Pharaoh’s International Bike Polo Cup (Cairo, 8–10 March 2024)

[Cairo_Bike_Polo]

Name:Pharaoh’s International Bike Polo Cup

Dates: 8 : 10 March 2024

Location: Cairo, Egypt

Format: 3 vs 3 mixed

Description: Dear bike polo teams and players from all over the world, it’s time to play bike polo in Africa surrounded by 7000 years of history.
The Egyptian Bike polo committee is very proud to invite you to participate in the first edition of the “Pharaoh’s International Bike Polo Cup” during 8–10 March 2024.
Now the registration is open for teams and players through Instagram messages or email raniaammar56@gmail.com
Kindly be informed that only limited spots will be available in this edition since we focus on the quality of the tournament and to deliver good hosting experience for bike polo teams and
players that going to participate
Your participation gives us hope to continue developing bike polo in Africa

Sign-Up: raniaammar56@gmail.com

[davidv]

yo, free agent list is a bit short…you really want me to write you all individually?

[Cairo_Bike_Polo]

Dear bike polo players from all over the world, it’s time to play bike polo in Africa surrounded by 7000 years of history.
The Egyptian Bike polo committee is very proud to invite you to participate in the first edition of the “Pharaoh’s International Bike Polo Cup” during 8:10 March 2024.
Now the registration is open for teams and players through the email
Raniaammar56@gmail.com

Important information:
What we will deliver in front of registration fees is a whole experience for 4 days in Egypt including:
1- the hotel residency for 3 nights.
2- three meals every day
3- access to smash sporting club facility (restaurants, coffee shops, lockers, pathrooms,…etc).
4- bike polo court all day access for 3 days
5-t-shirts with prints for every player
6-prizes for winning team and second place.

No local or domestic transportation required because we optimized the residency and the club to save your time, money, and effort that you would do to find places not as good as these places and might cost you transportation fees.

Please go check smash sporting club and Novotel hotel facilities to get an idea:

https://www.instagram.com/novotelcairoairport?igsh=MXMweXNnY2ZpeG80dQ==

[metriod]

Hi,
very excited about this!

However, with the information coming via different channels (instagram, telegram, here), it is a bit difficult to keep up with current details. Could you please clarify:

1. What are the dates of the tournament? 7-10 October or 8-10 October?
2. Is this an ABC tournament. Meaning each team must consist of players from A/B/C categories? A being experienced players and C being new, less experienced players?
3. Is this a mandatory mixed tournament? Meaning at least two gender identities must be represented in each team?

Thanks so much for your work and hosting this tournament!

[Cairo_Bike_Polo]

Hello dear friend, Nice to hear from you
Here is the details
1-The tournament will be played 8, 9, 10 but we announced 7: 10 to give one day for arrival, accomodations, and rest before matched.
2- we prefer to register in teams but if you can’t find team you can register as individual and we will figure out mixed teams after registration close.
3- no conditions or obligation on how many player of each gender in a team.
4- the tournament will be played in a professional sporting club 5 minutes away from Cairo International Airport.
5- residency will be in Novotel hotel also 5 minutes away from Cairo International Airport.

two ways to register and get the details about fees and how to purchase, the first through email Raniaammar56@gmail.com
The second through message to Cairo bike polo Instagram page

[Mega_shuffle]

Can we have some concrete details?
Limited spots available: how many teams is that? How many slots are you reserving for local teams?
Can we know the registration price as well?
How many courts will there be?

[Cairo_Bike_Polo]

What we will deliver:
1- three nights residency in Novotel hotel.
2- breakfast, lunch, dinner.
3- Access to smash sporting club facility (restaurants, lockers, pathrooms, coffe shops,…etc)
4- t-shirt for each player with his name printed and team name and our prints.
5- prizes for winning and second place teams(cups and- medals)

Important note: No domestic or local flights or trains or buses needed this cost is totally iliminated since we chosen facilities 5 minutes away from Cairo International Airport

It’s a full experience and a journey to 7000 years of history, we will take care of all details of yor accomodations and food with collaboration with very professional club, we need you just enjoy and practice bike polo

Your visit is support for our developing project in Africa and for global bike polo grawth

[davidv]

300$ for player including:
1-Hotel reservation for three nights in double room for 150$.

so 150usd/p for rego, wow.

