London Bicycle Film Festival Polo Tournament

The Bicycle Film Festival brings you the 2nd Annual BFF polo tournament

5th October 2008
Free Entry
Prizes, entertainment, etc.
Afterparty at the Electricity Showrooms in Hoxton Square

Who’s in so far? The Fabulous French Fuckers are back. There are rumors of horse polo players (on bicycles, not horses..) BAD Polo, Oxford, Zombie R.M.Y, and Cluster Fuck Unit.

to register teams, email polo@bicyclefilmfestival.com.

BFF Polo

London Hard Court Bike Polo League

I’m back after taking some time off blogging.

Last night I went to  meeting to organize the frist season of the London Hard Court Bike Polo League.  After about a year of informal play on Sundays at Brick Lane, and a few tournaments we felt that world wide hard court polo was heading towards leagues, and competitive team play, and London should not be left behind.  We also felt this would help us increase our skills by playing competitively on fixed teams.

Polo at Brick lane

Hard Court Bike Polo is played by teams of three, on a blacktop, or concrete court, (usually encircled by walls or broads), with home made mallets (a sky pole, bolted to some plastic pipe is most common) games are to five goals. Play starts with each team seated on their bikes, near their goal, and the ball in the middle of the court, a non-player will start the game by counting from three, and yelling “go!”.  Both teams then charge for the ball, and try to score a goal by knocking the ball through a pair of cones with the head (thin end) of their mallets.  Players are not allowed to touch the ground with their feet from the start of the count, and if they do, they must “tap out” by touching their mallets to a wall, at one side of centre court.  Bike polo is a contact sport, and “like contact” is allowed, this means you can touch bike to bike, body to body, or mallet to mallet, but not mallet to bike, or mallet to body.

A player at Brick Lane blances with his mallet

The London league will start on the 1st of October, and teams can register (by emailing londonbikepololeague@gmail.com with your teams name, and name of the players) until the 29th of September.  We will continue to play non-competive pick up games at Brick Lane, just North of Bethnelgreen Road Sundays from 2pm year round.