London Fixed-gear and Single-speed SJS Cycles

Eh ? They sat on their own with a bbq and some picnic chairs whereas the Manc and Newcastle boys sat and chatted to everyone. Just seemed a bit moody to me.

They played well against us and beat us pretty easily, but as rik says, 3-0 against the Apples and they were definitely out played. No luck involved.

Yep, as confirmed, probably just didn't want to talk to you! Did you make the effort, Robojerk??

The BAD v LC game was superb, the girls defended really well and caught BAD on the break.

The boys didn't cover goal at all and got punished for it.

Yes actually. I chatted to all 3 of them for a bit, but they didn't seem keen to mingle with everyone else.

The Oxford Toffs play a good, tough game of polo - we had two close games against them at the Oxford tournament, and yesterday they were the first team to put a goal past us, the Apples being the only other team to do so. Definitely a team to take seriously.

And BAD v LC was the game of the day! 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 4-3, 4-4, 5-4. With the crowd so animated it was true polo theatre! LC played their hearts out and deserved their hard-earned victory.

beards

1. Great tourney Cambridge. Very well run and real pleasant (other than a few problematic ref situations)
2. Cosmic, Rotten, Neverland Refugees long live NE.
3. Thanks Freaky Malice, enjoyed playing with Andy & Andy.
4. I like the Oxford Tofts. I'm pissed they beat us. They will not score a goal on the JB Malice Invasion in the Euros.
5. Buffalo Bill

Well heck, Andy, had we known you were so very sensitive we would have mailed you a personal invitation to talk to us. Perhaps the red velvet cordon and bouncers around our exclusive seating area were off-putting?
Lovely day, great polo, and very nice playing, watching, and yes, even chatting with the rest of you! See you at the Euros.

Thanks to Harvey for having us, Matt for the ringleading and all the other guys for their hard work. And to Manchester, Cambridge et al at the throw ins this morning. Nice to play more than two games all weekend.

Really glad we made the trip down from the Toon. Can't wait to get back on the practice court and see everyone again.

Haha ! No offence meant, just a gentle jibe at your eleborate picnic setup, not something we're used too. We normally just manage to bring a few beers each.

Good game against you boys, 2-0 down before we even noticed and we never got back into it.

See you next month.

i don't know if it was you Hamatt, but i had some great fun playing some grass-polo with some of the newcastle guys! extremely tiring though!

Once again, thanks for a great day Cambridge.... We had a great time, very buzzed to have managed 3rd in the tourney, my only regret was that both of our Manchester teams got tied against each other for elimination, would have been fun to see if 'blood, sweat & beers' could have made it any further.... But happy to have got the talking watches (thanks Harvey) Mirek hasn't taken his off since.....!

Congratulations to Cosmic and Rotten Apples... what's the odds of a rematch at the euros...? Vidal, can you rig the draw? i wanna see them play again....!

Had a good day today playing slightly hungover throw-ins with Cambridge & Newcastle, looking forward to the Euros... see you all there...

Didn't get round to taking many, but some more pics here http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixel_f...7621223096819/

stunning photos!


from left: Netto Fabulous (3rd place), Cosmic3 (1st place); Rotten Apples (2nd place)

Awesome, just awesome. Matthew, big thanks for the hospitality and props to all you Cambridge boys and girls for a well organized tournament.

Nice to meet some new teams, Newcastle and some of the west London crew. Playing the Rotten Apples is always fun - i fucking love those games. Bring your 'A' game to the euros Apples, and remember...





Good people. Good times. Good polo.

jajajajaja

hope to get a game in the euros with you!

yeah, nice easy round for us!

Thanks to all, especially Harvey for the house. Amazing weekend! Cant wait for another tourney.

Some of mine.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/philxth...7621227669315/

Yeah, as long as you're not in goal though ;)

Smashing weekend . Thanks for coming everyone .
Newcastle you're welcome anytime , glad we got to play throw ins on sunday too. Sorry for a chaotic household and random mugging victim support .
Netto Fabs you rock , forgive you for knocking us out as apparently we were already riding our luck (not bicycles ;) so glad you won the talking watches (sorry no guarantee)
Rotten Apples and Cosmic thanks for providing a great final and oozing quality

RV Fen-Boy-three

This weekend was amazing. The tournament was great (despite West London being the first team out - standard). Hanging out and playing with Manchester, Newcastle and Cambridge the next day was also super fun. Please do it again!

clearly too busy waiting for an introduction to the vip area

Great way to break my tourny cherry, really enjoyed myself, the one peice of dodgy reffing added to the enjoyment (if you ask me), the rest of the day seemed to go like clockwork.

As with everyone else got to say thanks to cambridge for organising it and for every team that played... only got to play two of you (beaten by 14 year olds and then girls :-) but the rest of the day made for an awesome spectacle.

