LITTLE ROCK — From all over the nation and as far away as Canada they descended upon Mac-Arthur Park in Little Rock this weekend with dreams of glory.
From Austin, Texas, came My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard. The team called 700 Lbs. of Polo has members from New Orleans and San Francisco. The Sons of Beaches hail from Russellville. From the Little Rock area came the Special Patrol Group and the Rocktown Ramblers.
They grabbed their mallets, hopped on their bikes and took to the repurposed tennis courts at the park Saturday for 10-minute rounds of bicycle polo.
The aim of each three-man team is to score five goals, or at least have more points than their opponent at the end of each 10-minute round.
The game is played on a fenced-in court, split lengthwise by a short fence so teams can play simultaneously on each side. There is a goal at each end.
After the joust, where each team tries to take initial control of the ball placed at center court, no feet can touch the ground and leaning against the fence counts as a “foot down.”
Cyclists are allowed to balance on their mallets as they maneuver or stop to guard their goals. Otherwise, if they touch the ground, they must return to center-court to “tap in” by touching the fence with the mallet. They leave their teammates vulnerable while they do so.
Temperatures in the mid-40s and an icy mist kept the courts slick and the rounds challenging Saturday as 36 teams vied for rankings ahead of today’s championship games.
The top eight winners from today will advance to the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships in Calgary, Canada, said Nathan Vandiver, an organizer for the event.
Bicycle polo began in the late 1890s in the United Kingdom as a way for polo players to practice their mallet skills while their horses were resting, Vandiver said.
The sport grew in popularity and was an exhibition event at the 1908 London Olympics. In the 1990s, cyclists in the northwestern United States began playing the sport in smaller urban spaces, rather than on more expansive grass fields, and the “hardcourt” version of the game has been growing ever since, Vandiver said.
“There are currently 294 hardcourt bike polo clubs across 38 different countries with over 100 of those in the United States,” he said.
Daniel Dilberger, the New Orleans member of 700 Lbs. of Polo, said the sport has really taken off in the past four or five years.
“At first, you had to make your own mallets,” he said. “Most people would go to Salvation Army and other thrift stores looking for ski poles to use. Now there are companies that make mallets.”
Dilberger said he and his friends read about bike polo online and decided “it sounded cool,” so they organized a team. The mallet is the only specialized equipment needed. On Saturday, all sorts of bicycles were in the competition.
Jasmine Jones of Austin’s My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard team said that like Dilberger, friends got her involved in the sport.
“I would ride quite a bit, commuting and doing occasional races,” she said as she huddled beneath a tent and clasped her gloved hands for warmth. “They invited me to play, and I’ve been hooked ever since.”
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 03/27/2011