to follow....

Awesomeness!

p.s. it's "EL club", not "LE club", thet're spanish, not french. common error.

p.s Josh it's "they're" not "thet're", common grammatical error.

Great WE in Geneva. Great games, level is increasing a LOT !

We (MGM) make a stategic mistake in the end of the game against Apples, but the guys put them under pressure and my friend Rik was amazing.

We had such a good time in Karlsruhe and convoying to GVA with Gabes, Todd, Bredan an Aidan.

Thx to the Geneva crew for the organisation, that was impressive and thx to Brendan for lending me a saddle after mine was stollen. I'll bring it back to you next week. I'll be in london from wed 28th to mon 2nd, hope to have good polo with you guys.

greg

the convoy was hilarious, with the notes on the windows etc... keep the saddle mate, it was in my car for months just waiting for the right person to give it away to.

big up lucas for a barspin goal against the ponies.!

oh, another funny moment was seeing one of Iain's plums hanging out his boxers as he jumped into the lake scaring all the local children! :D