First Pics of the Jungle Tournament by Fresker and Quentin (GVA).

Have a look to these two albums of photos taken during the Jungle tournament.

The first is Fresker one. Fresker is a parisian fixed rider and photograph. His camera and him are always here when there is a Bike Polo event in Paris. You can see the full set here.

© Fresker, Fresker Flickr Set.

The second is Quentin one. Quentin is a part of Iron Ponies team. He respond to our invitation and came from GVA with his brother Clement and his girlfriend Sarah. They played as Elephants. Quentin’s pics are here.

© Quentin Bailat. Quentin’s Google Album.

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Zebra Won the Jungle Tournament.

A video of the winning goal of the tournament (sudden death) form the game Zebras against Rafiki’s Baboons.

Top4 were :

1/ Zebras, Will, Jo, Yann

2/ Raffiki’s Baboons, Maks, Woods, Quentin

3/ Gorillas, Hugo, Pierre, Ed

4/ Lions, Marmou, Greg, Matt

Pics and report will follow this week.

The Jungle Rule !

Before each game of the Jungle Tournament on saturday, a player will have to spin the wheel. The wheel will define a specific rule for the game. To know the meaning of all of this see you satruday morning at 9h00.

Victoire x MGM, stem prototype.

This stem is the first step of our colaboration with Victoire concerning specific bike polo bike parts. Inspired by BMX design and adapted to Bike Polo restrictions this stem is coming straight from Ju’s mind.

Very compact and light, this stem is a real pleasure to ride. It’s been now 3 month that we played with and all the feelings on the bike and feedbacks are great.

The stem should be produced soon. A little bit longer version will be also available for the one who want to use it for their daily bikes. More info soon about the production available soon on the Victoire website.

Next steps will be hubs and a chainring.

Stay tunes, and don’t forget “Step by Step, ooooh Babyyyyyy ……!”

26th March, MGM JUNGLE TOURNAMENT.

It’ll be in Paris, it’ll be the 26th March and it’ll be very fun.

Here is the list of the team competiting for this tournament.

1/ LES ROIS DES ANIMAUX, Paris, Marmou/Greg/Matt
2/ LES PANDAS, Paris, Mayeut/Bump/Henri
3/ LES GORILLES, Paris, Hugo/Pierre/Ed
4/ LES CHOW CHOWS DU BENGAL, Paris, Looping/J Fran/Pierre
5/ LES PHACOCHERES, Paris, Léo/Mickey/Clément
6/ LES CANARDS SAUVAGES, Paris, Luis/Yorgo/Thomas
7/ LES KANGOUROUS, Paris, Jude/Nick/René
8/ LES BABOUINS RAFIKI, Rouen, Maks/Woods/Quentin
9/ LES TARZANS ET LA JANE, Rouen, Bidou/Fabrice/Simon
10/ LES BONOBOS, Karlsruhe, Hannes/Steffen/Schindi
11/ LES ELEPHANTS, Genève, Clément/Quentin/Sarah
12 / LES ZEBRES, Grenoble, Will/Jo/Yann
13 / LES GIRAFFES, Lilles, Florent/Sylvain/…
14/ LES GUEPARDS, Toulouse, Alex/Felix/Tonio
15 / ____________, Montpelier, Mass/Piks/…
16/ LAPINS VOLANTS, Rouen, Dadou/Anton/Fred

Greif Masters 2, Team France on top of Europe.

During the 4-5-6^th of February, Karlsruhe hosted the second edition of The Greif Masters. This year, to prevent from doing an “invitational” tournament, our friends from Karlsruhe Bike Polo decided to organize an European Bench Minor tournament.

The tournament was composed of 9 teams, Germany, England, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux, but also London (because they are the biggest bike polo community in Europe), Karlsruhe (because they were organizing it and wanted to play as well) and France. Each teams had to choose a captain and their best 10 players to represent their country (or city).

The French team was composed by Greg (MGM), who also was the captain, Marmousou (MGM), Marc (Apologies), Luis (Apologies), Hugo (DTGP), Will, Jo and Polo (Call Me Daddy), Maks (Hooks) and Pierre Adrien (also known as Bidou, also know as Eugène) (Broken Legs).

First round was a Round Robin and every team played against each others, at the end of the first round the 2 bests teams were qualified for the Final. Quickly, only 4 teams could claim to the Final: Germany, Spain, Switzerland and France.

The first game between those 4 teams was Friday. Late afternoon, Germany was playing against Spain. At the end of a hotly contested game, team Spain finaly won 9-12. With this loose game Germany’s chances to reach the final got smaller. Whereas team Spain end their day ahead with 3 games and 3 victories. Team France began their tournament with 2 victories for their first 2 games against Karlsruhe 11-5 and against London 16-8.

© Brendan McNamee, check his flickr here.

