Fangliang Xu, Centretown News
The Mallets of Mayhem gather three times a week at Ev Tremblay Park for a game of bike polo. Every Sunday afternoon at Ev Tremblay Park in Little Italy, a group of friends gather with bikes, mallets, and a small orange hockey ball, staying for hours until dusk on the small asphalt court. They are the Mallets of Mayhem, Ottawa’s bike polo club.
The group typically meets three times a week, and despite the cold, plan on hitting the court right up until the first snowfall.
“It’s become very much part of our routine, it’s good to see the same people,” says Rejean Demers, who has been with the club almost since its inception.
Demers says the sport has become more organized and the Ottawa bike polo community has grown.
This summer, the group started two different initiatives on top of their usual pick-up games, featuring a rookie night for new players, and a women’s night.
“With more exposure, more people are coming to participate who don’t have a professional cycling background, but who like to cycle for leisure,” says Demers.
Brodie Barrie, a five-year veteran of the game, agrees that Ottawa’s community is growing.
“In the past two years we’ve had at least 10 new regular players that come out all the time,” he says.
Hardcourt bike polo is played three on three, typically on an outdoor asphalt court. The first team to five wins, and goals are scored by hitting the ball into the opposing team’s net with the head of the mallet. Players cannot touch their foot down during play, and if they do, must go to the edge of the centre line and “tap out,” touching a designated spot before returning to the action.
“It used to be very underground and we used to not talk to anyone,” says Demers, flipping through a small black leather photo album he pulled from his bag. Demers points out the “garbage” bikes they were using in 2005 when the photos were taken.
Since those days, the sport, and the equipment, have become standardized. An official set of rules was published on the league of bike polo website and a page for tournaments was created. Barrie says companies are now making equipment for bike polo, whereas in the past they would have to make their own.
“We used to go to ski hills and pick up old ski poles and convert them,” says Barrie, describing how they would create mallets.
Cole Burston is one of the sport’s newcomers.
He says he thought the tight-knit bike polo group would be unwelcoming, but once getting involved, he says he found a great camaraderie.
“They’re really open to helping new people get into it,” says Burston. “A couple people wanted to meet up and hit the ball around when we weren’t playing just to practice.”
Burston says he didn’t have a bike for the first month of play, but other players were always offering theirs.
Demers considers bike polo “the best sport in the world” and says he likes to tell as many people as possible about it. The players act like a group of good buddies, cracking beers and jokes on the side of the court.
“We’re kind of rough around the edges you know?” says Demers. “But it’s not a sport that should be hidden for the lack of finish.”