Bristol Open 2011 Hard Court Bicycle Polo Tournament from Rex Martin on Vimeo.

We were chuffed to be involved in last weekends Briston Open hardcourt polo tournament… when I say involved, I mean sponsoring and creating a nice collaborative t-shirt. The local polo legend and organiser of the event, Andre Sidel along with his Hacked Off team mates, put on a great tournament. A raffle took place with one of the Cardiff riders winning a bike given kindly by BREV-M and although the weather was pretty grim when I turned up with my Dad on the sunday for the last few games, the spirits were high and everyone cheered when the sun came back out and the games commenced.

My dad enjoyed it a great deal saying ‘if only I was 40 years younger…. I’d give it a go’ and ‘I don’t know how they do that’. We watched in awe of the riders as they sped up, slowed down, crashed out and chased each other around the courts. The semi-finals and finals that we saw were a real testament to skill and professionalism of these riders. Add to that a small amount of beer, tatoos, home-made bikes, stencil-art, some pretty eclectic music and you have a winning combination I reckon… Roll on next year I say!

John

We at Boneshaker are stoked to be sponsoring our second Bike Polo tournament this weekend, this time a lot closer to home in Bristol. Put on by good friend of the mag, Andre and the guys from the Bristol ‘Hacked Off’ polo team, it sounds like its gonna be one hell of a weekend. The logo for the event has been created by Boneshaker in collaboration with Nick at NotYourProblem and we are sponsoring some rather tees that you can buy at the event. There will also be Boneshaker prizes given out to competitors over the weekend and there will be a chance to buy our latest mag, bags and tee.

Some words on the event from Andre:

Bristol are stepping up to the mark and hosting our very first tourney as part of the National Series. This epic event will take place on the 17th and 18th September 2011. 

The event is the first to be held at the new Portway site! This place is tournament heaven and is located next to the A4 and river Avon in a secluded spot nestled in the gorge. There is a 2.5 hectare field on site which we are going to be using as a campsite for the event (available from Friday until Sunday and free of charge). The site is a very nice 3 (ish) mile flat ride through the Avon Gorge (under the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge) from the city centre. Directions and travel options will be emailed to you following your registration. Free unlimited parking is available on site.
We are confident that this tournament will be THE (well, second after the London Open) polo event of the year!!

More info on the event can be found here 

A quick teaser for the print that I have created for the ARTCRANK London show on Friday at Look Mum No Hands.