Sunday afternoon in the central business district of Christchurch, New Zealand.  The court is a GapFiller site build for 3 aside football. GapFiller aims to temporarily activate vacant sites within Christchurch with creative projects, to make for a more interesting, dynamic and vibrant city following the September 4, 2010 and February 22, 2011 earthquakes.

Photographs by Darryl Jacobson

AKA Scottish Mark left the mean streets of Glasgow for the mild manned streets of Christchurch.  He’s one of the Co-founders of Hardcourt in Christchurch and plays whenever his failing memory reminds him it’s “polo time”.  Marky is easily spotted on court with his Kermit green bike and off court with his large plastic bottle of luminescent red cider.  I’m told Marky’s sideline heckles are witty and insightful, if only I could work out what he’s saying under that thick Scottish accent. Here’s a little more about Marky

City: Christchurch, New Zealand

Team: Red Team (Juggernaught)

Years played: 3 or 4

Super power: I will take the soup

Bike: Norco MTB, freewheel with dual brake and 2:1 ratio

Mallet: Ski pole with capped drilled out head

Protection: T shirt in winter

What do you love most about bike polo?
4 x Style Contact and Blocking

By Craig Johnston

If you want to see more player profiles, you need to go here

Andy shoots lazers (with a “Z” ‘cos he’s a late 70′s / early 80′s child) I know this is true because he scored a goal through the spokes of my 26″ 48 spoke rear wheel at polo last week, a feat which takes extreme accuracy… most people would aim for the 5 hole, not Andy, that’s too predictable.  This is not just my opinion either I overheard a conversation at Winter Whack III stating that Andy has the best shot in NZ!.  Just don’t tell him any of this as it will undoubtedly jinx his next game, that or him consuming more than two beers will have a catastrophic effect on his mad skillz. Here’s a little more about Andy.

City: Christchurch, New Zealand

Team: Frosty Boys

Years played: 3 years

Super power: Smiling Assassin (you get it)

Bike: DMR, freewheel with dual brake and 32:20 ratio

Mallet: Shaft came from Craig with a capped closed sides head

Protection: Gloves

What do you love most about bike polo?
Playing. Great people. Home brew.

By Craig Johnston

If you missed our last player profile on Ned Collins, you can access it here

Owner: Patti Brown

City: Christchurch, New Zealand

Frame/Fork: KHS

Bars/Stem:  Second hand, no brand visible

Seat: Italia

Pedals: Clear plastic unknown brand

Cranks: Specialized

Sprocket: Shimano

Brakes: Shimano V brakes

Wheels/Tyres: Cheap! Second hand

Why did you choose this bike?
The frame was given to me and it is nice and small and steel.

How long have you played on this bike for?
About one year.

What are the best things about your bike?
It’s small.  The parts are mainly cannibalised off other bikes or bought second-hand.

What are the worst things about your bike? What would you change?
Nothing!

By Virginia Castellan

Photographs by Richard Brown and Virginia Castellan

If you missed checking out Derren Hall’s bits, you can get a look at them here.

Ollie Whalley, a bike polo player from Christchurch, has smashed his way into the records books by winning the Tour Divide in a course record time of 16 days, 2 hours, 46 minutes.  This is a full day ahead of the previous record and a pretty good excuse for missing Winter Whack III.

The Tour Divide is a gruelling 2745 mile mountain bike race from Canada to the Mexican border which follows the Continental Divide (see map below).   The race clock runs 24 hours a day and the riders are allowed no outside support other than access to public facilities such as shops, motels, and bike shops.  There are no support vehicles of any kind.  The route is also unmarked requiring navigational skill. Riders travel through remote backcountry with grizzly bear and mountain lion density.  They must also find shelter each night or camp by the trails. If this wasn’t impressive enough, Ollie did the race with a fully rigid Ventana and a Roloff rear end.

Ollie is known in Christchurch for his heckling technique.  He brings a megaphone to tournaments and talks non-stop at players all day.  He’s pretty insightful but mostly just approaches this talent like all his others, he wears out the opposition over a very long period of time!

Below are a couple of photos of Ollie playing in the Christchurch’s annual Shuffle Tournament.  I’m told he hasn’t been seen at polo since then..something about training for a big multiday race in the US?!.

By Virginia Castellan and Craig Johnston (with thanks to Marky Penrice)

Photographs by  Richard Brown and borrowed from the Tour Divide facebook page

If you missed our last Off Court piece on the R U OK ride, you can check it out here.

