Fall cycles into Lexington Bike Polo games

Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Coolavin Park
NoC Sports Desk

Both Kyle Hord and Chris Simpson scored three goals apiece in a defensive showdown at picturesque Coolavin Park on the last day of September bike polo action. The weather was crisp, the bike gear flashy, and the play decidedly defensive. As player Brad Flowers noted of the evening's matches, “The defense is getting so good now that it's hard to dribble around and score.”

The third game of the night featured a plethora of beards. On Team One (T1), Chris Simpson (hippy beard), Brian Ronk (Jesus beard), and Jarid (with an “I,”) (red beard) sported a formidable and diverse amount of facial hair. Opposing them, Kyle Hord (scrappy beard), Texas Phenom Rich Lopez (scruffy beard), and Megan Stanton (lacking beard, but didn't shave all month—or year, for that matter) looked less imposing, but were no less prepared when bystanders in the player's pit announced the 7:19 joust time with a spirited “3-2-1 Bike Polo.”

Perhaps because her smooth face provided less wind drag than the rest of the bearded players (an aerodynamic observation reportedly first made by Mad Dog Buckingham as faster bikes passed him by), Stanton controlled the joust, though to no scoring advantage. The opening minutes featured back and forth action and solid mid-court defensive work on both sides. Each team attempted passes at the goal, only to be stoned on their approach by stealthy steals and well-timed tie-ups. The closest thing to a score,for both teams, came at the 7:22 mark when a hard shot by T1's Ronk careened off the spokes of Texas Phenom Rich Lopez at the T2 goal and catapulted to midcourt. From there, a waiting Hord took the puck and balljointed it in the other direction to within eight feet of the T1 goal before Jarid (with an “I”) stepped in to foil any goal-producing shot.

Finally, at the 7:23 P.M. mark, a Lopez blooper at midcourt allowed Simpson to break the scoreless tie by hitting his first of two consecutive goals. Lopez had tried to leave a drop pass for the circling Stanton, but the Texan inexplicably left the pass instead for a waiting Simpson at the near-side midcourt wall. Simpson grabbed the gift and sped around and dribbled the ball to within 8 feet for an easy tap-in 1-0 T1 lead. He would add to the lead less than 30 seconds later on a backhand shot and score that trickled in for a 2-0 T1 lead.

The 2-0 lead would not stand, however, thanks to some crafty work by T2's Kyle Hord, who went on a two minute scoring binge of his own. His first goal, a hard shot over the middle that sailed past the outstretched mallet of Jarid (with an “I”), brought T2 to within one score at the 7:25 P.M. mark. A little over a minute later, Hord brought his team back to even with an impressive slap shot at halfcourt that sped past a bevy of menacing, bearded, defensemen who were charging in.

Momentum continued to see-saw and gain in intensity as the two teams traded goals. The first, a Jarid (with an “I”) rebound off the back wall that he slapped in with furious force from 3 feet out, pushed T1 out to a 3-2 lead at the 7:28 mark. The ever-steady Hord evened the score, though, at the 7:31 mark with an uncharacteristic burst of speed down the far side of the court for an uncontested shot and score.

With the score now tied and audience excitement ratcheting to a near violent frenzy, defensive guru and human ball crusher Tiff Morrow, who had just watched from the pit as her dog Elliot relieved himself on Court 2, tempered the audience and players by making a simple observation and asking an even simpler question (before then going to clean up Elliot's gift to Court 2): “We have free beer at Al's. What's the score?”

The question got immediate response. Crowd noise dissipated. Collectively, the players decided to hold a sudden death joust to decide which team could declare themselves Game 3 Winners (of a random September night of Bike Polo). Less than a minute later, Simpson dutifully serviced Morrow's thirsty needs by sending a half-court prayer through the cones for a hardfought 4-3 T1 victory.