NYC Bike Polo

July 11th NYC Bike Polo will once again be the half-time entertainment at the Roller Derby!! The last time we did this it was tons of fun. Crashes, competition, cheering crowds, athletic women on skates! What more could you ask for? Why, bike polo indoors of course.

Bronx Gridlock vs Brooklyn Bombshells July 11 at the Hunter College Sportsplex. Doors open at 6:30, whistle at 8:30. Everybody come down for what is sure to be a great time.

Friday, June 19, 2009 - Sunday, June 21, 2009

Some of you mentioned to Cecily and Fiona at the last couple of tournaments that a mid-summer polo round-up in New York would be simply delightful. So, they’re organizing for the weekend of Jun 20th and you can bring either delight of terror to NYC!! We’re ready…

Double elimination, random seed, battle to the bones, on Saturday and Sunday. Everyone must bring a prize: make a disc wheel; write a polo anthem; bake cookies!!! Bonus points awarded for most creative prizes. Friday night BBQ, Saturday night Bicycle Film Fest Party. Get your crayons out kids!

TEAMS OF THREE. MUST HAVE AT LEAST TWO CITIES REPRESENTED. BONUS POINTS FOR TEAMS WITH THREE CITIES REPRESENTED AND FOR TEAMS WITH NYC PLAYERS ON THEM.

Prizes:
We expect y’all to bring something you cooked up at home. You may also invent a category for which to award your prize (Eg: Best smile; flukiest goal; worst haircut etc. etc.)
We will also have some prizes in case the hand-crocheted underwear you won for practically having babies with another player during a tumble doesn’t do it for you! Prizes from Boneshakers, Outlier, King Kog, Neighburrito and Laek House.

Schedule:
Fri 6/19
Registration/BBQ party, 7 - 11 at Second Chance Saloon (659 Grand St, Brooklyn); Goldsprints at Public Assembly after 11

Sat 6/20 - Cherry St. Court
Tournament play 10am - 4pm with a couple of hours in the middle for pick-up and munchies.
Bicycle Film Fest Street Party followed by another BFF party somewhere else.

Sun 6/21
Final games followed by pick-up and prize-giving 11am-4pm
BFF screening at 7pm includes Bike Polo movie so we should all try to support it.
After that y’all can go home!

Housing:
Please email Cecily (cecilyu@gmail.com) if you need a place to stay…
If you already know you’re gonna stay with a particular person please let Cecily know anyway so she’s not losing sleep worrying about where you’re gonna lay your pretty head.

I think that’s all for now…
Oh…dancing shoes, bring your dancing shoes!

This is a few months old, filmed in late 2008 I think. The production values on these keep getting better. Enjoy;

But we all ready knew that didn’t we. Thanks Doug for letting us know that the Daily News has mentioned our little sport as a good offbeat cardio workout.

Just a quick correction to the DN, we recently made a neighborly agreement to make the pit more available to other groups. We will be playing in Sara D. on Thursdays from 5 on, and Sundays starting at 2pm.

Have you taken photos of The Pit at Chrystie and Broome? We would love to see your shots. Add your shots to the Flickr pool that focuses on our favorite place to play bike polo.
Flickr: The Pit at Chrystie and Broome
Photos dont have to be of bike polo, could be anything in the immediate area of The Pit.

As some of you know, and others of you don’t know, we decided to hold a qualifier within our club to determine the team which will be given the outstanding invite we have to the Milwaukee COG Tournament, which is happening June 6th & 7th.

The first thing we need is to determine who is going to contend for this and participate in the qualifier. The format will be double round-robin, with each team playing two matches against every other team. Match format is 15 minutes, -no- score limit (so run it up, don’t be shy). 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, and 0 for a loss. The first place team gets the invite. If two or more teams are even on points at the end, goal differential (NOT head-to-head points earned) is the first tiebreaker… so use those 15 minutes and score a lot of goals.