I have always been impressed by the fact that Craig plays on a DMR.  My first polo bike was a DMR Sidekick.  I loved that bike so much (still do!) but I eventually realised I loved it too much to keep playing polo on.  Craig told me once that when he put the track drop outs on it felt like he was cutting into a child.  He’s much braver than I am.

Owner: Craig Johnston

City: Christchurch, New Zealand

Frame/Fork: DMR Switchback with Kona jump forks

Bars/Stem: Squarebuilt

Seat/Post: WTB Rocket / Salsa “shaft”

Pedals: Shimano clipless

Cranks/BB/Chain ring:  MKE Pologuard, Origin 8 165mm cranks

Sprocket: 22T white industries

Brakes: Paul Comp duplex to Paul Motolites

Wheels: 36h chukker to surly hubs

Why did you choose this bike?
I purchased this frame new in 2002 and it’s been a staple for all sorts of riding since.  I added the dropouts for polo.

How long have you played on this bike for? Have you played on anything else?
One and a half years.  before that I had a Specialized Hardrock mid 90s thing

What are the best things about your bike?
Steep headtube angle, fits great, it’s steel!

What are the worst things about your bike? What would you change?
Shorter chain stays, the rest is sweet Bro!

By Virginia Castellan

Photographs by Richard Brown and Virginia Castellan

If you missed checking out Danny’s bits, you can get a look at them here.

Finn has played bike polo for around 3 years.  Although this is the same amount of time as myself and a lot of other players, the big difference is that Finn is 9 years old.  Finn totally holds his own on the court around  people many times his size and possibly 3-4 times his age. Here’s a little more about Finn.

City: Christchurch, New Zealand

Team: Two and a half men

Years played: 3

Super power: Youth

Favourite heckle:  Go go go!

Bike: Gary Fisher frame with back brake and top secret ratio

Mallet: Ski pole, capped head

Protection: Gloves and knee pads

What do you love most about bike polo?
Getting goals and stealing the ball off people.  Having fun with friends.

By Virginia Castellan

Photographs by Richard Brown and Virginia Castellan

If you missed our last player profile on Abraham Hollingsworth you can access it here

Winter Whack is Christchurch’s annual polo tournament.  Held each year for the past three at the beginning of winter, this has to be one of the coldest tournaments in the southern hemisphere. Despite this, the tournament just keeps growing in popularity and size each year.

Included in our registration was accommodation in one of Christchurch’s finest Scout Halls.  I think there were around 30 of us that stayed here. The mattresses were comfortable, the showers amazing (once I worked out how to turn it in) and the breakfast supplies greatly appreciated. Communal living at it’s best!

Friday night festivities got under way around 8pm with drinks, pizza and knife fights at the courts.  It was really good to catch up with old friends and meet so many new people.  It was my first time playing knife fights and I really sucked at it!  I think I knocked my own goal down 3 times.  Andy Balcar was much better than me and won a new wheel set for his efforts!

Saturday morning it was time to be up bright and early and get started on the main event.  I was really happy to see my team was in the same group as Christchurch’s Frosty Boys and Auckland’s Half Wank, Full Bladder and the games against them were definitely my favourites.

The rounds rolled through really nicely.  It didn’t feel rushed or stressful, just fun and I enjoyed every game that I played.  Around me everyone else looked like they were having an amazing time to.

Before long we were at the elimination rounds.  The 18 teams were split into 2 separate single elimination finals – the Whackers bracket and the Hackers bracket, based on their round robin results.

The Hackers bracket was taken out the Samurai Polo Cats, a mixed team of Melbourne and Auckland players.  Their final against 2 Girls 1 Guy was highly entertaining to watch.

The Whackers bracket was taken out by European Melbourne Anchor who defeated the valiant Christchurch team of Flat City Rollers (who had already knocked both Sydney teams).  It is really good to see the standard of New Zealand polo getting better and better each year.

Such a great day of polo.  I’ve always found bike polo tournaments in New Zealand to be very different from the ones we have in Australia, and different in a good way.

For a start, there are no referees, which means there is already one less person to yell at.

People seem more relaxed and less concerned about winning at any cost.  It definitely rubs off on you.

Even my team seemed to play with a lower aggression level than usual.  Well maybe…

Many thanks to Craig and everyone else in Christchurch for putting on such an amazing tournament.  The warmth of our hosts more than made up for the freezing temperatures.  Hope to see everyone back there next year.

All photos courtesy of Richard Brown of Timaru.  Many thanks to Richard for letting us use them.

By Virginia Castellan