New video from Chan on the subject of a ladies majority bike polo tournament. Hell’s Belles Vol 1. features some of the highlights from the Hell’s Belles, Vol 1 tournament that took place October 15th and 16th, 2011 in London, England.

On this side of the world talk is already picking up about the planning of Ladies Army IV. Ladies Army is a women’s hardcourt bike polo tournament started in Vancouver. It has since spread to other cities. Next up to host is Lexington, KY.  That is sure to be a good time. Look for more information on this May/June 2012 tournament soon.

Lastly but not leastly, we have our own local poloistas hard at work to encourage women to experience our sport. Minneapolis Bike Polo helped The Hub Bike Co-op celebrate October as Women’s Appreciation Month by hosting a Intro to Polo event for women on October 22nd. Kat, Greta, Charlotte and Meg hosted the event and helped the dozen or so people in attendance with the basics of hardcourt bike polo.

By all accounts it was a great success with a surprising number of brand new faces. We LOVE new players. Come back soon.

Big thanks to our poloistas for organizing and running such a great event.

Minneapolis qualified for NAHBPC but due to passport restrictions and broken wrists Nick, Dustin and Sven are unable to attend. We worked hard for that qualifying spot and it bums us out to no be able to use it. But them’s the breaks!

Nick, Dustin and Sven are, however, gearing up for the Wildcard tournament to be held before WHBPC. A two day tourney to compete for 8 team slots for the big show.

Minneapolis is also sending a team or two to the Thunder Bay Open and several teams will be heading to the Midwest Open in Milwaukee in October.

2011 is shaping up to be quite a busy year!

Have you ever wanted to give hardcourt bike polo a try but were afraid to give it a go? Well here’s your chance.

This Saturday April 16th at 1pm and following Saturdays, as demand allows, Minneapolis Bike Polo will be holding “skills day” for beginners and intermediate players.

All you need to bring is yourself, a sturdy bike if you have one and a sense of adventure. We will have spare mallets to share and a few bikes to loan. Also if you bring $5 we will hook you up with a mallet head, ski pole and hardware to make your very own polo mallet.

Please spread the word to bike polo curious and as always keep an eye on @pickuppolo on twitter in case of inclement weather.

When: Saturday April 16th, 1pm-5pm (practices usually last 3-4 hours)

Where: Corcoran Park in south Minneapolis E 33rd St & S 19th Ave Minneapolis, MN 55407

Why: Because bike polo is about as much fun as you can have on a bicycle.

Amazing poster. Can’t hardly wait until May.

Mr Do has once again outdone himself. Behold the bromance that is, Unchained Polo.

The first in, hopefully, a long series of Tips of the Week from Mr. Do.

Click through to view “Large“

Last night the club gathered around a couple of laptops, cracked some beers and talked some trash in an old school IRC chat room.

We were not alone. Around the world, the pool of 150+ potential poloists gathered and watched as 6 GMs picked 8 teammates to compete in the Bench Minor 2 June 25-26, 2011 in Chicago.

Seattle lead the charge with 9 players being drafted. Milwaukee had 6, Chicago and Richmond each had 4 players drafted.*

Congrats to all who made the cut! This is going to be an amazing tournament.

*Not sure how I made that mistake… but Milwaukee had 6 players drafted, not 4 as I initially stated.

If you saw this tweet from @Surlybrewer you might be wondering what the purpose is of those things on the wheels. They are wheelcovers used for a sport called Hardcourt Bike Polo. We use these covers to block shots as well as keeping people’s mallets and feet out of the spinning spokes. They also protect the wheels from getting broken. Dustin, aka Mr Do, had these wheelcovers specially designed by Jinxy to include his favorite brew. Check the can of Furious in his hand.

1. 
   surlybrewer Hell yes RT @mplsbikepolo @surlybrewing and @surlybrewer look at what Mr. Do has in his hand! #photo #wheelcover http://bit.ly/Surly-in-hand 21 Dec 2010 from twidroid

— this quote was brought to you by quoteurl

If you need any more explanation check out Mr. Do’s videos on Vimeo. He’s one of the most prolific and also one of the best videographer/editor’s covering the emerging sport of bike polo.

Congrats to Calgary and Seattle!!!!

This Cascadian duo will be hosting the North American Hardcourt Championships and World Hardcourt Championships, respectively.

More news to come on the 2011 NAH Tour…….

The winners of the bids for the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships and World Hardcourt Championships were announced yesterday.

Congrats to both Calgary and Seattle and congrats to the North American Hardcourt organization for overseeing the bidding process.

Minneapolis hopes to send participants to both events.

Pete broke his hand a while back when his cable snapped and he crashed hard after hitting the goal.

Good news is he just got his pins out of his hand and he hopes to be back playing polo in the next month or so.

He’s been stopping by polo every now and then watching and shooting photos. Here are a few from this past Sunday.