Teams which intend on contending for this thing need to announce their intention to Ken Stanek or to Adam Staudt by Friday, March 27. That’s one week from now, so you have one Sunday, one Tuesday, and one Thursday practice session to sort yourselves out.

The date for the qualifier is Sunday, April 5 during the normal Sunday pickup sessions. Time is still a little bit TBD as a result of the Trackstar 24-hour race the previous day, but will likely be 3:00pm at the earliest and 5:00pm at the latest. If you have a team and you absolutely can’t play that day, we -may- be able to shift days and get all your games in against all the other teams. Every effort will be made, so if you have a solid team but can’t make it that day, let us know anyway and we’ll get it sorted.

p.s. if you’re going to try to qualify for this thing, please make sure all your teammates can actually travel and play at the tournament. Our club wants to make a good showing at this thing, so let’s be as professional as we can (I know, that’s not much, but let’s try not to half-ass it -that- much, okay?) about it.

That’s it. Stop reading and start practicing.

Here are the rules from the 2009 Oregon Bicycle Polo Championships:

-Don’t be a punk ass biatch
-Each team must pick a Team Captain. This Captain is responsible for: getting their team on/off the court, reporting scores at the end of games and reffing games
-Only players and ref’s are allowed to be on the playing court.
-Saturday’s games are timed to 12 minutes or first to 5 points. Highest score wins when time runs out. Ties will not count against you in seeding for later games.
-ALL shots count unless shuffled by a teammate.
-Height of goal is unlimited.
-A “foot down” requires the offending player to complete a full 360 rotation in the same direction before they are allowed to use their mallet. Defensive play while not using a mallet is allowed?????
-Stick throwing is allowed. A demonstration will be shown on Saturday for clarification.
-No T-boning and no moving picks. This call is left up the the ref’s discretion.
-No passing the ball through the back of the net to yourself.
-After a goal is scored, the team that scored can not play the ball until the scored on team brings the ball past their own goal line.
-Mallet to mallet / bike to bike / body to body.
-No switch hitting
-No right vs. left face offs
-Mario Land Rule: If the ball goes out of bounds and it is not reasonable to mallet strike it back into play, the retrieving player is allowed to foot down and use their hand to bring the ball back into play. The retrieving player will then be allowed to re-mount their bike with possession of the ball. There will will be no forward movement to the ball until the player has successfully reset them selves
-Spectators: Spectators may only touch the ball if they are explicitly as to do so by a player or referee who is involved in the game. During this contact, the ball will be placed stationary on the ground - in play - at which point play will resume.
-Time outs: Game clock does not stop for timeouts, Mario land’s or spectators. Time outs can only be called by a team who has been scored upon and before they offensively advance the ball.
-The referee has final say on all calls.

NYC Bike Polo is sending one player to the 2009 Oregon Bicycle Polo Championships. We’ll have a full report after the event. The polo in Portland is called Little Beirut for a few reasons, some of which are the encouragement of deftly throwing one’s mallet and having to do a 360 in the event of going foot-down. Check them out at axlesofevil.org

Way back last summer, a bunch of us played polo on the set of “What Happens in Vegas”, starring Cameron Diaz & Ashton Kutcher. Here’s the clip. I’d advise you not to watch the rest of the movie. IT SUCKS! But inexplicably, there’s a bike polo scene in the middle.

Bike Polo scene from “What Happens in Vegas” from Ken Stanek on Vimeo.

we had people there by 5pm tonight and the games didn’t stop until 9:30. hard fought all night. everyone was going full throttle. el gigante was caught saying “i thought that was reserved for tournaments.” play was so intense that not even a compliment could be accepted properly, instead we would just ice grill each other. a great night all around, and very representative of nyc polo. men and women were there. new players and a lot of veterans. hell, even menace came out and he hates playing in the dark. and he stayed all night. thanks everybody. i can’t wait for sunday.