Milwaukee Bike Polo Club

I’ll just start with this more to come.

The Peacock from eric kremin on Vimeo.

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

Midwest Championships this weekend in Bloomington Indiana. 48 Teams, 11 players from Milwaukee, all fighting for the Jenny Cup. Beaver Boys II Men certainly are looking to defend their title while the Wardens are looking to make a name for themselves, cant forget about the chicago boys, and the Lex squad too. You always need to worry about the up and coming teams that are sure to turn some heads this weekend. All I can say is this is certainly going to be interesting.

Three of Milwaukee’s finest traveled to Louisville this last weekend to take part in some of the shenanigans that surround the Kentucky Derby.

For those of who don’t know the Derby isn’t just big hats and big bets, Louisville erupts in a giant party that lasts the entire weekend. Friday night consisted of a 3am arrival to a shady parking garage where people were still playing pick up. I think there were more beers consumed then hours of sleep.

Saturday we had a derby breakfast and did what we came to do, party and play bike polo. Bourbon bourbon bourbon! The locals decided to make the finals interesting by installing paper mache horses on our bikes when we weren’t looking. There was also some sort of reverse joust to start the game. (viva los marcos)

Big ups to the dudes from ATL representing the south hard, Anyone going to Savannah watch out for these ma’s they’re killers.
check out the cash prize!

Good luck to our ladies down in Austin this weekend! Birdie, Cait and Kelly, we know you are going to kill it! Meg, I am sure you are going to win Best Ref award!

This will make you want to play polo

Lafayette Riverside Bike Polo Tournament from Kevin Daly on Vimeo.

Well we didn’t do it maliciously. It was a great time to go and meet some new people and play in a  new place. Isn’t that what bike polo is all about anyway?

Well here’s some hi-lights from the trip anyway.

It started off with a visit to the new polo clubhouse aka Brain, Krem, and Hewitt’s new house, but not before we stopped by Great Lakes Distillery to pick up some supplies.

Joe and Jake both celebrated their birthday's!

Friday night we rolled in around midnight and met up with Lexington, IN crew and Lafayette crew down in West Lafayette which is where Purdue is located. Tons of college co-eds everywhere getting sloshed. Spent a few hours at a bar called Jake’s Roadhouse.

The next morning games started at 10:15 am. It was in the 50s and partly Sunny. I believe 18 teams actually showed up. Played through 3 Swiss rounds and a single Elim bracket. My favorite and  deceivingly most competitive games of the day were against the Lexington team of Pat, Jessie, and Tiffany. They held us to 2-0 through 8 minutes (in a 10 minute timed match) then we had to step up the onslaught to come away with the victory. The other was the semi-final game between us, Retard Strength, and The Electric Wizards, mixed Lexington and Bloomington squad. This game was super exciting, at least to the crowd. It went to 4-4  with Burge slamming one in for the GWG. Good game Wizards!

The Woodchucks (Brian, Krem, Matt) beat Joe, Guthrie, and I in the swiss rounds and in the final match and I’ve been trying to avoid them so as not to hear about it too much. At least we drove in separate cars as teams so we could have a peaceful ride home.

OK so it got dark then the real party started. Ended up at The Black Sparrow in the non-Purdue drenched part of town. Great bar with $2 tall boys of PBR

Here’s Hewitt with the owner…Here is the DJ’s banner with Kremin showing ya whats up. He was spinning some decent funk/dance/groove tunes and shouted out to MKE bike polo at one point in the night and I swear I didn’t even ask him too!

ok now the thank yous!

CALEB- lafayette bike polo awesome dude who put up the 6 of us MKE cats and 3 from Lexington both nights. Hope your roommate isn’t too pissed at you.

Tyler – for running the show and answering my emails and making sure shit ran smooth

Lexington Will, Nick, Chris, Tif, Jess, Pat you all rocked and are probably one of the only polo crews who can hang partywise with MKE, How often do you do it down there?

BIG UPS to Tif for making those burritos on Saturday night when no food places would answer their phones at 330 AM.

The dudes who showed us the roof of the Black Sparrow and its secret area, and the Black Sparrow bartenders for not kicking us out when that one guy (sorry I forgot your name) projectile vomited all over the bar after the beer chugging contest!

CASH MONEY!

Well love ‘em or hate ‘em they did it. The 2v2 combo of Joe Burge and Brian Dillman were the last ones standing after a day full of 2v2 action.

Taking away $100 each, a bottle of Rehorst Gin and Vodka from Great Lakes Distillery and some PBR tallboy coozies.

They had some tough competition though. The lefty combo of Zack Rueter and Joe Panizzo placed 2nd winning some Milwaukee Bike Co. gear.

The Guthrie and friends, mainly Kremin, secured 3rd place and walked way with some Pabst swag.

Much appreciated help and big thanks go out to my boy, Jonny Hunter, for  running the podium software from his iphone.

DFL went to Willie Lee and Bobbie Marie. Thanks for playing you two! Hope you had fun and were inspired to play more!

photo by kremin

Thanks to the rest of the Chicagoans and Madisonites for coming over on a cold day to play bike polo with us! We love you fools!

Thanks to Aaron the masseuse. You will be getting a call from me next week to set up an appointment.

That’s right if you weren’t there you missed the massages, 5 30-packs of PBR and  bottle of Roaring Dan’s Rum, and a damn good time!

P.S. -Tucker, I accidentally ganked your lighter, think of it as a birthday present ;)

MBC decided to showcase something a little different for their advertisement in the current issue of Cog Magazine, and one reason is MBC is one of the strongest and most respected names in bike polo.   Keep your eyes open for MBC’s new bike polo specific Bruiser frame as well as their 29er Mountain Bike coming out this year.

Milwaukee Bike Polo rides MBC for good reason.

Kick off the most rockingest weekend in Milwaukee since the Packers won the Super Bowl!

THIS FRIDAY!

Get all sauced up and hung over for the Milwaukee Messenger Invite 10 on Saturday then on Sunday come to the Breakaway Courier 2v2 Polo Tournament