Polo on the Prairie, Saskatoon

3,000 km - Saskatoon was the location of my second bike polo tournament ever and first stop to my journey. I arrived on Wednesday the 12th of June 2013 in Saskatoon and couch surfed at Ashtons place the first night there.

Ashton had an apartment juts north of downtown Saskatoon and was gracious enough to host me on short notice. Another great surfing experience and I left his place to stay with a fellow bike polo'er Daren and his family the next day which was an incredibly kind gesture by them.

Thursday and Friday I tried to see as much as I could but because of monsoon like rain I was penned up for most of the two days. I did meet Bryn and Will and there friends and family at a great Mexican restaurant/music venue just off Broadway Ave on Wednesday evening. The restaurant was called Amigo's Cantina and is at the corner of Dufferin and 10th Street. It is cheap and family friendly till 9pm. They serve a wide mix of meat, vegetarian, and pub fare dishes, and I got a great veggie burger.

On Friday my team mate Daniel arrived and we went an found a great diner on Saskatoon west side. The diner was called Park Cafe Diner, and it had a cheep breakfast special as we some really good eggs benny's. Later in the day we built the polo court for the tournament and after being soaked by a monsoon, the weather broke and the sun came out while we assembled. Afterward we played some great pickup with the folks from Saskatoon and Calgary.

For the third annual Polo On the Prairie tournament teams made it out from Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Vancouver making me the farthest traveled for the tourney. It was a full round of seeding on Saturday and the rain kept coming. Sunday morning we played one more game of seeding and our team(DDT) finished in 2nd place in the seeding round.

On Sunday the weather was overcast and rainy but we made due, and the double elimination rounds started. Because we finished in 2nd place in the seeding we got a bye in the first round of games, and ended up playing the 5th seed instead of the 9th seed. We ended up losing and were into the elimination round. In the elimination round after a few arguable mistakes by the refs we were out of the tournament in second last place.

Tough last day but we had fun, I played the best polo of my life, and it left me wishing I could be back next year. So many great friends were met and the level of polo witnessed was great. I am also happy I was not the only one that hit the bottle after we were knocked out... Mark Leoppky... To bad I didn't win a new frame!

It was an awesome tournament and the sponsors, city of Saskatoon, and Saskatoon Bike Polo, should be so proud!

Here are some photos from the next day's paper in Saskatoon. Photographs by: Liam Richards, The StarPhoenix

W