An idea had been brewing for a while. The date was set. Polo was played. Fun was had.

Bike polo in Canberra (aptly named the “1st Royal Mallet Regiment”) has been like a booty call contact on you phone. Been happening on and off for a while, but only really happens when enough interested parties are feeling ‘it’ at the same time. For the last year or two, a few Canberra locals have been getting together every month or two but at a very casual, informal basis. The passion and fun were there (credits due to Steve and Tea for putting in the hard yards!), but the stop-start history needed a burst of energy to really take off.

Canberra is what one would consider to be the perfect city for polo. It’s got plenty of space and facilities, superb cycling paths with relaxed car drivers, a young population that includes two large universities, a great sporting tradition including track, mountain and road biking and that little special ingredient of generally being a quiet town. There’s a small issue of it being cold, but when you’d compare it against Seattle and Vancouver, the two big cities to lift the game out of obscurity, its like a tropical island. Just during pick up a number of passer-bys stopped to have a game, a great sign of potential.

So you can imagine Sydney’s excitement when we were invited down by Beth and Tom for a day of casual pickup to help breathe some life into the club. Beth has recently moved up from Melbourne and giving it a great kick-start with the old Adelaide veteran Tom who many of us knew for a number of years. This city had a great start and its future is looking bright (sorry for the corny line, but its true!). It’s close proximity to Sydney is a great advantage to both our clubs, and we are happy it’s got such a great bunch of players involved. We are eagerly awaiting our next session!!!

For further info, check out the 1st Royal Mallet Regiment’s Facebook page or see them each Sunday at their new court at Ainslie School on Donaldson Street, Braddon.

1. “King of the Cage 2012″
Date: 14-15 April 2012
City: Auckland, New Zealand

Many of you might have met some of the Auckland crew during our “Cirque du Sydney” tournament, or at least Super Cat (aka Leo). Super Cat has organized this wicked little tournament in Auckland to help grow the local scene. Word is the court is tops.

Yes, this on this week so perhaps a bit too soon if you haven’t got any tickets yet. On the upside, last I heard there was still room for additional teams or individual players. More info here.

2. “Autumn Tournament”
Date: 28-29 April 2012
City: Melbourne, Australia

This annual tournament has been running for a couple of years now down in Melbourne. Typically a day of round robin to seed the teams, then a second day of double elimination. There is one or two teams from Sydney heading down already, and if there isn’t room on either of these, extra players are always welcome and find good homes. This one will feature a mobile disco, a couple of kegs and best of all, its located on the pristine courts at Flagstaff. More info here.

3. “Winter Whack iii”
Date: 1-2 June 2012
City: Christchurch, New Zealand

Heralded as Australasia’s coldest tournament, this one I would find hard to pass up on. Last years tournament was not only one of the best organised, it was also one of the most fun in a way only NZ can provide. Chilled, relaxed yet some fast and furious polo to warm those cold bones. This year they’ve had to put a cap on the number of teams as it’s only a single day tournament so you’ll have to get in early as it’s guaranteed to fill up quickly. Again, there looks to be one or two Sydney teams planning to head over so get in touch to fill a spot.

The tournament is over New Zealand’s Queens Birthday weekend of 1/2nd of June with Friday night Knife fights and drinks, with a single day round robin then elimination. Our Cirque du Sydney format was a direct knock off of this system after we witnessed it working so well last year. Check out the CHC bike polo page for more details.

Seems like the growing crew at Timaru know how to enjoy their weekend! Surf, beach bonfires and polo, what more could one want or need?

Some video footage has made its way to the interweb from the 2012 Australasian Championships in Perth. This match from the second and final day saw DOG SOCCER (Sydney) meet the Triple Dutch Rudders (Brisbane) in the winners bracket of the double elimination format. It sounds complicated, but it means that its an elimination game but the looser of the match gets a second chance.

This game saw Tom, Morgan and Brook of DOG SOCCER fame take an early lead of 2-0 before TDR came from behind to take it down to the wire. TDR eventually made it to the final with DOG SOCCER going down to the eventual champions NASFWG only a single game away from a rematch in the grand final.

Sydney under lights for the 'Cirque du Sydney' tournament (by Mace Robertson)

GOALHOLE, the new bike polo blog to hit the interwebs has started a weekly “city report” about the clubs around Australia and NZ. Each week GOALHOLE interviews members about their scene, courts, players and history of the club.

This week, our lovely club was featured and is viewable over on their site. We also recommend checking out their “Player Profiles” which are hilarious and informative. Robin from Sydney was featured the other day!

Jack + Sydney Bike Polo: Bringing sexy back

Jack + Sydney Bike Polo: Bringing sexy back...

Le Coq Sportif's poster from afar

Bordeaux Bike Polo from Maxime LACOMBE on Vimeo.

Check out this tasty abandoned warehouse that this clubs using in Bordeaux! Surely Marrickville/Newtown/Enmore can produce something like this?? Maybe with a roof, lights and a fridge full of cold beer? Is that so much to ask?!?