Demo day for Auckland Polo. Come along for some 2 on 2 action

First Game Ever - First Joust Ever

With 2 Streams of blood running down the side of Elliots head I give the first joust victory to Gunner.

Some new pinky purple piping was sourced. Glenn showed his consistency in cutting (Maybe he was focusing too much on the beer

Leo trying to look like he knows what he is doing

Chris does everything with pace

Dylan having an identity crisis and thinking for a moment he was Jason

In the end some good mallets were built and beer and cider and moonshine was drunk. A few of the finished products will be on display at Taupo tap out.

Big thanks to Down Low Polo for supply the fixcraft shafts at a great price. Also thanks to Mikey and Tanz for organising the piping. Oh, and thanks to Tumeke Cycle Space for use of the venue.

Auckland's own coat of Arms

With a big thanks to Matt and Leo we now have a coats of arms for whatever purpose we like.

The general theme is based around the Auckland coat of arms with a few modifications. The Lion representing Auckland’s first tournament (King of the Kage) and the idea that ongoing all tournaments will have this theme. The mallets are from an earlier logo the team used for the first tournament we attended (Christchurch – Winter Whack) and the bike I hope is self explanatory. The guys have managed to captured a good representation of our history and linking it to Auckland well.

I’m looking forward to seeing this pop up around the place on various pieces of media.

Who needs netted goals when you can use sticks

Nets are up so we are back in the carpark. With the sun shining and the grass to lounge around on I expect to see a few more lazy beers on Wednesday nights. Just need to sort out a little portable bbq and we are away.

For those who don’t know the carpark it is down behind the YMCA just near the usual tennis courts we play on during winter.

The Helen Clarke/John Key disc wheel from the early days

Some time later Tabs arrived in NZ and began to restart bike polo. She collected the old mallets floating around and workedon her home brew cider in the meantime to bring to the weekly games. This was quite a different crowd from the original group that started playing as mentioned earlier. This new group had only a couple of players from the orignal crew joining in. It was highly popular and eventually expanded from being played on Sundays afternoon to include Wednesday evenings also. The Wednesday evening games were proving popular for as hordes of people came along for the food afterwards. Mikey is yet to do his 100 dumpling challenge but I’m sure this can be revised.

Chaos in the carpark

Eventually, Tabs headed off home to the UK but the polo continued on with Auckland sending two teams down to Christchurch for the first tournament in NZ. Winter Whack was a phenomenal success and everyone there had a great time, including the organisers, who I am sure practiced very hard to make sure they took home 1st and 2nd prize, and the famed golden mallets. Lessons were learned, ideas shared and ribs cracked. Tournaments, as the crew soon realised, are a bit more intense but are great fun.

Currently there is still a core group playing and we will be organising the first tournament in Auckland to be held on 19th March. King of the Kage is set to be expand with connections through NZ with Taupo sending players up to compete.

Bring it on.