24/06/2010

Polo in Stockholm, Sweden

Thanks to my Polo PA (Therese), last Sunday I hooked up with the Stockholm Polo scene for a few throw-in games.

There had been a famous bike race the day before (plus a Royal Wedding), so player numbers were lower than on a normal Sunday meet - think at max we had 8 players (although for me that's a perfect number - more games).

The Polo scene in Stockholm is still small, despite some players having played for a few years. But Stockholm itself is a small city and as much as riding a bike is popular, cycling as a 'lifestyle' is yet to emerge on a large scale (seeing someone on a BMX or a 'Fixie' is rare). Also, winters in Sweden are ridiculously cold and with no indoor court available, this makes playing Polo all year round hard.

However, those who are playing, play with just as much passion as anywhere else in the Polo world and despite playing on a court that had no sidewalls and small cones as goal posts, games were still great fun, plus there were plenty of 'time outs' for beers and chats - so all was good!

Big thanks to Andreas and all the other guys who turned up to share games. It was a beautiful sunny day and awesome to play with you all and exchange our different Polo experiences.

I'm sure as the long Swedish summer progresses (it doesn't get fully dark here this time of year), Polo in Stockholm will grow bigger and stronger.

I look forward to seeing you all on a court soon, either back in Stockholm or in London.

Tack!


Note:
The player on the far right is only 14! Our little Emmet is old gun in comparison - although, what does that make the most of us!

-Mat

2 comments:

kakan said...

Dose that huy on the right has spandex on, LOL

spandex on the polocourt is like Jeans in the velodrome.

THX Mat and Therese for the inv to london, you might here from me late september.

/kakan

Anonymous said...

fixies aint rare in sthlm, they are just all located on the same street, which you obviously missed. riding a fixie outside götgatan is considered weird.