Tourney: Greif Masters 2010 - 1st Bikepolo Tournament Karlsruhe 05-07.02.2010

Dear LPC,

I am sorry to inform you that I completely failed on the t-shirt mission. My bike bag was overweight, so I had to put some more things in my already-stuffed carry-on bag. I literally didn't have room for a single extra t-shirt. And then I got so hungover on Sunday that I couldn't really think about try to sort something else for the shirts. I threw up three times in between games, and after my final game, I basically had to sleep until we left. I was in such a condition I fucking missed the quarter finals. My apologies.

Yours faithfully,

C. Norris.

Cunt. Always thinking about yourself ;)

Thank you to the London contingent. You refreshed my faith in our community. Epic weekend.

Thank you to all in Karlsruhe.

Thank you to Holger for your bed.

Incredible tournament KARLSRUHE, amazing organisation, i pee on myself for our Genevian EHBPC2010...

What?

ok, that's an french way to tell "im scared"...
The idea was to tell that Greifmasters set the bar realy high, so even more pressure for organizing a good ehbpc 2010... see?

looks and sounded awesome, god damn canadia!

so, the goals? are they the future? how did it affect play not being able to ride through?

the goals were awesome, i didn't think they negatively affected play at all, or at least when they did it was circumstantial and not a sole fault of the nets.

absolutely no prob with riding around goal for myself, and don't seems to affect other players.
olny matter was ball bouncing on basis when a goal was scored... find a way to eliminate big rebound on the basis will be the way.

Goals = the future.

Awesome awesome awesome tourney. So many great games, and some of the most fun I've ever had playing and watching polo (amongst other things). K'ruhe delivered big time.

i saw one picture of the nets fallen over... any bad crashes? slow the game down at all?

Nope, goals were almost perfect.

So much progression on and off the court for polo this weekend.

Beards played incredibly. Lost two games to the teams finishing first (l'equipe) and third (dtgp). We took 3 (4) goals of geneva! Only lost by a goal in each game. So pleased with out performance and results. The games felt fast, skilled and exciting.

London were awesome on tour. Great polo played by all.

I was in such a condition I fucking missed the quarter finals.

I can confirm Dr V was in a bad way. In such a bad way in fact that we had to stop the taxi on the way to the airport (at 7PM no less) for him to "get some air". Dark times.

wicked vid. gutted i wasn't there..

Dear LPC,

I am sorry to inform you that I completely failed on the t-shirt mission. My bike bag was overweight, so I had to put some more things in my already-stuffed carry-on bag. I literally didn't have room for a single extra t-shirt. And then I got so hungover on Sunday that I couldn't really think about try to sort something else for the shirts. I threw up three times in between games, and after my final game, I basically had to sleep until we left. I was in such a condition I fucking missed the quarter finals. My apologies.

Yours faithfully,

C. Norris.
Hero.

What an awesome tourney... a massive success, Karlsruhe rocks.

Airport beers on arrival, then chaperones to the Bunker for drunken polo fun.
The excitement upon arrival at the tourney Friday morn, a really impressive setup.
Fear over whether the floor was going to improve, Bill's mad "PSI over friction" thoughts.
Friday food/drinks/banter in the evening and meeting the L'Equipe guys, ace.
Saturday nerves turning into really fun games, 1 litre beers and schnitzel in the eve.
Sunday playing Zombie was really fun, everyone's faces beaming at the end of it.
Playing the Ponies and getting stung for not watching goal, still a great game though.
Watching Steffen and the Clowns beat Apologies was brilliant, Steffen was an amazing host all weekend.
Getting really excited/surprised that we made the top 8, then being utterly trounced by Paris, disaster.
Watching the level of the final games and realising how badly London needs more regular team play.
Sunday evening beers and more schnitzel, then killer and pool hustling with the usual London heckling, ace, Todd as Tony... "show 'em your trousers".
Then finally the Bunker for throw-ins today and the journey home, exhausted.

Thanks to all the organisers, great trip, time to get some shut eye.

Looks like an amazingly well organised tourney.
Was the surface slippy? One guy does the arab-kid-wheel-spin to skid-out in that vid.

Yorgo had a hard time reaching the tap-outs, but otherwise played an awesome tourney.

So good to see you london folk, the bar Sunday night was a highlight. See you soon hopefully, come to Toronto.

Looks like an amazingly well organised tourney.
Was the surface slippy? One guy does the arab-kid-wheel-spin to skid-out in that vid.

so slippery! Watching the first game with Rotten Apples was a real warning. Watching those 3, with their fatty tyres, falling all over the place was a bit worrying.
Games on Saturday were a bit slower played. By Sunday people were taking more chances and getting more speed. It made games much more about technique than speed. I don't think it was a detriment, just different and everyone had the same handicap so it didn't matter. Plus there were very few blow outs and tyre changes mid-game. Also no major injuries.

Some thoughts about the goals, from the ref's position:

The bar at the back had too great a diameter, which meant that hard shots flew back out so fast that I couldn't see whether they had gone in or not. If the diameter of the back bar had been smaller than that of the ball, the ball would have hit the bar and gone up into the net, not straight back out.

The goals were fixed to the ground with velcro, which worked well on that surface, but would not work on tarmac, so would get displaced more frequently.