For the first game of the Saturday, Team France (renamed the Alligators from their battle scream “10 alligators, 10 alligators ! OHAY OHAY!”) began, into the thick of it, with a decisif game against Germany. For team Germany, who already used their joker against team Spain the day before, another defeat and they won’t be able to reach the Final. In a really tight game where defending was the key, team France won on the gong 9-8 despite a massive pressure on their goals during the 2 last minutes from David and Mo from Polosynthese.

© Thibault Dauphin.

Later in the day, a second team has seen her chances of reaching the Final fly away. At 7:14PM ends the game between Spain and France with a score of 10-9 for the alligators. During a very intense and engaged game, with some unappropriated moves sometimes borderline, team France managed to keep concentrated in the game to win against the team they feared the most. Team Spain ,defeated 2 game earlier by Switzerland, can no longer reach the Final. It’s now, for Switzerland and France, a matter of winning their games against “weakest” teams to save their place for the Final.

Lasts games of saturday and sunday didn’t change anything for these two teams, nevertheless it allowed other teams to ensure their ranking. Team France ,who defeated Italy (15-4), Benelux (18-2), England (13-7) and Switzerland (12-7 in a game without stakes), finished first at the end of the Round Robin with 8 victories over 8 games, best attacking pressure and best defense. Here is a piece of the ranking after round robin (with 1 more game for France and Switzerland because of the final).

Find out every results and ranking on the Greif Masters website.

As our friends from Karlsruhe know how to make it right, they planned, just before the final, the game between London and Rest of England, the winner of this game ended 5^th, the looser 6^th. After a fun but also intense battle, team London won 15-12.

For the Final, the game was 2x30mins whereas round robin games were 38mins long. Team Frane and team Switzerland reached the final with really different way of managing their teams. In one hand, Team Switzerland was really counting on l’Equipe line up (Mario, Lukas and Manu) and the Ponies line up (Clément, Quentin and Johann) and on the other hand team France was more “sharing” time between every players. After a really good start for the alligators 2-0, team Switzerland, with l’Equipe’s line up and the Ponies’s line up, scored 6 goals in a row making it 2-6. Hopefully at the end of half-time team France manage to reduce the gap 5-6.

Second half was close, team Switzerland kept their advantage of goals for a long time but team France stayed on contact. This is when the management of team France really payed out. Changing players more often in team France prevent them from being to tired for the end of the game whereas team Switzerland was counting on few players who seemed quickly tired. Using this lack of energy and with a really strong defense and good accurancy with long shots, team France took advantage with 3 goals ahead and 7 minutes to go. By keeping this rotation they managed to hold on those 3 goals and won 13-10.

After this victory, France show a really strong bike polo scene even if her teams had never won a major European tournament before.

Here are 2 videos, made by Chan and Brendan, showing the atmosphere of this amazing tournament.

Marmab[ ]-[ ]th 3.0 / Special Greif Masters.

Before me make a post on the past 2 WE in Rouen and Karlsruhe, have a look to the preview of the Marmoubooth Special Greif Masters, made buy the most beautifull mustache of the Bike Polo, our friend Brendan McNamee.

2011

First of all, we want to wish you a Happy New Years.

It looks like 2011 will be full of Polo and the year start with 2 really interessing tournaments.

We will open the season with the 2nd Epiphanie Tournament, organised by our friends from Rouen with their association Guidoline.

This 16 teams tournament with several competitive teams will be a very good way to start the season. The format called Tag Bidou should be innovating and should allow to all the team to play at least 6 games.

The list of the teams :

1. Broken Legs – Rouen (Bidou, Simon, Fabrice)
2. Hooks – Rouen (Quetin,Maks, Woods)
3. DFA – Rouen (Dadou, Fred, Anton)
4. Les souilleurs – Rouen (Robin, Yann, Gontran)
5. Sum Dum Monkeys – London/Paris (Gabes, James Brown, Yorgo)
6. Tour de court – Dublin/Berlin/London (Emmet, Rik, Hassan)
7. MGM – Paris (Marmousou, Greg, Matt)
8. Marco – London/Munich/ (Adam, Iain, Angie)
9. Inglorious Riders – Nantes (Simon, Romain, Alexandre)
10. DTGP – Paris (Hugo, Pierre, Edouard)
11. Call me Daddy – Grenoble (William, Jo, Polo)
12. Iron ponies – Genêve (Clement, Quentin, Johan)
13. Dirty old things – Paris (Jfran, Adrien, Nicolas)
14. Peinture french – Paris/London (Mayeut, Thomas, M A X)
15. Sporting (scp) – Paris (Leonard, Mickael, Clement)
16. Sitting on a corn flake – Toulouse (Felix, Benji, Tonnio)

The second tournament of the beginning of the year is the GreifMasters, European Bench Minor in Karlsruhe.