What an awesome day! I'm so glad everything worked out, that it stayed relatively dry and that we didn't get any hassle from the residents or police or anyone. Great to meet everyone and hang out, especially the 1/3rd of West Polo Albion and the Manchester dudes we had staying at ours and the Newcastle chaps at the Sunday throw-ins, shame I was either so drunk or too hungover across the weekend to either play properly or hold a coherent conversation with anyone!

Again a massive thanks to Matt, Harvey, Will and Rick for doing all the logistical stuff- Oliver, Bogey and Barney for the cakes and everyone else from all over the UK for coming down to play in our little city

Awesome day had by all i think :) cheers cambridge guys for a smooth running and ultimately groovy tournament and everyone that played for some extremely entertaining matches (Apples vs Cosmic was epic, as was BAD Vs. Los Conos)

Also, thankyou to whoever it was that gave me a spare tube in the pub after i skidded through my rear tyre (you were with Hassan I think?) anyway I cant remember, i was waaaaay too drunk by that point, but you were a life saver, the tube just about managed to get me home in the pissing rain, cheers!

its all been said, special thanks must go to Will & Jamie plus one other (not sure who you were?) for the court modifications and the marquee, Eddie for the trophy (well done, it is stunning), Matt for being the most offishal Man of Ceremonies, various folk for the prizes and cakes, and massive thanks to Rik for the ambulance and the t-shirts given to all Cambridge players - shame mine got ruined on the day :(

awesome day, really looking forward to the next one, and making more cake.

As Cosmic³ prepares battle at the Euros in August, they will assess many variables: the size of the court, the weight of their mallets, the hardness of the ball, the wind, the slope, even the moisture underfoot.

But there is one thing about Cosmic³ and the first annual European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship that has been set in stone: the color and design of their shirts, pants and hats.



For full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/sp...ington.html?hp

...and capes.

fixed.

Just reiterating what everyone else has said really. Fantastic day. JiHaD played a few slow games to begin with but got up to speed and were eventually knocked out by Cosmic.

Cheers to Cambridge for hosting and the trophy is amazing! Also thanks for the shirt swap whoever you are in the ambulance.

Great day, not so great curry afterwards.

Ilovepolo.

p.s. meeting BigJoel was a strange experience.

As with JOL's post, almost everything that I could say has already been said.

My team mates, awesome. I salute you.
Cosmic, I never get tired of playing you guys. Such a great way to end the day.
Los, Well done.
Netto, That was our B team. You guys just suck.

Cambridge, Thank you.

Everyone else. Insert some love filled but mocking remark here.

or rather someone please insert a photo of em doing a full loop the loop over the bars after taking out his own front wheel here. i'm still laughing :)

JOL, have you got that shirt still? Do you take cheques? How much for P&P? Sorry I didn't get to the pub sooner to pay you in cash.

Asseenon's was far better (think that's who it was)... full on somersault off the bike!

^ indeed Harvey's stack was most satisfying to watch :)

That was a tactical stack, aimed to scare the Toffs into staying away from me.
/lies

That was probably one of my favourite crashes of all time.

There's a great mid-crash photo of that one somewhere

I woke up the next day with a tyre marked armpit, anyone on here ?

is not so strange, I think Gabes had one, and Todd another one in the past months
but they dont know how they got it there, so...

Polo Fairy?

Was that from running yourself over?
(should that be running over yourself?)

So three people have had bikes ride over their armpits without noticing when it happened... sounds pretty strange to me!

Polo Ninja more like!

Yeah. Fairy spelt R-A-Y.

Faray?

my right butt cheek still aches and i'm walking a little funny, no idea. fairy?

Don't eat sweets ;)

I put on a new snafu lever before the tourney is my excuse ,it pulled loads more cable than the thing i'd had on before, hence the crowd pleasing somersault.

Basically everything has been said by everyone else...

Thanks so much to everyone for coming down, playing great and making everything work out. Ernormous props to everyone from Cambridge for everything. It makes me feel all warm inside to be part of a group coming together to organise something like this that people really seem to have enjoyed. It was also great to have Manchester and Newcastle in town the next day for throw-ins. You made a great day a great weekend.

Also, thanks to everyone who helped out during with suggestions, reminders, comments, champagne! etc. There were a few stumbles but everyone wanted it to (and made it) work.

I really want to see both photos of Harvey's forward roll and of the trophy in Cosmic's local (I think that is incredible!). Keep it dusted though, Cambridge are winning it back next year!

That trophy is staying in Hackney. Thanks for the awesome tourney Matthew and Cambridge.

and we never had a chance to say goodbye :'(

Or hello for that matter.....

Yep...she's already made herself at home.

@ Actualmatt...you can have a beer with her when you next come down to London. Sure she'd love to see you Cambridge boys again.

And you never know, by that time she could have a euro friend beside her in the already adopted NE Polo trophy cabinet!

Cheers again for a great weekend.

Is there going to be a euro trophy as well?