Have a read to see what it's all about and tell your friends. Feel free to come and watch our weekly games and even have a go yourself and get in on the polo community spirit.
Three key rules exist in Polo:
1). Goals are scored by shots with the ends of the mallet head, hits with the side of the mallet are a shuffle/no goal.
2). Players who “dab” a foot on the court must “tap out” at halfway to return to play.
3). Be courteous and fair. Also known as “Don’t be a Dick”
The Dunedin bike polo scene currently has about 8-10 regular players who meet weekly on the one-way north by Pizza Hut on obesity alley. We have courts at George Street Normal School Junior Campus, our courts are temporary and are set up for the weekly games. Daylight savings see us meet during the week in the evenings from 5:30 and the rest of the year we meet Sundays from 3pm.
We are always welcoming of new players and happy to show them the ropes with club gear available for anyone to just show up and give it a go. Our players include several Ph.D students from the University of Otago, a civil engineer, a local business owner and a bike mechanic all of which have a passion for polo and interest in other aspects of the wider cycling community of Dunedin and N.Z.
Bike Polo or Cycle Polo has grassroots stemming from Ireland in 1891 with traditional style games played 3-5 players a side on grass fields, featuring in the 1908 Olympic games as a demonstration sport and is still played globally.
Hardcourt Bike Polo is the modern or urban take on bike polo developed the late 90’s, played in tennis courts, car parks or anywhere with suitable space and homemade nets, mallets and street hockey balls. Popular in bike messenger circles and picked up by other bike enthusiasts as years have gone by developing into an internationally competitive co-ed sport with clubs worldwide. Played by people from all walks of life with an ever-present community spirit, bike polo is for those who enjoy being active, social, having a place to challenge yourself and share knowledge and skills.
Games are 3 v 3 and 10-20 minutes with unlimited goals or first to 5 goals, an increasingly popular format is 5 v 5 bench format with longer games and player are subbed on and off during each half. A common practice is also to casually “shuffle” players into teams whereby everyone throws in their mallet and teams of 3 are randomly assigned. Balls once street hockey balls are now custom made for polo, mallets once made from ski-poles for shafts and offcuts of industrial piping for heads are now made from lightweight aluminium and custom moulded plastics.
Today the bike polo community has its own internationally recognised rules (to elucidate the specifics of “not being a dick”) regional organisations and even a “Jedi Council” of representivies, industry, skill camps, annual world and regional championships. February 2016 saw Timaru New Zealand host the 7th World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships (WHBPCVII), with 55 teams from 48 Cities across 5 continents. There were 344 matches on Courts over 6 days. The Courts were locally designed, funded and built by the polo community, which has members spread across the wider Timaru community. Over 1,000 spectators came to watch and 100,000 plus tuned in via live-stream. There is also the “Ladies Army” annual women’s tournament as well as the regular co-ed tournaments, this is not just a men’s sport there are fantastic players both women and men out there.
In New Zealand there are clubs in Timaru, Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington, Auckland, Hawera and our lovely Scarfie city of Dunedin. Annual tournaments are held in Auckland, Christchurch, Hawera and Timaru, these are always great fun and a real social kiwi event with drinks, BBQ and dinners to celebrate the polo spirit, often we have guests from Australia and around the word to play. Polo in New Zealand is about a wider community engagement, encouraging participation and development of skills for players of all stages. Several teams and players regularly travel to Australia where there is also a thriving polo community hosting regular tournaments and a good old-fashioned NZ/OZ rivalry to be enjoyed.
- Reuben Blake Vercoe
