There is polo on horseback, water polo, and polo shirts but on Saturday, Saskatoon hosted a tournament for bike polo.

The game is a mix between polo and hockey said Will Robbins, member of the Saskatoon Bike Polo League.

"The rules of the game are pretty simple. You have to score with the narrow end of the mallet. You can't put your foot down at anytime, you have to keep on your bike the whole time," he said.

Riding bikes and swinging mallets can look pretty scary.

"It's not as dangerous as you might think given that everyone is rolling around on bikes with one hand on the bar and one hand on the mallet. There is a danger of whiping out if you get caught with someone's mallet in your front wheel," Robbins explained.

It may not be well known in the city but Robbins said it has been around for a long time.

"Bike polo was played as a demonstration sport in one of the earliest of the modern olympics. It was an aristocratic sport in the late 1800s in England and than it fell out of favour," he said.

With the help of bicycle carriers in the 1990s the sport is making a comeback.

"There is somewhere around two or three thousand different cities that have clubs," he said.

The tournament held on Saturday at Optimist Park had teams from all over Western Canada. The tournament was sponsored by local businesses including Museo, Collective Coffee, Escape Sports, Bike Doctor, Bike Universe, and the Hollows.

"We like the core neighbourhoods, this is our home," Robbins said.


For more information visit the Saskatoon Bike Polo Facebook page.



Kmalone@rawlco.com