Tripple Lexxx falls in OT to Comosexuals

Saturday, July 25, 2009
Coolavin Park

[Author's Note: This is a more correct version than appeared in print. Thanks to Brian Turner for the corrections.]

After it was all said and done at Saturday's inaugural Bluegrass Games Bike Polo tournament—after five hours of tournament play had whittled seventeen teams down to two, after an intensely fought 1-1 draw in regulation of the championship game, and after Charlie Hill slipped a ten-foot scoot-shot past Tiff Morrow for a 2-1 victory over local mates Tripple Lexxx in the seventh minute of overtime—it was three Comosexual boys from Columbia, Missouri who would walk away with the title “Champions of the Bluegrass (Games Bike Polo tournament).”

Tournament play started at 12:56 PM with Bluegrass Games Commissioner of Bike Polo Brian Turner announcing the tournament brackets and court rules for the double elimination tournament. Ten minutes later, hometown boys Jesus, the Spic, and the Little Kid (Brian Ronk, Texas phenom Rich Lopez, and Kevin Kliment, respectively) opened tournament play with a 4-1 victory over Atlanta team Down Low. While there were occasional sprinkles—notably whenever Lexington team Pray for Rain actually played—the weather held up and made for glorious bike polo and grilling conditions. In all, five Lexington teams entered the tournament, with the No See Ums (Turner, Drew Combs, and Kyle Hord) placing fifth to go with the second place finish of Tripple Lexxx.

The championship showdown will certainly go down as one of the more thrilling finishes in Bluegrass Games Bike Polo tournament history. The game had it all: two dominant teams, precision passes, smart shots, dazzling defensive displays, bike crashes, scorekeepers, a vocal crowd cheering on the hometown underdogs, fast-paced action, and above all else, a championship drama that pick-up games just can't simulate.

Hometown favorites Tripple Lexxx, featuring Brad Flowers, Tiff Morrow, and Chris Simpson, emerged from the loser's bracket to face the unbeaten Comosexuals, and at 5:35 PM, the championship game began with a hard offensive by the Comosexuals that lasted all of two minutes before Flowers pushed a half-court runout to within four feet of the Comosexual goal. With a flick of the mallet, Flowers fended off a trailing Comosexual, Nicholas Jacob, by dribbling the ball through Jacob's wheels and tapping in for an early 1-0 Tripple Lexxx lead.

The crowd went bonkers—throwing chairs, guzzling Ale-8s, and pounding the court walls with mallets like a pack of coked-out wildebeests. They knew that a one-goal lead might be a virtual lock with Morrow, a certified ball crusher, guarding the goal.

But championships have a way of writing their own scripts. Much of the rest of the game was marked by unwanted Comosexual advances on Flowers,Morrow, and Simpson. Five minutes in at the 5:40 PM mark, Comosexual Pete Abram snuck one through a scrum in front of the goal to tie the game up at 1-1. From here, the game settled into a strategic match of bike-chess, with both teams looking, unsuccessfully, for the other team to flinch. By the time regulation play ended in a tie, both teams seemed physically and mentally drained. It was only the excited roar of the onlookers that kept the players going when play resumed at 5:47 PM after a water break.

The game appeared over at the 5:49 mark when Simpson rebounded his own miss along the fence, slipped back underneath to the goal, and tapped the ball over for an apparent 2-1 Tripple Lexxx victory. Bluegrass Games Bike Polo Commissioner Brian Turner, however, was right on top of things with a ruling that negated the shot because Simpson did not allow a second player to touch his ball after his first missed shot. Ultimately, however, it was a run-out by Comosexual Hill off a rare Tripple Lexxx offensive that ended the game. Hill reached around to steal a pass over the middle intended for Flowers. On the sprint the other way, Comosexuals Abram and Hill converged with Flowers, which resulted in a foot-down for Abram.

Abram's foot-down gave Hill the daylight he needed to spring to center court and slip a ten foot shot quickly past Morrow's pedals for the win at the 5:53 PM mark. Although vaguely disappointed with the outcome, the crowd appreciated the spectacular play by both teams and roared with delight for all six players.