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Adelaide’s Bike Polo

Underground

Adelaide Bike Polo has been around for coming up on 3 years and seems to be well established among (self-addressed) bike geeks. 

It has a national network of teams with quite ridiculous names such as The Jizz Monkeys (Sydney), Phuq Styx (Brisbane), Godzilla Symphony (Perth), Majestic Pink Shafts (Brisbane) and the Lonely Mallet Club Team (Adelaide).

The people seem to have claimed a horseback riding sport of the upper echelons for their own, an independant flagship of mechanical steeds burning rubber on the hard-courts of Adelaide’s parks and underground carparks. This reminds me of attending The Marriage of Figaro at the Royal Opera House in London, in the middle between fatcats in their private swanky restaurant area and a dude with a shaved head wearing a Motorhead t-shirt, myself dressed like an indie slacker. Totally heart warming to see something often reserved for the wealthy becoming available to all.

Bike Polo has tailored guerilla-style equipment and specific bikes designed for optimum polo maneuvering, although any bike will get you on court. The mallets are cunningly crafted from sawn-off aluminium ski poles or golf clubs with a length of gas pipe screwed onto the end, the balls are common or garden street hockey balls. Portable wood and plastic edging completes the scene and contains the game giving it a semi-pro look. It would make a great Olympic sport and indeed was played at the Olympics in 1908, having been invented 17 years before in Ireland in 1891 by cyclist Richard J. Mecredy.

It has existed ever since, underground, seeking to reclaim its Olympic status once more. The adaptability and technology of modern bikes means that it has evolved considerably but it remains a jolly sporting game... a yell of ‘Polo!’ and the players gallop towards the ball at the centre of the court with mallets raised... and on this Sunday afternoon in August I bear witness to a few chaotic collisions that cause some pain but longer lasting laughs. Clearly the crashes are part of the fun.

In Adelaide folks gather twice a week to get their mallet on. For more info on the current Adelaide bike polo scene check out www.bikepolo.com.au/adelaide or leagueofbikepolo.com for international fixtures.

The League of Bike Polo has a network which covers the whole world. You could play in Cuba, Russia, Japan, USA, UK, Europe, Peru, Canada…Around the world in 80 Bike Polo matches anyone?

Dominic J Clark