I was going to say something about people who play but don't belong to this site, but if Leon says so, congrats! Any words of wisdom?
Sasha
"London probably has the biggest and most active Hardcourt Bike Polo community in the world"
http://arkitipintel.com/2009/06/16/comeplaypolo-tshirts/
Is this true? Can someone confirm this?
I noticed Milwaukee has 61 people listed for our club members and London has 60. I know we don't get even come close to 60 for our weekly pick-up games, but I wonder about london.
So which city has the greatest number of "regular" club members?
I'm not saying greater number of players equates to better polo by any means, but something I thought about when i read that statement.
BTW, those shirts are pretty dope.
~MKE Bicycle Polo Club~
This is a North American-centric site...
You can't go by club members of this site anyways because anybody can join most club pages here. I think I belong to the milwaukee club page here and I know some non-Londoners belong to the London page here. On our own London Polo Crew forum which I moderate and only allow known London polo players to join, we have 66 members and there is at least a handful of players who just don't really use the internet much...
I'm not saying we get 60 people out to polo every night but there is polo played Saturday through Thursday in Northeast, South or West London on given days with anywhere from 10 - 30 people a night.
The site matt hewitt points to is Yorgo's (le car) blog. We made the 'In New York they...' stickers for him!
Mike,
London, UK.
London just ran a league of 12 teams. Every team played every other team once in games with three 5-point chukkers. We've been thinking that this is the first hardcourt league. Have any other cities had a league?
The polo scene here is massive. It's great for hanging out, but i think it does work against us in terms of improving. A small scene with 9-12 people has an easier time playing a lot of competitive games than a scene that gets 12-24 players every single session, like London does. But it's fun.
Also, the club lists on this site aren't limited to locals. I'm a member of the MKE club and i live in London.
608
Calgary has had a league running for a couple years.
Cleveland's local club page has
63 members. Who cares...
Who Cares? I'd like to know where the biggest scene is. If that's where the polo is, that is were the polo people are. And who doesn't what to be around those two. Sounds like polo club envy.
BRINGING THE RUCKUS
grow up.
Milwaukee Bicycle Polo Club
Note that on my blog I said "probably". As in "there is a probability". I am by no means sure of that claim, but clearly the amount of courts we regularly play on (5-6 at least), the number of days per week played (6, with simultaneous polo happening in two different parts of town at least twice a week), and the number of dedicated players (12 teams of 3 as said above, plus many others).
But as others have pointed out, more players=more newbies=less quality play.
If you want to have a (scary) glimpse of how active our community is, just have a look at the number of threads on the polo section of our forum:
http://www.londonfgss.com/forum24.html
There is even another section on the forum called London Polo Club (no idea why we have this other section...), where intense debate rages and where some arguments about the qualifiers for the euros almost came to blows... another drawback of the size of the sport here.
Yorgo
LONDON: http://bricklanebikepolo.wordpress.com/
PARIS: http://panambikepolo.blogspot.com/
So Kev - your opinion on this subject after this weekend?
Yorgo
LONDON: http://bricklanebikepolo.wordpress.com/
PARIS: http://panambikepolo.blogspot.com/
vancouver proper 600 000+, greater vancouver 2.3 million+.
be carefull Matthew, Max, will bring DOOM to Vancouver polo, Sick Buckets style
London is a really big city, and it has a lot more of some good things (heaps of people on bikes, heaps of nice bike shops, great coffee shops), and also a lot more of some bad things (heaps of cars with one person in them, lorries (trucks) that run over cyclists) - so if we have a bigger polo scene than some other, smaller cities, well, I am not surprised.
I definitely think that the London polo scene is better than the New York polo scene, though.
[stands well back and ducks]
I know the NY players are impressed by your league and sense of organization. We do get in a lot of polo for a fairly transient city (3x a week). People's scedules here are pretty ridiculous, but i imagine the same for a big city like London. if you all are as slick and skilled as Yorgo, i'd be intimidated, but i know that can't be the case. i can't wait to play in London, truth be told.
if you all are as slick and skilled as Yorgo, i'd be intimidated, but i know that can't be the case.
You're right. We're all waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than him!
Actually, I would put him in the top 10, maybe 5 in London. There's a bunch of guys* who are all around the same level. Although there is no-one that plays quite like the big Y!
*Mike, Aidan, dt, Tom, Todd, Matt, JB, Matt V etc
if you all are as slick and skilled as Yorgo, i'd be intimidated, but i know that can't be the case.
You're right. We're all waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than him!
Actually, I would put him in the top 10, maybe 5 in London. There's a bunch of guys* who are all around the same level. Although there is no-one that plays quite like the big Y!
*Mike, Aidan, dt, Tom, Todd, Matt, JB, Matt V etc
Thanks bill, but I think a lot of these guys are actually more skilled than me. Tomasito, Todd, James Brown, all of BAD, Mike, Em, Gabes and a few others have clearly gotten pretty good when I've mostly stagnated. That's what you get for inventing a sport...
Yorgo
LONDON: http://bricklanebikepolo.wordpress.com/
PARIS: http://panambikepolo.blogspot.com/
The size of the scene may affect the quality of polo, but after having so much of the European scene in London this weekend, all I can say is how great it was to have so many awesome polo people around. Bigger = better in this case.
The size of the scene may affect the quality of polo, but after having so much of the European scene in London this weekend, all I can say is how great it was to have so many awesome polo people around. Bigger = better in this case.
+1
Another advantage to a massive scene: London bikers put up 43 people during the Euros. That was pretty cool.
In Barcelona we are just guys (arround 20) playing....no girls...who have less girls than as?
Wow great thread....but so last season
london polo seems huge this summer as a noob its so easy to enter the scene people brilliantly welcoming and the entry level throwin is busy
I went to London and I can confirm that they had the largest polo community that I have seen so far. I am going to have to agree with this.
Leon
Seattle Bike Polo