It’s the first time poloplayers will play to represent their country (exept London & Karlsruhe who have their own teams). I know that Bench Minor format are discussed and some people think that representing a country as a team is too football look a like, but personnaly I like both. Playing as a team and for my country. To me Bench Minor and mainly played by country is close to Davis Cup in Tennis.

Of course polo is 3 peoples making a team and fighting in a tournament, but it’s good to have some BM, mainly when you have only one court.

So in Karlsuruhe 8 teams will fight for the title, Germany, Switzerland, England, Spain, Italy, Benelux + Poland & Denmark, London, Karlsruhe and France.

Here is the list of the players who composed those teams, with their logos, all design by my friend Steffen Mackert who make a huge and very creative work again.

Benelux + Poland and Denmark.

Captain:
Taka (EHVFXD / Eindhoven)

Players:
Jamal (Eindvoven)
Rutger (Eindvoven)
Lorenzo (Eindvoven)
Antoine (Brussels)
Jaouad (Antwerp)
Nicky (Antwerp)
Chris (Antwerp)
Samson (Copenhagen)
Agata (Poland)

Itally

Captain:
Tobia (Venezia / Tigers HBPC)

Players:
Cento (Treviso / Tigers HBPC)
Jack (Fano – Malaforca)
Sapo (Roma / Malaforca)
Marco (Roma / Li Carbonari)
Gianlu (Vicenza / Riding in Circle)
Tommy (Fano / Malaforca)
Mattia (Vicenza / Tigers HBPC)
Perro (Torino / Reparto Pista)
Nora (Milano / Burzum)
Valerio (Roma / Li Carbonari)

London

Captain:
James (London / Nice Touch)

Players:
Adam (Spring Break)
Brendan (BAD Polo)
Cam (Nice Touch)
James Brown (La Schmoove)
Josh (Nice Touch)
Mark (Degeneration)
Max (Sick Zombie)
Pique (La Schmoove)
Ray (ELKS)
Snoops (Cosmic)

Spain

Captain:
Kico (Barcelona / El Club)

Players:
Rik (León / Ex Rotten Apples)
Lucas (Barcelona / El Club)
Tom (Barcelona / El Club)
Jordi (Barcelona / Polospelos)
Alejandro (Barcelona / Polospelos)
Camilo (Barcelona / Los Manguis)
Francesc (Barcelona / Los Manguis)
Marcos (Barcelona / Los Manguis)
Pablo (Barcelona / Ex 24 hour polo people)

Switzerland

Captain:
Lukas (Basel)

Players:
Manuel (Geneva)
Mario (Geneva)
Quentin (Geneva)
Johan (Geneva)
Clément (Geneva)
Patrick (Geneva)
Laurent (Geneva)
Giv (Lausanne)
J.B (Berne)

Germany

1 Til (Tough Shit, Munich) – Captain
2 Mo (Polosynthese, Frankfurt/Main)
3 James (Tough Shit, Munich)
4 Danny (Bambule, Berlin)
5 David (Polosynthese, Frankfurt/Main)
6 Lorenz (Tough Shit, Munich)
7 Eddy (Toros, Munich)
8 Nico (Bambule, Berlin)
9 Shustar (Toros, München)
10 Jessi (Bambule, Berlin)

 

England

1. Chan (Netto/Manchester) Captain
2. Mirek (Netto/Manchester)
3. Ste (Asbo/Manchester)
4. Woody (Asbo/Manchester)
5. Matt (Cosmic/London)
6. Dan (Black Stabbath/Birmingham)
7. Ben/Punkture (Manchester)
8. Chirs/Landslide (Sheffield)
9. Yorgo (Paris / London)
10. Alex (Toulouse / mcr)

Karlsruhe

Waiting for both, logo and team, but team should be close to this :

1. Hannes (Candy Colored Clowns)
2. Steffen (Candy Colored Clowns)
3. Max (Shark Attack)
4. Oli (Shark Attack)
5. Alex (Shark Attack)
6. Recep (Polo D’Oro)
7. Thomas (Polo D’Oro)
8. Oli (Polo D’Oro)
9. Paul (Lucky Charm)
10. Mark, Olger or Simon…

France

Captain:
Greg (Paris / MGM)

Players:
Marmousou (Paris / MGM)
Marc Sich (Paris / Apologie)
Luis Davis (Paris / Apologie)
Hugo (Paris / DTGP)
Pierre Adrien (Rouen / Broken Legs)
Maks (Rouen / ex DBAA => Hooks)
Lefty Will (Grenoble /  Call Me Daddy)
Jo (Lilles / Call Me Daddy)
Polo (Toulouse / Call Me Daddy)

Apologie Vs MGM

Showed during the last Paris BFF, here is a video we made with Apologie. Enjoy.

Trip to the world of polo.

Here is a video from Snoops (Cosmic/LDN), that I like a lot. It’s not only bike polo, it is mainly the good time you have when you travel and share moment with the polo community. Great video Rupert.