Birmingham Bike Polo Chat & BS Thread

Discuss over beer sounds good. I'm more and more coming to Neil's option of just doing teams for each tournament based on availability and seeding, then doing last-ditch attempts to make them as good as possible. I only managed to get to one proper tournament last year, so it's pointless for me to hog a seat in the Black Stabbath bus.

I love the shocked expression, we can tell you don't work.
I wasn't shocked, it's just that i know a few bike shops that close around 1.

So, to my knowledge, the more regular people at the moment would be:

Dan
Andy
MG
Malletesta
Neil
Lucas
Asim
Raz
EMM
Hyper
Monty
Stu

Shall we do a seeding and get 4 teams based purely on ability, then rearrange slightly for issues like Andy being away etc.?

If we play as these teams, when a tournament comes up we can see if any complete teams can make it, if not, then create a team from available individuals. This is basically just doing teams for each tournament but with the possible bonus that we can send a team that been playing together for a while

yeah we spoke a bit earlier about maybe having the generally agreed top three (you, fin, andy) then making two more reasonable teams out of the rest of us.

Or we could all sit around and discuss it over some beer?

This sounds good. On a wednesday when it rains?

I'm more and more coming to Neil's option

quoted for posterity

So, to my knowledge, the more regular people at the moment would be:

Dan
Andy
MG
Malletesta
Neil
Lucas
Asim
Raz
EMM
Hyper
Monty
Stu

Shall we do a seeding and get 4 teams based purely on ability, then rearrange slightly for issues like Andy being away etc.?

I don't think we need to do any seeding.

This is basically just doing teams for each tournament but with the possible bonus that we can send a team that been playing together for a while

This, lets each decide on a team for the london open (or other big tournament) and try out those teams at smaller ones to see if they work/need a reshuffle.

You guys are forgetting that the most important factor is people's availability. There's no point us fixing teams for tournaments when at least four of the people on the list work Saturdays, and me and MG are unlikely to be able to take the same Saturday off.

I really want to go to the Euros (or Worlds), London Open and a few National Series tournaments, but in all likelihood, the late-in-the-day announcement of dates for these things means I'll make 50% at best.

I reckon ABC teams from the 12 most regular players for a local mini league, starting now-ish and a wild-west ruleless approach to forming teams for any given tournaments. If people are available and want to stay in their ABC teams, then fine, but they should be free to leave to play in a Birmingham 'Superteam'.

Polo teams are a minefield, but most tournaments are Swiss-Rounds based, so in theory you still get fun games, regardless of the ability of your team, but I for one would like to finish mid-to-top-table at a tournament, which I think is do-able with the right teammates.

Ill pigs ftw

It boils down to just not having enough people in the scene. Tell you what, if I end up staying in Birmingham for another 3 years to do a PhD I will start a university polo club!

http://leagueofbikepolo.com/forum/tournaments/2011/10/30/ehbpc-2012-free-fo-bidding-now

Paris and maybe Hannover bidding for EHBPC 2012.... Hope they hurry up and call a date!

You guys are forgetting that the most important factor is people's availability. There's no point us fixing teams for tournaments when at least four of the people on the list work Saturdays, and me and MG are unlikely to be able to take the same Saturday off.

This sucks big time.

I don't think we need to do any seeding.

I agree. As much as I don't mind working it all out again, I don't think it benefits anyone that much and IMO teams put together through seeding or other people's vote often don't play that well together.

Ill pigs ftw

YES

Mini League:- I don't think will work. Consequently i think we need to adopt an alternative.

i) One (sun)day local tournament with a date confirmed well in advance.
ii) If there are enough players on any given day, creating ad hoc teams for that day. (With breaks and throw ins)
iii) Have an individual player point accumulator. Win-Draw-Lose = 3-1-0. Points for each player on the team. This will encourage team play as you only gain points for a team win.

I'm up for Euros preferably, then Worlds possibly.

Okay, let's try it, set a date.

some shots with the fisheye from today

2 Attachments

Like the b/w ones

Good games yesterday, desite the wind. So nice when it's dry after a long spell of wetness.

I reckon we could all improve the dynamism of our goalkeeping. We need to be ready to break from goal quickly when a teammate gets possession. Oftentimes, the goaly has clear run upfield and into a good passing space and it should be the ball carriers responsibility (as last man) to cover goal if necessary.

Don't be scared to make a break for it; you're not being selfish, just do roughly your share of the goalkeeping and everyone is happy.

...Don't be scared to make a break for it; you're not being selfish, just do roughly your share of the goalkeeping and everyone is happy.

+1
Though you need to trust that a team mate will defend/cover the goal too. If someone comes out of goal it's to the teams advantage to defend/cover goal as the consequence could be conceding a point.

Fluid teams are always better than set positions (except polosynthese, even though anna is one of the best female players in europe imo)

Swapping goalies after goals scored seems to work well for sharing responsibilities.

+1
Though you need to trust that a team mate will defend/cover the goal too. .

Yeah, I was going to add that, although it doesn't mean that he/she will actually *go in goal, *just that they will stay 'last-man' and seek to pass off to someone further upfield than they are.

You see the good teams do it a lot, very often after they've re-gained possession and the opposing team is tracking back to defend. Counter attacks are where it's all to play for and speed is important.

I think everyone is pretty much sharing goalkeeping equally now, which is nice.

Good little article about polo bike progression. le click

Might be of interest to the polo crowd:

http://www.condorcycles.com/Sale-Accessories/10883-Dia-Compe-Shot-Lever/flypage.tpl.html

Bristol Tournament

http://www.lfgss.com/thread78964.html

I saw ^ that today. Want to go.

Form a team?

Bristol Tournament 10/11th March, wanna go list

1. danwentskiing
   
   

But how are we going to decide who goes? There's a 25 team cap, so I imagine if they do first come first served, it'll fill up fast...

Bristol Tournament 10/11th March, wanna go list

1. danwentskiing
   
   

But how are we going to decide who goes? There's a 25 team cap, so I imagine if they do first come first served, it'll fill up fast...

There's your answer. Get your team of three sorted, register it. Let others worry about their teams.

Okay. 4ndy, Hyper, wanna reform Black Stabbath?

Id be up for playing. Neil, jess, stu, lucas... interested?

There's a windsurfing (read as: drinking) event in Liverpool that weekend. Would have liked to though