Polo: Let's have a tournament

It's also sloped, roofless, covered in pigeon shit, needles, glass and debris. We looked at it a few times but it would be a massive amount of work.

Exactly those things could make it excellent, especially if the slope is always to the hom teams advantage! Teams would be too scared to play us so we'd all shoot up the leagues and when people filmed it it would be well ghetto. we could be the new dogtown and the z boys.

Teams would be too scared to play us. We'd all shoot up. When people filmed it it would be well ghetto. we could be the new dogtown and the z boys.

Ftfy

But yeah, I wouldn't mind being the Tony Alva of polo
(without the selling out for sponsorship deals).

As long as we don't have to deal with your drug addiction and erratic behaviour! But once you mellow out and get a lifetime's supply of Vans, I'm all over that shit.

Right, a couple of guys from the Council, Sport England and British Cycling are replying to yesterdays emails from me, not all of it helpful but at least something's happening.This is interesting for the long term future:
*
"I have set up a Running Sports: 'Funding For Your Club' workshop which will
be held as follows:-

Date: 8th September 2011* *
Time: 6.30pm to 9.30pm
Venue: Hollyfields Community & Sports Centre, Woodacre Road, Erdington,
Birmingham B24 0JT
Cost: £20.00

This workshop will:* *

· Give an overview of funding sources, application processes and* *
eligibility criteria.
· Help the delegate to identify their club’s needs.
· Provide an introduction to sponsorship and how to seek it.
· Ideas for fundraising events and ways to raise income from membership.
· Identify barriers and obstacles to successful funding applications.
· Provide a national perspective
· Give an overview of the CASC scheme and charitable status.*

Sue Mellor
Coach Development Support Officer
Sport & Healthy Lifestyles Team
Birmingham Sport & Events"

A E Harris have gone all quiet on me so I'll start thinking elsewhere. This might be a long shot but worth it I suppose:

http://www.sportengland.org/funding/sportsmatch.aspx

PoLO IS GAY

Should I enquire when I'm next at London polo about LJ's idea of borrowing the Open court materials? Or did we decide that hiring a van to shift it to Brum and back would be too expensive?

Of course, having the wood is only half the battle, indoor location needed beforehand

Definitely worth enquiring - we're still a long way off though.

Should I enquire when I'm next at London polo about LJ's idea of borrowing the Open court materials? Or did we decide that hiring a van to shift it to Brum and back would be too expensive?

I reckon that's going to be loads of hassle for you guys (the woods now stored under a pub through the barrel hatch). The courts cost ~£2,500 to build. Source the 2" x 4" in advance and build uprights with a nail gun and then get the boards delivered on the day before and screw it all in place, easy! Then try and find a cheap (dry) storage solution and you've got courts for years to come...

I kind of forgot about this place:

http://www.birminghamwheelsrsc.net/ - look at the videos

I've ridden up to take a look, but it's fenced off so can't get in to the actual court. I phoned the organiser to see if we could use if for regular games, but they wanted too much money. I guess they got Council funding (and a lot of it) so maybe we could wangle the 'multi-purpose'/community angle.

Really needs someone to go and have look on a Saturday morning (9.30-11am) and see what it is like and speak to people directly...

Any volunteers? (If not I'll go before work next weekend).

Been scouting the court out in kings heath park. I think with barriers we could have two courts.

That's my solo polo spot! I think that would be pretty tight even side by side?

Yeah, that's why I originally ruled it out.
However after seeing courts at the london open I think we might get away with it.

Dunno if we can realistically get, make and then store barriers.

Go bigger if you can, the courts at the LO were too small really (next year we'll be over 20m x 30m for each court). Aim for 20m x 30m as a minimum (LO was 16.4m x 28.8m I think). We went with Hackney Downs as it's a nice site and the surface is super smooth, next year will be at the newly resurfaced (large) Bethnal Green site... woop.

The court/barrier build works out to ~£1k per court, or if you go half sized barriers (60cm rather than 1.2m) than ~£750 per court. You can get the boards for around £17 each (£25 normally), 2.4m 2"x4" lengths are £4 each (usually £7 odd), we used 3 lengths of 2"x4" per 2.4m board (~£12), it all depends on finding sponsorship I guess.

If you can't store the courts you could take them apart and then sell the wood second hand on eBay for 30% of it's value (this could be a nightmare if the timing's out or if the buyer pulls out, etc)?

4ndy and I went to check out KH today, was gonna test it out but the rain was pretty shit. Might be feasible sideways (as in two courts perpendicular to the basketball court) but even then still not sure. Guess the only way to know is to measure it/play on it but I'll enquire anyway. I really don't think fundraising/sponsorship would be that hard once we find a location and the eBay thing is a good call. I'm reviving the facebook page and putting out word to find decent spots.

There is 2 courts, fenced off, side by side just off the Hagley Road. Must check those out, does not look like there is gaps underneath the fencing. In fairness, a fleeting glance, but did look pretty deserted.....google maps aint my friend atm...

I'll have a look tomorrow....sod it.

Yeah, I'm going to go and check out the speed-skating court centre-bit at Birmingham wheels before work tomorrow. Anyone who wants to join, PM me.

Can't believe they have such a sweet place with such low participation. When I called the guy his emphasis was on the amount of time they'd been asking (10+ years) rather than their numbers. Also, cannot understand why they don't have roller-derby there.

Could potentially strongarm the council to get involved and pressure them to let us use it for free. It's a community facility after all, and most of the time just sits there unused behind barriers.

Working myself up into anti-council rage as I type...

Oh, Jono - thanks for continued advice!

Speed skating court probably unsuitable in my opinion. It would cost many £100s in perspex or similar to cover the frame surrounding the court.

If other people have the time though, they should go and check it out. Really strange/deserted most of the time. I wonder how they got the funding to build such a place, and what the rationale was for even having the centre-court thing. It's just used to store podiums, junk, tyres(?) etc by the look of it. Perhaps for teaching basic skating without banked corners I suppose...

I haven't seen it, so apologies if it's a stupid question but would you really need to use perspex? Would ply not cut it?

ply would be more expensive, the best would be corrugated plastic used for roofing. plus Dan didn't they say they would need it to at least be translucent?

would there be room for two courts? or is it just one court? Theoretically if we can get the wood/barriers then all we need is a smooth, flat but grippy surface?

Looks pretty useable as it is to me, ball going over would be an occasional annoyance but it hardly ever comes off the floor in brum games does it? If the skaters were ok with us increasing the height by say 600mm couldn't we buy some cheap sterling board, think 9mm is the thinnest spec and screw it onto the existing board?