When the ball did stay in the goal, it did make restarts slower, because the scored-on team had to fish the ball out of the net.

I think that if the size of the bar at the back was changed, that style and size of goal would be perfect, eliminating virtually all controversial calls, leaving only shuffle/hit.

The reffing was inconsistent, with some people in the chair calling virtually nothing, and one ref telling a player that he had called a foul, even though he had not seen the incident, only the aftermath, which is pretty weak. You should only ever call fouls that you have seen clearly, not based on what you thought you saw.

Most of the games that I reffed were relatively easy - the only one that I found difficult was Dans Ta Gueule Puceau vs Munich Toros. Both teams were playing on the absolute limit of what was legal, and also on the limit, and beyond, of the adhesion of their tyres, which meant that it was hard to follow the play, and virtually impossible to tell whether a player had just taken it too far, or whether he had been fouled.

I think that for major tournaments, you need to have designated non-playing refs, who meet before the tournament starts, to ensure a modicum of consistency. Everybody is different, and will ref differently, but you can at least agree on basics. I wasn't at all happy to be wheeled out for what KH felt were the difficult games, where the contrast between my reffing and others was very marked.

The worst bit of reffing I saw was in the Rotten Apples vs Pipe Gang.

Pipe Gang were disgraceful. They didn't appear to be able to control their bikes, much less the ball. That would have been fine, except that they seem to have decided that lacking skills, they would rely on t-bones. They must have taken Em and Gabes 4 times each in the first couple of minutes. The ref did absolutely nothing.

The situation was in danger of getting seriously out of control until Rik came out of goal, and body-checked them all in turn, and even managing to body-check and block 2 of them at once.

Amusing as this was, it was a shame that Apples could only get to play some polo by having to out-match their opponents dirty play. At one point, Em pushed the ball past a Pipe Gang guy near the boards, only to be checked head-on into the boards, and the guy actually jumped in front of Em, grabbing him with both hands.

Not only should he have been expelled from the tournament, but he was very lucky that of all the London players he did that to, it was Em, because if he had done that to any of the rest of us, he would surely have found himself on his back with a fist in his face.

I think the ref did call a foul at one point, but on Rik!

I have to say that Rik brought new meaning to the phrase 'doubling up'! Great work by the big man.

in spite of some hot discussions after bill's decisions (mostly against the toros ;) ) he had explained all of his whistles and often we agreed with him later.
but as bill has written above, it's hard when all the other refs don't call doubles and then bill calls more than one in one game. it's hard to handle the ref-procedure and to don't overule bikepolo.

good work bill and respect for rik, he act calming often

Overall, I really enjoyed the tournament, some of the play was just amazing, Zombie played superbly, all 3 players looked fantastic, DTGP were a real handful, fast, skilful, linked well.

But there is no question that the 2 best teams were Toros and l'Equipe. Manu & Lukas linked so well, and they both have amazing shots on both sides, likewise Eddy and Andy, and their goalies, James and Mario, would be star players on almost any other team.

The organisation of the tournament was amazing, reffing was so much easier without the hassle of having to keep score and an eye on the time.

The only quibbles that I had were the reffing (see above).

The boards were good. If you wanted to be hyper-critical, you could say that the bounce was a little dead, which was a mild disappointment.

The surface was a little too slippy. I would have preferred to see a grippier surface, as I think it favoured straight-line charges for the goal a little too much. But the best teams adapted their games to it well.

I definitely want to see the half-court rule changed. It virtually pins the goalie, as there simply isn't any point coming out of goal. Resetting to the d encourages teams to mix it up, which can only be good for polo as a spectacle.

My heartfelt commiserations to Cosmic - ranked 9th, out of the finals by a small margin. Gutted.

Apples took it to Geneve - 2-3 - and played great despite the surface. Conos rinsed Poloholica 5-0, which was a great end to a great tournament for them. Malice was more entertaining than I can remember, played great to get to the finals. BAD were as good as ever. Shame you had to play l'Equipe in the 1/4s.

in spite of some hot discussions after bill's decisions (mostly against the toros ;) ) he had explained all of his whistles and often we agreed with him later.
but as bill has written above, it's hard when all the other refs don't call doubles and then bill calls more than one in one game. it's hard to handle the ref-procedure and to don't overule bikepolo.

Totally agree - but in the final I only called one foul (as I remember it), and that was against Geneve!

The situation was in danger of getting seriously out of control until Rik came out of goal, and body-checked them all in turn, and even managing to body-check and block 2 of them at once.

Rik is my Hero!

Awesome weekend, the best thing was not being cold whilst spectating! And nobody mentioned the amazing toilets (perfect for a pre-game nervous poo)
Zombie were amazing, as were all the London teams! Best games to watch were Apples vs Apologies, BAD vs Polosynthese, all the Zombie games, Clowns vs Apologies, DTG were a joy to watch too. I was so happy when the final got to 4-4, was praying for it to go to golden goal but 30 mins these days feels like a really long game.

We spent the weekend shitting ourselves about playing Poloholica but got the result we wanted and ended on a high. Loved playing Toros though that was a highlight for Los Coños!

Check the caption on ^, Mark!

Great playing with you guys!