that Great Lakes Distillery bottle went quick boys....
“We do this all the time!” rang true yet again. The favored Beaver Boys II Men won the Midwest Championships, and the Jenny Cup, for the second year in a row knocking off Chicago’s Machine Politics 5-2 in the final match. The Wardens (myself, Matt Hewitt, Zack Rueter) placed 7th to qualify for the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships. In a ever growing competitive Midwest field only the top 8 of 48 would qualify to compete in the NAHBPC being held in Calgary, AB, Canada this coming August….BUT that’s not all that happened on our super awesome fun weekend in lovely, yet very hilly, Bloomington, Indiana.
Started off with Wardens arriving around 3am EST in Bloomington to a house party that raged until 6am. Some locals informed us they’d be going to Lake Monroe the next day for some swimming and cliff jumping. Well how could we pass that up! We woke up around noon ate at Wee Willy’s on Walnut St. and looked at the map to the lake. It was about 8.77 miles according to my phone’s map. We had full bags and mallets on board so we were a bit hesitant to ride that far but it was in the 80s and beautiful, which we have not head in Milwaukee since last year. So we decided to take the polo bikes for the ride and just enjoy it. Well the map only counted to the entrance of the park and we rode past that a few miles. Hills were epic, we tucked and coasted down them and the polo ratio isn’t that bad for climbing either. A tough hot ride but well worth it when we got to the lake!
the best hill was leading down to this causeway. i swear we hit 40mph.
15-20ft straight down! SPLASH!
Wardens: photo by Bruce Carver
Beavers and the rest of MKE crew arrived later Friday and we all hungout at the registration party and caught up with polo friends had a few drinks and eventually retired for the night. Wardens had the AM bracket so we were up bright and early but had to make a stop off at the house Kelly was staying at to pick up the new 2011 jerseys that arrived in Milwaukee a bit to late for us to get but Kelly saved us on this one. THANKS KELLY!
Swiss rounds started basically on time and went very smoothly thanks to Vince Foley’s Podium software. Wardens lost one match in OT and one on a last second shot to finish the the swiss rounds a disappointing 3-2. For future reference ALWAYS HAVE A COURTSIDE CLOCK WITH SECONDS. AND REFS SHOUT OUT A COUNTDOWN PLEASE!
Beavers and the other teams with MKE players were in PM brackets. Nothing new but Beavers went 5-0 and secured the first seed for Sundays 24 team double elimination.
Saturday night featured a show at a bar with a mainly female doo-wop band. The band was really talented and great, but Wardens decided to call it an early night after a few songs to rest up and prepare for Sunday. 2/3 of the Beavers partied further into the night.
On Sunday stuff started on time and ran smooth. A few really heavy thunderstorms quickly passed through and we were able to delay games until they passed so I don’t think anyone had to play in the sporadic downpours. As the number of teams began to whittle down Wardens had to fight out of the losers bracket to stay alive, knocking off some friends on the way. Played a close game with Pittsburgh (and yes they followed through on the super bowl bet) and won. After getting knocked out by the STL/COMO team Ball Slapping Booty Clapping in a tough overtime loss the Wardens had qualified for NAHBPC and went back to watching the Beavers handle the rest of the field and drink a few beers.
New York City sent a pretty good team to the MWBPC9 as well consisting of Zach, Ace, and Nate. Who I knew would be tough but did better than I expected placing 4th.
Guthrie played with Chombo and Ben Hunter and as a team who had never played in a tournament together they did pretty well. They qualified for the Wild Card tourney in Calgary by placing 9th. Side note Chombo was also voted Mr. Polo by his peers! And we got him to his Chinatown bus in Indy at the last freaking second!
The day ended with the Beavers crushing the Second City once again in a 5-2 final game and everyone hanging around for awards and some pick up.
THANK YOUS GO OUT TO -
Zach and Travis and the B-Town polo crew for your hosting a great tournament that ran smooth. Really great job guys and gals! much love from mke crew for sure!
Rachel, Lauren, and wherever 2/3 of the Beavers stayed Saturday night, and those who housed the rest of our crew for putting us up in your homes and letting us stink it up.
Our boy Bruce Carver who takes great photos! see more of his pics here
Those who stepped up to ref games , it is a thankless job and you have to get yelled at by me, but still thanks for being there.
Marty, Travis’ mom and Bruce, Zach’s dad who helped go to the grocery store, get ice, pick up food, basically whatever was asked of them. Zach’s dad left early but we want to honor him as a recipient as well and we owe you some booze. They received the “Crandall Award” for super awesome parents who help us play our silly little game! Marty took home a bottle of Milwaukee’s own Rehorst Vodka for her efforts. Enjoy!
Everyone who bought a Mke bike polo tshirt! thanks ! You helped us pay off our insurance for the club! Especially the Fort Wayne Crew. I think their whole club bought shirts!
Big ups go to Winnepeg and Austin crews for the long drives you put in. Glad to meet and see you again! Maybe we’ll swing by the ‘peg on our way to Calgary this summer!
If I forgot anyone else I’m sorry but really this was such a great time and I just want to thank everyone who helped out and everyone who showed up to play! Midwest is the freaking best!
-Captain
