It’s My Park Day
Bike Polo Demo & Clinic for Teens
May 15th, 2010. From Noon - 2PM
The Pit, Chrystie and Broome Streets in the Sara D. Roosevelt Park, NYC

For more info: partnershipforparks.org

Rookie Polo Nights. Monday in Brooklyn. North Portland & Flushing. Get your learn on. No vets allowed (unless they’ve started sucking phenomenally, like me).

Mere words cannot describe a Los Marcos tournament. Their website does a bit of justice - www.losmarcospolos.com, but the only way to really understand it is to come & watch. There’ll be some sick prizes and amazing events this year, including a Karaoke competition, Metal Show, Alleycat, Scavenger Hunt, Pole Dance Bike, and Eating competitions.

It’s going to be epic.

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.

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.

They’re hot, and designed by local legend “John” Chombo “Siers”.

Only a few are available. Mostly in black. But ask. We might have your size in Green or Orange. Visit losmarcospolos.com/losmarcos_buyshirt.html to buy now. $15 + $3 shipping, or $15 if you live in New York and can pick it up or have it delivered conveniently. Contact Ken (information to the right) for local purchases.

Article on Gothamist.com

Curiously enough, I received an email from Bryan Abrams last week, asking if NYC Bike Polo had any mallets for sale so that he & his elephant polo team could train. Elephant Polo made me skeptical. I mean I’d heard of it, but initially I expected “Bryan” to be any one of my friends playing a strange and somewhat elaborate practical joke on me. Because really, I had no idea people actually played elephant polo out here. Plus, our mallets are clearly far too short to be used on elephants. Turns out, Bryan is for real, and wasn’t messing around with me at all. He and his team, New York Blue, are the only American team to be competing in the World Elephant Polo Association’s tournament in November. This past Sunday, he came to the Pit to check out our version of polo and get some mallet head materials and a few ski poles to try & fashion something useful from. He let me ask him a few questions about playing polo on top of an elephant:

image Copyright by Tickle and the Ivories 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

1) How did you get involved in the sport?

Our captain, Bill Keith, covered the 2006 World Elephant Polo Championship
as a journalist. He had always vowed to go back w/ his own team. Sure
enough, 2 years later, he made it happen.

2) What are the basic rules of Elephant Polo?

Here’s the rules: http://www.tickle-and-the-ivories.com/rules.htm

3) It’s easy for us to keep our polo bikes in our apartments. Do you like, have your own elephants or something? How do you practice?

We’re practicing on Range Rovers. I’m hoping not to die during our practice.

4) You’re the sole American team attending the World Elephant Polo Association tournament in India. How do you feel about your chances out there?

It’s actually taking place in Nepal. And yeah, we’re the only American team, but as our name suggests, we’re more than an American team, we’re a NEW YORK team. That distinction is important. Like all New Yorkers, we just assume we’ll kick ass.

5) I have no idea how Elephants respond to being ridden. In Bike Polo, agility & control are essential in a fast moving, technical game. How does that work when you’re riding an Elephant?

There will be a Nepalese man that controls the elephant. It’s important to note these elephants are treated extremely well. They take great care of them and make sure that their treatment is humane. The elephants are thereal stars.

6) Seriously, this sounds awesome. Are you making all of this up?

I’m not making it up, but it certainly sounds like a fairy tale. I keep thinking, if for some reason I get crushed to death, what a way to go out.

Last May some of you helped out for a few hours with It’s My Park Day in SDR Park - the Pit’s home address and our Sunday home. It was a pretty big success - people from the community, the Parks Department, neighborhood kids, and folks from other groups that use the park met us and got to see us doing something productive. Now there’s a mural up with stencils of polo players on the Hester St. walkway and we’ve got lots more people on our side should we ever have another conflict with dog walkin’ yuppies or angry Parks Dept. employees.

Saturday October 25 is another It’s my Park Day, and another chance for us to make ourselves visible to the community and to make (and maintain) allies in the park. This time, we have been asked by the organizers to help kids paint and stencil at the Rivington St.
Playground, and we’ve also been asked to give a polo demonstration during the event. It will benefit us to have a strong presence at
this event, and it should be enjoyable too.

Here’s the plan: from 11 to 2 or 3, we play polo at the pit, and rotate out to help kids paint at the playground. We could use a couple people to help out at 10 also, we need to carry some supplies up from Hester St. If you have any mallets that are broken in half, this would be a great time to rebuild them for the kids.

Please contact johnnymidwest@gmail.com to let us know if you can play some Saturday polo and help out with the event.

…for some reason. I don’t really get it either. Click on the image for the full flyer.