Sydney Bike Polo held a Australia Day Mix-Up Tournament which produced a great day of polo, drinks and shenanigans. First off, thanks to Virginia for organizing the food and general tournament structure and items! Thanks also to the crowd and friends that turned up to watch and chillax. Unfortunately some of our players had various family functions to attend, but we managed to have 22 players register and play. Overall, it was a great day of polo that was nice and relaxed. I would like to thank all the players for there good nature and courtesy that was shown on the court, it was beautiful to see so many faced intense games without the need for a ref.

Below are a few pictures and the stats of the top 12 ranked players and finals results. This post will update eventually with a full list of results and more pics on the weekend.

Francesco's Polo Bike

Score sheets and game draw magnets

Crowd rocking SBP shirts

Below is a table of the top 12 players that progressed into the finals. Stephen unfortunately left before the finals, and Tsz took out Francesco in a dramatic 1v1 match to decide who progressed through.

Semi Final 1: Belle, Shifty, Brook def. Danos Tom, Eddie (5-2)

Semi Final 2: Locky, Virginia, Jamie def. Tsz, Robin, Doddy (5-3)

Final: Locky, Shifty, Eddie def. Virginia, Brook, Jamie (5-4)

Winning team on the left (Locky, Shifty, Eddie) and runners up (Virginia, Jamie, Brook)

Sydney's new 'pick-up' board

Check out the pic of our new trial system of sorting out games for pick-up sessions. The idea is to help out new players without mallets and reduce ‘doubling-up’ of some one using more than one mallet to sneak a few extra games in. Each player that comes down has a paddle-pop stick and magnet. Sticks are drawn out randomly for each team, then each game is easily posted up on a magnetic board for everyone to see. Easy to see your place with with 4 games back-to-back! Supplies purchase from the local stationary store for under $25 and it easily fits in a bag!

Australia Day Mix-Up Tournament

Don’t forget that this Thursday is Sydney’s Australia Day Mix-Up Tournament starting from 11:30am. A relaxed individual tournament structured like our normal ‘throw-up’ weekly sessions. Each game randomly draws two teams of three. Each game awards points to the players of the winning team. At the end of the day, the top seeded players will compete in a final to the sledging and heckling of the masses.

We will be putting on a FREE BBQ (thanks to everyone who purchased a SBP shirt!) with vegan and meat options. Bring down some drinks, cooler-bag and a rain jacket! There is a chance of showers but games WILL STILL PROCEED!

London International Invitational 2012 from Jon Marshall on Vimeo.

20 of the top European teams headed to London last week for an invitational tournament. Here are some highlights put together by Jon from Spring Break. They’ve also put together an AMAZING followup story (highly recommended!) with plenty of great pics over at their teams website which is a great blog for checking out the polo scene in London. Thanks again for the video!

When thinking about where in the world would have the best courts, usually the first ones that come to mind are obviously East Vancouver’s polo specific court (first built in the world) and maybe New York’s “The Pit”.

The third would have to be Molitor in France, which has been used for numerous photo shoots and magazine spreads. It’s easy to see why. The tight court with its ‘derelicte’ setting, balconies over the court and of course the endless graffiti make it an impressive sight. As far as I know, the court used to be a pool which explains the unfortunate slope, but the great side walls more than make up for that!

Sydney Bike Polo shirts have arrived!

THE SHIRTS HAVE ARRIVED! All 100 of them are in Sydney and are ready to roll out for those that have paid Virginia. Don’t forget to bring money if you haven’t paid yet! We will try to have them at polo on Thursday night.

There are still shirts available as we have ordered some extras. If you would like to order a shirt, please email ‘info@sydneybikepolo.org’ and visit this post for further information.

Ladies Army IV poster

Not many of this years American/EU Tournaments have been posted yet, but this is DEFINITELY going to be one of the highlights! This all girls tournie draws in players from around the world for some of the best polo you’ll see all year!

Check out this promo package from Mr. Do!

Ladies Army Promo from Mr.Do on Vimeo.

Milking of from Uolmo on Vimeo.

A group of players from Geneva have got together under the name ‘Milk Bike Polo‘ to create an impressive shaft and mallet head solution. Super quick to swap, sturdy and light, this system look the bizzz. As it’s still fairly new, they are a little pricey at around 17 pounds, but you get a quality product! I just hope they recycle or reuse all that cored out plastic! Check out their site for interesting section views and assembly methods!

Section view of mallet head

Winter Whack iii

For those looking at what’s next after Sydney’s tournament in February and Perth’s Australasian Championships in March, then here’s your answer! Winter Whack iii is Christchurch’s main event on the polo calendar with last years considered by many as the best tournament in Oz and NZ that year.

Craig and the Christchurch players have nailed in the date of the 1st and 2nd of June, but kicking off with Friday Night Knife Fights at 8pm. This will be the Queens Birthday weekend in NZ so there will be an additional day on top of the usual line-up! There are still more details to announce in the near future, but keep checking Christchurch’s site for the latest.

Sydney’s upcoming tournament ‘Cirque du Sydney’ on the 25/26th of February will be open from this coming Tuesday the 10th of January at 8pm! The double header weekend will include a team tournament on the first day, with a relaxed individual Mix-Up Tournament on the second. Head over to the tournament page for more information.

REGISTRATION: We will be accepting registrations for the teamed “Carney Carnage” tournament via email. Registrations for the second day throw up tournament “Sideshow Slaughter” will be taken on the day. Oh, did we forget to mention that the entire tournament will be FREE?!?! We will have a donations box on the day with all funds to go to Perth Cycle Polo to help in hosting the Australasian Championships.