Plans for the Australasian Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship 2013 have stalled as both Christchurch and the Gold Coast removed their expressions of interest to host the tournament.

Representatives from both cities have written to the Australasian Hardcourt Bike Polo Association to officially withdraw their expressions of interest and declined to place an official bid to host the tournament for 2013.

Christchurch representatives withdrew due to most players having constraints on their time in the next year, including completing of studies and the rebuilding houses and businesses after last years devastating earthquake.

“[Christchurch] are critically aware of the amount of work required to organise this event successfully and do not feel that 2013 is going to be a suitable year for our club to commit to this workload.  Many of our players are completing studies in this timeframe and some will be re-building homes and businesses within the next 12-18 months, following the enormous amount of demolition going on here post earthquake.”

Christchurch's home courts

The Gold Coast‘s statement has pointed to ongoing set backs, including the loss of their home courts at Miami High, as the reason for withdrawing their bid.

“[The GC] are still developing the sport on the coast and are working towards hosting a few social tournaments. We’ve had a lot of set backs since returning from Nat’s this year. For a tournament on this scale alot of factors have to line up finical [sic], political, amenities etc just to name a few.”

The GC's home courts at Miami High which have now been revoked.

These sudden withdrawals leaves a void as no other bids have been made. The deadline for expressions of interest has passed, only the Gold Coast and Christchurch indicated they would bid. The Australasian Hardcourt Bike Polo Association (Jedi Council), are now determining the timeframe for new expressions of interest and bids.

To express interest in hosting the AHBPC 2013 contact your local representative and refer to the bidding process outline on bikepolo.com.au

For more info on the AHBPA and who your local representative is see our previous article on the Jedi Council .

by Oliver Wykeham

If Jock was half as good at polo as he is at heckling, I think the podium may have looked at lot different at AHBPC 2012.  When you play against Jock, you are as much at risk of falling off your bike from laughing as you are from being crashed into.  Here’s a little more about Jock.

City:  Gold Coast, Yo!

Team:  GC Studs

Years played:  Months or a year

Super power:  GC Ruckus

Favourite heckle: “She’s wet for it.  She’s screaming for it. So moist. It’s in my eye.”

Bike:  Vintage hipster, fixed with front brake only and a shit ratio

Mallet:  1.6mm aluminium shaft with uncapped plumber’s pipe head

Protection:  Gloves and shin guards

What do you love most about bike polo?
The casual shit talking and making “tactiCool falls’”.  The GC does it better.

If you missed our last player profile on Stephen Chaumont, you can access it here

By Virginia Castellan

A Tale of Three Teams continued the third and final installment.

So it turns out that the GOALHOLE team were a bit crap at paying attention to games they weren’t actually playing in..  In a three part series, we tell you what happened at AHBPC 2012 through the eyes of The Triple Dutch Rudders, Love Sex Violence and the Gold Coast Studs.  Here’s part 3.

Gold Coast Studs by Bennett Rust (finished DFL)

Tell us about your team

The GC Studs were established in 2011 to play in the Brisbane league, however we have all known each other (todd, jock and bennett) for around 10 years being high school chumps and all. Since we have known each other for a while there are always alot of inside jokes and we all know how to piss each other off. Well one person in our team manages to innately piss myself and todd off, the other guy, Jock. Todd and I saw first hand how Jock could develop or build piles of discharged objects (plastic bags etc and paper) around his bed almost like a nest, We coined this event “nesting”. Todd also witnesses it on the plane and other public places. Apart from the nesting issue we all get along pretty well.

What were your team tactics going into the tournament?

Fun – Have fun: we had no real intentions of winning we just wanted to enjoy ourselves and stir the pot some. Along with having fun we were also there to back our favourite Brisbane and Sydney teams via heckling and obscene gestures to their opposing teams.

How did this work out for you?

All our pre tournament practice went out the window when we starting playing it was all over the shop but still heaps of fun. Along with the fun came the heckling and the blatant disregard of rules. Group games were fun. Most of the teams were all pretty evenly matched.  Even though we still lost all of them, Jock and I managed to get a few goals. We had a few ups and downs while playing but overall we did good.

Which game was your favourite to play in at the tournament?

LSV for sure, the game wasn’t on the tournament timetable but we managed to have a really fun game. I honestly cant recall much of it Saturday was a blur of poor sustenance, management and really dry lips. Also the Hockey and games were pretty fun with everyone hanging out being jerks.

Which game was your favourite to watch?

LSV vs Anchor and TDR vs Anchor, LSV and TDR are two of my favorite teams and it was awesome to see them take on the jerks of the sport.

Rate your overall Perth experience

Fun, Fast, Dry, Brief. All in All it was a lot of fun and a big thanks goes to all the perth players for setting up a great tournament.
See you all on the GC in 2013!