Polo Postponed

Its no use whinging about the heat, this is summer in Australia. What did you expect?

But its fair to say that playing polo in 40+ is a bit daft, hence we shall wait until next Sunday (8th) and hopefully things will have cooled down abit.

(right, time to find some air conditioning)

Neil.

New Location, Game on Sunday

From this Sunday we will begin playing on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month. Unless otherwise stated games will begin at 2pm. We will also be playing at our New Location, (parked car permitting), This parking area is on Gawler Place about halfway between Flinders and Pirie Streets on the west side. Hard to miss.

Unfortunatley I wont be playing this Sunday, but Bonnie and hopefully Damon from Melbourne will be there to show you how its played.

Bring your mallets!

Happy New Year

Bike polo is on this Sunday, 2pm, Edwards Park

Free mallet giveaway at the end of the game.

Afterwards we can head to the Tour Down Under street race circuit, the race begins at 7pm, Rymill Park (east side of the city).

It would be really good to play some bike polo over near the circuit but I don't know of any venues. The exposure to hundreds if not thousands of cycling spectators would be huge.

I wonder if Lance would have a crack.

Not so popular demand...

...only Steph and myself turned up today so we played half court one on one until 3pm when we got tired of waiting. I suppose it is the holiday season. That's what I am doing for the next 3 weeks.

Happy New Year to you all.
I hope to see you all again next year. Keep January the 18th free for our next match.

In the meantime I would like to hear from everyone about how they would like Adelaide Bikepolo to be run. How often would you like to play? Is the current location convenient? Are there any rules you would like changed? Would people prefer more regular fixed teams or random-on-the-day teams?

Next year there is the potential for some kind of national championship and other inter-city competitions. Bikepolo is taking off in almost every major city in Australia. It would be great to represent Adelaide when the time comes.

Neil

Back by popular demand. The 2008 Bailout BikePolo Match. Sunday 28th 2pm, Edwards Park. Your last chance to play bike polo on a Sunday afternoon this year. Take home a free mallet at the end of the game (while stocks last)

Last Sundays session was a warm one yet the keen still ventured out into the sun. Judith showed with all her belongings on her back, she has found work in Lorne. Good luck with your travels, Judith, ride on.

The new mallets worked great, Reilly attempted to snap one of the poles (and a bystanding tree) but this was quickly fixed. Not so much luck with Kirra's bananarised rear wheel. Alex from Melbourne paid a visit to show us all how the game is played (or how much we really need to improve)

Tonight we had Critical Mass, 6:30pm at Victoria Square It was my first ride in such and event. A really good keen bunch of people you are and a really good turn out I thought considering the traffic was light, public holiday and all.
My one gripe: I think our well intentioned statement is wasted on the car driving public if we choose to ignore traffic signals. I hate cars that run yellow and red lights deliberately. It would be great if we showed them that we respect the road rules as well.

Polo This Sunday, 28th! 2pm, Edwards Park.

Coming up in the new year will be a mallet construction guide and revised rules.

Neil

Good news for mallet builders.
I literally stumbled across a small supply of heavy duty 60mm polythene pipe. So tonight I have made six new mallets with 16mm aluminium handles and recycled, thirdhand bartape. These puppies should take some beating, and they are only marginally heavier than the wooden shitters we played with last week.

If you would like some mallet heads let me know and I will bring a quantity along next Sunday. The aluminium tube was sourced from Bunnings retailing for about $14 for 3 meters. The handles on the new mallets vary from 980mm to 1070mm. I used 75mm long ,3/16" pan-head screws with nyloc nuts to hold the heads on then cut the excess thread off with a hacksaw.

One of our players, Bonnie, is also involved in organising the Adelaide version of the Critical Mass movement. The next ride is on Boxing Day, Dec 26th. Find out more about it here

See you next Sunday

Thankyou to all of those who turned out to play on Sunday. What a fantastic day it was and a good time had by all 12 or so players.
The pitch was hard, fast and wide with all players choosing to ignore the boundary cones at times. I dont really see the point of having a boundary. The ball always seem to gravitate towards the goals eventually. There were some admirable stacks and a few self inflicted malletings.

Check out Jeremy's photos

Check out Stephs photos



If anyone else has put up photos or video let me know. bikepolo.adelaide[ at ]gmail.com

The wood/pvc mallets started shattering even before we got underway but at least we had enough to get us through. What we can learn is that your mallet needs to be bomb proof and have an internal diameter not larger than 50mm unless it is capped. I still cant find any ABS gas pipe so I might fiberglass reinforce some 50mm PVC for the MkII mallets.

Our next organised game (if you can call it that) will be held on Sunday 21st December at 2:00pm, same location. If that all goes well we will kick start it again in the New Year. Of course there is nothing stopping people playing at anytime. It really is up to you.

If you would like to help promote bike polo in Adelaide you can download this .pdf poster advertising our next game in two weeks. Print out half a dozen to stick up on your work university or club noticeboards, favourite bikeshop, nearest bikerack, whatever... Lets get bikepolo known in Adelaide.