As you may know, we went to London the last weekend of July to help sponsor the 2011 LHBPA London Open Bike Polo Tournament at Hackney Downs in East London. For those of you that still don’t get it, bike polo is just like the normal horse polo – just with more personality and much more excitement :)
The London Open bike polo tournament was a great idea in theory: encourage some of the best hardcourt players in Europe to compete and never turn away any team with a desire to take part. The largest group of mallet-wielding polo enthusiasts worldwide resides in London, and props go out to the large community for organising the great event.
There are now over 26,000 bike polo players worldwide (predominately playing within North America and Europe) and there’s a huge amount of growth expected for the next couple of years across Asia Pacific and South America. Some of the grass polo clubs are starting to take notice in Africa and India too, the hardcourt game is definitely here to stay. And Crumpler is happy to have taken its first step toward involvement in the sport!
The weekend was a full-throttle, fast-paced orgy of goals, crashes, and hugs. Everyone gave their all, but teams that really dominated included: Supersonic – an all-star team comprising two-parts Polosynthese (European Champs runner’s up) and one-part L’Equipe (three times European Champions); Call Me Daddy (French National Champions); Cosmic (London League winners and UK National Champions); Nice Touch (London League runner’s up and UK National runner’s up); Spring Break (London League third place and UK Nationals third place); Hooks (European Champs third place, French Nationals sixth place) and Monkey Punch (mixed city team from Germany who were fifth at the European Champs).
We were happy to award the winning team, Supersonic, with three of our great Hairy Lee messenger bags, and they were happy to get them! We helped the players quench their insatiable apetites with some beers and pizza on us during the Saturday night player party. And we were keen to show folks our collections of products and make their days a bit brighter.
Be sure to check out our full photo album from the tournament on Facebook, with wonderful pictures courtesy of Robb Meertens. We are definitely looking forward to more tournaments in the future. Now go ride a bike!