Last weekend I went to Helsinki to play a little polo. Sadly, no one else could come from Oulu. The name of the game was a throw-in tournament which meant that each game was separately drawn and there were no permanent teams. I think there were about 30 total players and loads of people to watch and hang around.
The court the Helsinki guys are using is a local street hockey cage. The size is perfect but the steel mesh doesn’t permit much contact with the sides. I hear the street hockey people are already asking if poloists could get their own court. The other court I know in Helsinki is much worse. It is a full size ice hockey rink with an epoxy coating and which makes it terrible for traction. So… the future of polo tournaments in Helsinki is uncertain. Helsinki is the best organized group in the whole of Finland and even there I can sense that players would like to stay out of the trouble of “owning” a court. It is a financial thing and then of course, in Finland you always need some sort of organization. And even when you have a court, without a rood and some walls it totally useless during the winter.
Lets return to the games which were great. The skillset on the field was better than ever before, this meant we also had less injuries than before. I believe the worst accidents were broken spokes on three occasions. Compared to the last year’s Finnish championships that was a huge improvement.
My games were not any special, got to play four games and in the last one the opponent was just overwhelming. I dealt with the disappointment with alcohol which worked remarkably well. After the official games we played a few more throw-ins which reminded me how I love the game, not winning or making goals.
After spending the whole day outdoors we headed downtown, or close to it, and liberated a part of a local bar from their usual customers. Some snacks, beer and interesting conversations later I was too tired to continue. As a splashing end for the day I got to see how Osku and Toni smashed their pints together spraying beer and shards of glass all over the place. I could not have asked for a better fireworks display to end the day. When I left the restaurant I was almost run over by a police wan at the very next street corner dispite of having my brand new Knog boomer on. Although I would have been entitled to giving the law a disciplinary finger I was heavily toxicated and though it would best to slip past them and vanish into the urban jungle. Which I did.
Thank you Helsinki!
I made a set in Flickr of my pictures from the tournament: http://www.flickr.com/photos/57832940@N02/sets/72157630024051580/
