Tempe Rocked!

Who knew that the Desert Polo Invite II would involve a weekend of playing hardcourt in the Rain. Yes its true we drove 13 hours to play polo in a tourney that got rained on both days. It has not rained two days consecutively for years in Tempe, but throw a polo tourney and watch your odds change. We had a blast and polo in wet conditions is not new to us at all. I think we had a great advantage and used our water ball skills to show some other teams the buisness end of a loss.

Peak Region Polo A team was known as Low Percentage Shot, or LPS. We played strong the first day with 3-1 record in Round Robin play. After our 4th game the officials of the tourney decided to play like record teams for a 5th game to better seed teams for sundays double elimination tourney for the Championship. We got paired against the Phoenix team that gave us our only loss for the 5th match. The team was called 13 years, a team that has been playing grass polo for 13 years together. They delt us another loss, and we got seeded in the number 7 for sunday. 

After the first day players visited a local bar where beer was consumed, burgers were devoured, stories were swapped and Peak Region Polo took some money in a dice game.  As the night went on some locals and tourney participants went to a local bike shop for a fund raiser. Two members from LPS went back to our hosts house and partied for a bit and turned in early. Nick from Boulder who played on LPS went to the fund raiser and raced a short alleycat, and said things were awesome. We caught up on stories in the morning on Sunday over coffee and doughnuts purchased by LPS with some money from a dice game.

It Rained most of Sunday morning. They postponed the tourney for a few hours, so LPS hit some local sporting goods stores for rain gear. We came back with a hand full of rain ponchos, and three clear rain suits for ourselves. Tourney play started at 11:30 am on Sunday with LPS vs a young phoenix hardcourt team. The conditions were terible with water standing in places on the court. The polo was awesome and LPS was a victor in a 5-0 game first round of the Double elim. Second round was the rival building match between LPS and 13 Years. The court dried some and the game was intense, Adam Smith scoured two clutch break away goals, and with help from the rest of the team, LPS won 5-1 over 13 years. It was an amazing game. 3rd round for LPS was against another pheonix team called Grass Assault. The legend Mini Mike, his younger brother AJ age 10, and Jacob age 11 the son of a grass player on 13 years. They were known as the kids most of the tourney. They handed us a loss on a slippery, and water logged court as the sun came out again. Our first game in the losers braket was against an LA team called Juan & A Million. We played hard, physical polo, and talked alot of shit back and fourth between both clubs. The game was 3-3 after a goal got called back as a shuffel on Adam Smith. (The games were played with cones, and volunteer refs who may or may not have been able to see or known what was going on) needless to say they called it back. Game goes over time, and Juan knocks us out on a double foot down in sudden death.

The good news is Denver Mallet Mafia and Peak Region Polo were 5th and 6th in the tourney with no way to determine a clear placing without a grudge match. We played a first to five no time limit game against Denver A team Mile High Club. Jeff, Brandon and Adam are always great to play against and heated game went to the wire and Denver Edged us out for 5th place.

An LA team called Hoodfellas, went most of the tounry undefeated, until they played Grass Assault. The games were intense and the tourney championship was a losers bracket winner Hoodfellas vs a no loss team Grass Assault. Hoodfellas dealt the kids two losses and took the Trophy back to LA. A great weekend  of polo, great weekend for our sponsors, and great time had by all.

Thanks Again to our sponsors. Gary from King Chef, and All the Folks at 7th Floor We could not have done it without you. 

Peak Region Polo plays two days a week. Sundays 12:00 (noon) El Pomar, and Tuesdays 5:30 @ Lithia Dodge in Motor City.