Tourney: Greif Masters 2011

a few snaps.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rtcc/sets/72157625880030169/

and if you havent seen them before heres a pic of mats nuts.

Balls of steel.

Nice pictures Ray.

Thank you Karlsruhe, you put on a great tournament. Thank you Steffan for giving us somewhere to stay and an endless supply of drawn on maps. Thank you London - I have such huge respect for all of you, both as people and polo players. Doing my best to coach was an absolute pleasure.

As others have said, the format still needs tweaking but there's definitely something good in it.

5th was a great result. If we'd been lower I would have been disappointed, higher and I'd be elated.

"To those who say that all that matters is winning, I warn them that someone always wins. Therefore, in a 30-team championship, there are 29 teams that must ask themselves: what did I leave at the club, what did I bring to my players, what possibility of growth did I give them?"
César Luis Menotti

The best result possible result for London will be if our community now realises it's ok to talk polo strategy with each other and to communally try to raise the standard in our city. We have a tendency to not want other teams to get better because we know we have to play them in the league or that places for tournaments are limited and our natural instinct is to let our competitiveness privatise information. At the moment we have a lot of players of all levels in London but very few teams able to compete at the top level. I believe London could easily generate 10 teams able to compete at the top level within the next year if we worked it right. We could be gleaming the cube but right now we're standing around prodding it with our foot to see if it moves.

Fuck me, Jimbos gone all 'cantona' on us :^]

Well done London

wanders off to find cloth to gleam cube with…

MAT, I really like your ideas, a 5-6 player league team sounds really good, as you say it allows for a more organised schedule.

MAT, thanks for elaborating a bit, makes quite a lot of sense in light of the past 2.5 leagues all being behind schedule due to people having commitments elsewhere.

I would however ask that we don't call it the "Bench Minor League", it's get's on my baps having "Bench Minor" this, and "Bench Minor" that.

I think allowing more than 3 members in a team is a good idea, I'm not convinced about being able to swap mid game, etc etc, but for the sake of scheduling, having a pool of players to choose from is a bonus for sure.

The best result possible result for London will be if our community now realises it's ok to talk polo strategy with each other and to communally try to raise the standard in our city. We have a tendency to not want other teams to get better because we know we have to play them in the league or that places for tournaments are limited and our natural instinct is to let our competitiveness privatise information. At the moment we have a lot of players of all levels in London but very few teams able to compete at the top level. I believe London could easily generate 10 teams able to compete at the top level within the next year if we worked it right. We could be gleaming the cube but right now we're standing around prodding it with our foot to see if it moves.

I may not be convinced by the BM format, but I think this is a VERY valid point.

or missed your flights back like manchester ROE!

Ha! I knew you guys were being complacent in the pub. I was all here's ten Euros, just let me go and get my plane which actually departs 15 minutes after yours and you were all I think we'll sit here and giggle at stupid jokes for a few minutes longer.

Ha! I knew you guys were being complacent in the pub. I was all here's ten Euros, just let me go and get my plane which actually departs 15 minutes after yours and you were all I think we'll sit here and giggle at stupid jokes for a few minutes longer.

Ended up being 5 hours longer, we moved about 10m over to the McDonalds though

i missed my plane from Paris too.
And almost got my bike box arrested and chucked out of the train in Salzbourg.
Why was this journey so hard for everyone ? Is it because we're useless ?

You were probably still pissed form the night before!

Well, despite having my passport half-inched and reading the wrong time on my Eurostar ticket, I made it home ok!

I'm still on a high from the weekend. Karlsruhe were fantastic hosts and they put on a great tourney. It was also great to catch up with so many of you London lot and also get to know some folk better too. (I'll post up some more thoughts once I tidy up my journal.)

The best result possible result for London will be if our community now realises it's ok to talk polo strategy with each other and to communally try to raise the standard in our city. We have a tendency to not want other teams to get better because we know we have to play them in the league or that places for tournaments are limited and our natural instinct is to let our competitiveness privatise information.

This is just what i was explaining to the french that because they have a lack of a league the inherent competitiveness with each other isn't there.

Yeah, but from what I understand Paris has its own competitivenesses. And fist fights.

But, they also have delicious bread.

Tough call.

and nutella although so do we ... tough call

I'd take the nutella, bread and fist fights. Easy!

Yeah, but from what I understand Paris has its own competitivenesses. And fist fights.

But, they also have delicious bread.

Tough call.

lol.

small set

nice photos brendo. very nice.

lens flares everywhere. looks like Star Trek or something. :D

are these lens flares natural or photojobbed ?
Really lovely photos B, especially the 1st one

they were natural as in the filter was on the lens not in photoshop.
thanks x

First video of GF2, Summary of Swiss-London Game. Only the goals. Best one is the last, and the one of Eddy Marx who scream against Brendan.
http://vimeo.com/19782018

nice, thank you for that.

we got punished when we made mistakes.

its funny, the goal against us that eddy scored and then shouted at brendan after ... it felt like i had ages to get out of goal and get the ball but watching it back, it happened so quickly. i should have stayed, but then that sums up my performance in goal over the weekend.

lovely pics brendo