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Great day. Big thanks to John H and Jess for playing with me so that I could have a team and Kev for organising everything!
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Go Newmarket!
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just got home after am amazing day of polo. a big thanks to Kev, Ben, Sean, Jess and H-Bomb for organizing this. well done to everyone who played. this event has brought on so many new players to the next level and has to become a regular thing. hope to see you all on a court somewhere sometime.
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finally nice to play teams our level
This...to an extent...there was such a mix of levels of beginners that it was actually good to play a wide range of abilities. Inspiring to see what progress you can make in a year too!
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Funniest bit: H-Bomb playing left-handed... "Lefty H-Bomb pisses all over righty H-Bomb!"
#goodtimesLefty was fun, I'd do it again.
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Great work, Kev, and congrats to everyone who took park.
Sorry I couldn't make it. Broken foot etc.
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- John H!
- John H!
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It was absolutely brilliant seeing so many new players all at once! The success of Westway has been incredible and hats off to Kev for putting in so much work and also to all the people that go West every week to help out; Sean, Ben, James, etc. It's projects like this that are the future of polo! Just a shame we had so few people to help out on the day...
Congrats party illuminati - great to see you guys develop over the last few months! Hope to see more new players at tournaments in the future.
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Congratulations Party Illuminati, they looked strong all day, sad to have had to leave before the knockouts. It was great seeing people who'd played once before going straight into a tournament, with so many other people to watch and learn from. Kev was on his feet all day, as were Ben, Jess and H bomb, reffing is tiring work...
People were walking past all day, I'm sure there will be some new faces next Thursday with the amount of exposure. These sessions are probably the biggest intake of new faces to polo in London, hopefully we can continue them even past the new deadline.
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Thanks again to Kev, Jess, John, Ben, all the goal refs, Sal and Leo, all the other players that turned up and everyone else involved, had a great time and met a lot of ace people
Well done to Party, was absolutely knackered after the final! Going keep practising and be sure to beat you guys next time!!
Special mention for Mouldy Kitchen and We All Play Synth, they were 4 really tough games, hope you'll both be at tournaments next year.
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What a brilliant day. Sixteen teams played, a nice even number for a small tournament. We played four swiss rounds, and then single elim quarters/semis/final. Made for some very exciting games. I think my favourite games in the quarter finals were Bikeworks vs We all play Synth (they had drawn 3-3 in the swiss stages earlier, and they finished 4th and 5th in the rankings, so it was a very closely fought tie), and also Frames vs Party Illuminati. Frames had not played together as a team before, so it was great to see them put Party Illuminati (with a few tournaments experience under their belt?) in serious trouble, leading them 2-1 at one point, but losing 3-2 in the end with a golden goal. Niall and Vit have improved huge amounts in a short space of time, and Josh in particular has great dribbling / ball control, its strange, he came along and couldnt control the bike for the first few sessions, and then all of a sudden he just seemed to 'get it' and was away. Fantastic stuff.
We had a good few candidates for MVP. Victor from Mouldy Kitchen was a very strong, determined player. Salman from JCGD was on fire all day, from one end of the court to the other he looked very impressive and a terror to the other teams. But Sasha from We Play Synth was excellent. A young player (16 I think?), he really lifted his team, defending and attacking in equal measure, spinning like crazy in every game. I dont think there was ever any doubt about Sylwia getting female MVP. She was playing on her opposite side with ease, helping out her team mates, and generally being a nuisance to opponents. Excellent player.
Congrats to the lads from Party Illuminati. As you said yourselves beforehand, you were hoping to get a decent result from the day, I think the tournament afforded you space to show how you've come on as a team together. I was (pleasantly) surprised to see you overturn the MCR lads in the final. I could see at the end when you got the trophy that you were exhausted but exhilarated.
John H playing on his left side was good fun to watch. Definite idea for a fun tournament in there some time.
What was great at the end of the day was several people saying that they felt they'd upped their game from the experience and would come away from it with a better knowledge of playing in the future. The Sheffield lads felt they'd be going back with an extra edge, and Niall from Frames said that he now had a better understanding of passing and spatial awareness on the court.
So enormous thanks to: Sean, who loaned out his bike during the day, and helped with the tech stuff for different people whose bikes failed. Jess for coming down and reffing, also loaning her bike out, and explaining rules to newcomers. Ben punkture for reffing loads and heckling. Beagle and Joe TS for reffing early in the day, and Beagle for the use of his bike - this was really needed as people had come on MTBs, road bikes, foldies, or just not come with a bike at all, so having six suitable bikes was necessary. Paul Cowhen for doing loads of goal reffing depsite being in obvious discomfort with his broken collarbone. John H the podium wizard, helped everything run smoothly, massive respect. Cheers to everyone who donated prizes for the day too, it was good to have some small rewards for the teams and players at the end.
Neil and Jason at RBKC were supportive all the way with this tournament, a brilliant success, it is refreshing to have a local authority on your side, and enthusiastic about the game. Neil has played a few times now and is getting better. I am not really familiar with that part of town, but if there is any suitable space in the borough, it might be worth exploring for the 2013 Open, I'd say Neil would definitely be into it and give us help.
Might try and run another beginners tournament in the spring.
If anyone has any photos from the day can you let me know?
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Slywia was great! So patient and encouraging to me and Karola. Manchester owned that tournament! Really good to meet some new polo faces too. So yes, a Spring tournament would be brilliant, please!!
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Kev thank you for organizing the event! big ups to everyone that helped out, all the refs and all the players! Especialy my foster team mates Poots and Karola - they were awesome considering that they only had a few weeks trainig! They did their best with an attitude to improve and have fun! The whole tournament was a blast! Really nice atmosphere, nice to see so many ppl keen to improve! Was so proud of Jean Claude God Damn, they were playing so well, true role models on the court! Manchester represent!
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I hope you can see this video in my facebook of the first game between JCGD and Mouldy kitchen! What a tough game!!! well done everyone!
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Gutted I couldn't be there. Great job Kev and huge respect to RBKC and all the established players that helped out, it looks like it was amazing.
Really excited to see We Play Synth make the transition from playing at school and getting a great result! Also, Sasha got MVP? So good.
Hopefully Westway will be packed on Thursday!
MAT
Naomi
samblausten
IdealStandard
rickster
Dtroll
Edd.
pootsmanuva
H-Bomb
maddie
Buffalo_Bill
MotherGirl
gormley
CowHen
Emyr
atk
fleep
VictorRodri
aufbruch
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About
Tourney: 2012-09-15 Westway - Wild West - beginners/improvers tournament
Posted by
@dubkev
This was awesome Kev, thanks a million!
Had great fun and really enjoyed the day. Big applause to Andy, who was a brick wall in goal. 5 games and 30 goals in and he didn't let a single ball in. Also Leo, great to play with you pal! I see us doing more of this.
The highlight for me was playing Mouldy Kitchen and Party Illuminati. Well done guys, you played well!
P.S. The next one should be a SHUFFLECOM tournament! :-p