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It feels nigh on impossible to condense all my thoughts and feelings from this weekend into a post, but I'll give it my best shot. Friday night I was the first Londoner to rock up in MCR - I rolled up to Whitworth and met loads of lovely MCR folk at their ghetto court - skim that surface and you've got a lovely spot for summer throw-ins - before hitting the ales in town and hooking up with the Schmoovesters and the Cosmics. Kat and Sara hosted us wonderfully, fuelling us with night-time whisky and morning vegan fry-up, chased down with buckets of coffee. They graciously turned a blind eye to the Cosmic love nest we built in their living room, and got us to the court on time. We couldn't have been treated any better.
Saturday felt more like a polo carnival than a tournament - the long afternoon break in the sun, BBQ and dub on the stereo, beers flowing and the scent of grass, both cut and smoked, in the air. It was great to see the London yoof - Cogs and Fiasco, playing some of the best polo of the day, presumably aided by absence of aforementioned beer and grass. Apples were steaming by the time they took to the court for their victory over Fen Boy 3 by the narrowest of margins. You guys had me worried for a moment there! Pub, pizza and polo banter in the evening, with Toddy on top form as ever:
Dear Mum,
I am the.
Best,
Andrew
Overcast Sunday morning - less sunbathing, more polo. Familiar names shuffling around the top of the leaderboard and Fen Boy 3 in particular finding a rich vein of form - the only non-London team to qualify for the top eight. From this point onwards my mind becomes a jumble of assorted images: Todd and MAT playing out of their skins against Malice, forgotten sausages on the barbeque, my Dad rocking up to see bike polo for the first ever time, Gabes cupping the ball against his wheel in the Apples/BAD games, fooling pretty much everybody in the building, then stacking it in style; Aidan's lob hitting the ceiling; Gabes again coming round to BB the GG and reach the final. Cosmic v Apples. The stuff of dreams. Em yelling 'Come on Cosmic' and me replying 'Come on Apples'. 1-1 after nearly 20 minutes. Patches of silence; moments of mayhem.
The final 30 seconds with a 1 goal lead - me in possession of the ball. I've been here before and fucked up big time: against DTG in the Euros last summer, against Oxford in the BFF, both times letting the opposition equalise and then win on golden goal. But this time we hung on 'til the buzzer. Half and hour and only 1 goal between us. Like I say, the stuff of dreams.
So many people deserve thanks for an incredible amount of hard work: Adam, Netto and the wider MCR community (what a wonderful group of people) Gabes for crunching the numbers and helping everything flow so smoothly, Paul for building an incredible trophy with only a couple of days notice, the whole LBP crew and especially the Apples for a phenomenal final in so many ways. Todd and Mat played some stunning polo, continually leaving me in awe of their bike skills and proud to be Cosmic. Eyjafjallajokull, by contrast, can go fuck itself.
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What an awesome tourney. Well done Manchester. Would've loved to have stuck around and had a drink with you all afterwards. So many faces I never got to meet.
Adam, Woody, and co. Sweet job guys you should be very chuffed.
Huge thanks to Kat and Sara for making our stay so amazing. Better than our own homes! ;)
And the magic breakfasts!London you rock. All of you. Was incredible to see those new London teams and players putting on such epic performances. Cogs, Sparkle, Fiasco....
That final was awesome to be a part of. The closeness of all the players involved made it pretty intense and tactical.
Look forward to Cambridge.
Cosmic Love x
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Thanks to whoevers house we stayed at and apologies to your flatmates for getting pissed off with us.
Cam, Emmet and Adam, 0800 still drunk polo on Sunday morning was the best idea.
Wasnt morning polo just a way of avoiding the flatmate?
That was hannahs house, incidentally, and despite being in edinburgh right now she mailed me her key in case she wasnt back, then showed up at the pub, adopted the Cogs, dumped them in her house after the pub closed, dragged me back to SandBar (do I still owe mirek a beer?), and then skipdiving for polo breakfast, and didnt even complain about having to sleep on her own floor next to emmet. Epic.
That was an awesome weekend. I played shit, fell off a lot, barely slept, and loved every second. Thanks again to everyone in ChanCR who made that happen.
Oh. yeah. polo. Cosmic-Apples was jsut the best game of NE polo love. Em came off court, smeared red, and said "I dont even know whose blood this is". I wanted you both to win. Josh so deserved that MVP. I just wish there was an LVP for that epic miss of Locketts :)
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absolutely fuckin amazing weekend!!
wanna give a big shout to Woody for lettin me crash at his place, and the amazingly done tattoos me nd andy ended up gettin ahah!
big shout to all the organizers and adam especiallyDFL or no DFL i fuckin loved it, the atmosphere was brilliant.
shout to cozmic and apples that game was ridiculously good.see some of you in cambridge hopfully!
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My boss came back from delivering his kid to uni in lancs and the fiirst thing he mentioned were the polo players on the train up on sat morning and people who'd watched games on the train back Sunday afternoon...
Wish the worst team in London could have been there! :)
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Manchester. I thank you.
What an unbelievable tournament. From the relaxed atmosphere, drinking in a tree and hanging out with all the usual suspects and lots of other people that we've either not met before or don't see often enough.
Thanks are definitely in order.
Gabes, Rik. There is no polo without you guys. It's always a pleasure sharing a court with you both. Whether it's pick up on a sunny day in London or Playing as the Rotten Apples all over the world. You are my all and everything.
Cosmic. Friends. That game, the chat on court. The closeness of play. The closeness of all of us off court. I'll say it again, as I have been for the last year, you are Rotten Apples favourite team to play, bar none. Thursday night REMATCH?
BAD. That Semi was awesome. From B taking us both down and the hug before we got back on our bikes, through to the end to end plays with interceptions. Such an intense game. The sportsmanship that you demonstrated throughout is intoxicating.
The support from all in the closing games was amazing. There are simply too many to mention. A true community feel all round.
Adam, Chan, all you other Mancunian cunts. Well done on your largest tournament to date.
Josh. MVP. Well deserved dude. Your consistency through all of your games is amazing. POLO YOUTH RIGHT HERE. This is the future.
Massive Cogs, guys, such a good show. From no where you've become an amazing team. I look forward to seeing more of you guys in upcoming tournaments.
Another special mention to Todd, your words to me after our last game. Means a lot dude, there's not a lot more that can be said. Thank you.
Emilié Object.
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pictures...
old flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_hill/
the ghettoest things you will ever see
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The 2 other things I should really have mentioned.
Chan. A pleasure as always dude. Love the new place but I think you need to defect to London. Crash space whenever you want to come down.
Also, Manchester has been one of the easiest place to eat good vegan food that I've travelled to for Polo purposes. Nice.
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old flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_hill/
the ghettoest things you will ever see
forget photos - i want to see the video!
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old flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_hill/
the ghettoest things you will ever see
should have asked cosmic todd to do it
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old flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_hill/
the ghettoest things you will ever see
Ha! Yeah I noticed these on your legs and heard stories of finding ink and blood all over the floor! With a compass too?!
Well at least you made the efforts...
2_Wheel_Pony
tomasito
(dan)
Todd
eggpie
alockett
Object
deleted
s.hill
snoops
Khornight2
turnpedal
Warship
danwentskiing
PiQuE
Chegas
le_car-
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About
Tourney: UK Champs Manchester 17-18.04.2010
Posted by
@Dr_Chan
c'mon you lazy shutter bugs, i want to see some more photos!