Our friend Greg Manley, inventor of Circle Rules Football, was featured on ABC’s Good Morning America this weekend. We first met Greg at this summer’s Come Out and Play festival and then invited him to coach the championship games for several of our Summer Office Leagues. Way to go Greg!

Watch the video HERE.

photo courtesy of circlerulesfederation.com

There’s some smack talk going around on the Team Saucony blog, specifically in New York. Tomorrow night is the NYC Championship Game in which the bronzed Saucony Original trophy is up for grabs. The trophy along with unlimited bragging rights will not come easy to either of this summer’s finalists. Thrillist (witty, sometimes snarky daily newsletter with product, restaurant and culture finds) is facing off against L’Oreal (yep, the make up company, I was hipped to an upcoming release of a vibrating mascara at the last game).
The teams will throw down in the increasingly popular sport of Circle Rules Football. This game was dreamt up by theater major Greg Manley whose love of sports, game design and competitiveness landed him a multitude of medals & awards at this summer’s Come Out and Play Festival in NYC.
The game, which we’ll play in Central Park Tues Sept 1 @ 7pm, is played in a circular field with the goal in the middle. Goal keepers are stationed back to back on each side of the PCP goal and I should mention, they are allowed full contact with each other, even above the neck is allowed!
While I’ll be cringing & running away from confrontation we’re honored that Greg will be with us to officially ref the game. It’s gonna be awesome!

I have to say I was nervous about this game- Large plastic bats + super competitive players = a very nervous Nicole. After making sure all players signed a waiver we got started just as the sun was starting to disappear for the evening. In case you don’t know the deal, the object of field crumpets is to take a cartoon laden bouncy ball & hit it thru a gaurded space with a big, red plastic bat. No hands.

All the teams did great and no one got hit in the head! There were plenty of flying bats & shoes though. Field crumpets sealed the fate of which teams are one step closer to the bronzed shoe in NYC- L’Oreal vs. Thrillist! Congrats to Matador who snatched up a big W so they wouldn’t end the season winless. And a big thank you to all of our teams at the end of regulation game time- We had so much fun & EVERYONE is invited to the championship game to root for the team of your choice… or just heckle everyone.

Well it was another exciting week of office games in the Big Apple, with a much anticipated double header of Kubb. It was a clear day but the rain that New York has been experiencing acted as a steroid for the grass. The support of the long blades against the Kubbs made the average stick toss meaningless. Gamers had to strike with Annie Oakley like accuracy, making every hit just that more exhilarating.

Team L’Oreal’s early arrival and extra warm up time proved worthwhile against Thrillist in a quick game that ended with a King strike two feet away, behind an ill placed field Kubb. On the other end of the playing field, on court 2, team Sony had the intimidation factor as they showed up with a full force of “A” gamers. Flavorpill had the heart and the team spirit, but just couldn’t come up with a win against such a dominating force.

With night fast approaching the teams had to call it a “one and done” instead of best of three. The teams were obviously still in a competitive mood when they showed up at the new establishment, Dublin Bar, for multiple rounds of flip cup. With all four teams together at once the Dublin Bar was full of an energy that it hasn’t seen for years and as for the teams, the wins and the losses of the day were momentarily forgotten.

Chains are sprayed down with a new coat of oil, air pressure is double checked to insure the maximum agility, and the poles and pipes are tightened to ensure solid strikes. Scabs and old wounds stay open for the onlooker’s eyes who will never fully understand the glory of them. These warriors live for the community, the pavement, the rush of wind on a fast break, but most of all they live for the grandeur and competition found in Urban Bike Polo.

Bike polo is a game of urgency, ruggedness, and pure sweet magnificent, finesse. The sport can be played on manicured lawns, to maximize ball movement, or on the pavement. Concrete players gain much more credibility and seeing that concrete is already a developed court it makes no sense to go tear up a nice lawn.

The majority of the Polo sticks are made from old ski poles and plastic tubing that serves as the club head. A street hockey ball is used and the goal of the game (pun intended) is to put the ball through two cones that are set a bicycle length apart on either ends of the court. Any kind of bike can be used, however the fixed geared bikes allow a person more mobility in that you can go backwards and forwards.

Each team has three people on the court at one time and after a “3,2,1, Go!” count they are off to the races; whirling, twirling, bumping, and smacking, all in the hopes that they can be considered Court Kings.