[Cairo_Bike_Polo]

@davidv
There are also in addition to the hotel residency
1- three meals every day
2- access to smash sporting club facility.
3- bike polo court all day access for 3 days
3-t-shirts with prints for every player
4-prizes for winning team and second place

No local or domestic transportation required because we optimized the residency and the club to save your time, money, and effort that you would do to find places not as good as these places and might cost you transportation fees.

Please go check smash sporting club and Novotel hotel facilities to get an idea:

https://www.instagram.com/_smashsportingclub?igsh=ZnNmZzc4ZGhsMTM2

https://www.instagram.com/novotelcairoairport?igsh=MXMweXNnY2ZpeG80dQ==

[sam]

Hi @Cairo_Bike_Polo,

What European tournament participants normally expect from a tournament (and are willing/able to afford) might differ from what you are planing in Egypt. Transparency is now key to avoid misunderstandings.

Hence, I would strongly encourage your club to inform potential European players about a rough estimated registration fee as early as possible.

From the information so far provided, I assume players will end up with a registration fee (including all listed amenities) of maybe ~$200/person or more.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

[Cairo_Bike_Polo]

Hi SAM, Nice to have discussion with you
Actually we are so clear and transparent about what we organizing. But as i said it’s different cultures and different approaches in hosting such international tournaments. We here in Egypt focus not only on the tournament competitions but also for the full experience you going to have. We were able to announce low registration and leave every player search about his accomodations individually and manage his transportation and food individually which will cost may be higher than what we proposed over the 4 days.
That’s why we decided to plan a full program including all the previously mentioned aminities to optimize your expenses, time, and effort over the whole trip.
yes we announced 300$ registration fees which we believe just cover all expenses. And based on honest advices from our friends in Europe we promised to do serious trials to lower these fees as we can and we will announce if we successded. But upto moment it’s 300$.

Please keep in mind that this event is mainly to promote and encourage bike polo in Africa so we love it to be as organized, green, and professional as possible

[sam]

Thanks for responding so quickly, and correcting me on my estimated registration fee.

Picking up your remark on trying to organize the tournament as professional as possible I was wondering if you can clarify some further questions of mine. I apologize for my total ignorance in advance as I have no other means to gather information on how Bike Polo is played in Cairo:

1. Do you have your own local ruleset, or do you follow any other established ruleset?

2. The EHBA Ruleset (v230712) is the currently used ruleset throughout Europe. You can find many example games on the Youtube channel Down Over Polo Entertainment.
   If you can shed some light on what you think will be the biggest differences between gameplay/reffing in Europe and Egypt, that would be very welcome.

3. On facilities & game equipment during the tournament:

   • How many courts do you have? (first asked by @Mega_shuffle)
   • What are the court dimensions?
   • Will the courts be encased in walls?
   • What is the court surface like?
   • What are the goal dimensions?
   • What kind of balls are you using?

I’m aware my questions might seem hawkish, and for that I apologize a second time. It is not my intent, but I believe many readers here are wondering the same. Clarifying these questions might even lead to polo players start visiting your club during their regular holidays in Cairo.

Cheers,
sam

[Cairo_Bike_Polo]

Hi @sam again i really welcome your questions and it makes us prepare ourselves better and consider telling more information. Don’t forget it’s our first time to go through this and we believe it shouldn’t be the last and again the main purpose of this tournament is to play together with you and promoting bike polo in Egypt and Africa.
1- we follow the latest version of NAH rules set from our first beginning except we have one important rule for not cutting the line of ball from in such way that causes dangerous situation for either of the two players. This rule along with safety gear boost the game safety and make it almost zero injuries based on our experience, also we don’t allow playing topless to prevent injuries or scratches. Also players should use knee pads and shin guards.
2- we use street hockey balls.
3- court dimensions like NAH rules set.
4- goal dimensions like NAH rules set.
3- beside NAH format we have local version of matches what we call “tiny goals match” where we use goals with only 120 cm width ande match played over two times each last for 20 minutes with 5 min time out in between and teams swap goals in between as well.(it’s kind of game that masters should try )
5- till the moment it’s one court that’s why we announced limited spots but if we found large number of teams interested we might manage to prepare one more court.
6- the court surface is like tennis hard courts.
7- the court will be closed from all dimensions of course.

We love to have you play here and make our dream of this tournament real in 2024

[Cairo_Bike_Polo]

Important update

We are so happy to announce big reduction in registeration fees since we have successded to get a government support to held the tournament in a professional sports complex for the 4 days championship including all the details of the tournament and accomodations for only 190$ for player for the whole trip.
Important info:
1- hotel reservations for three nights 4 days.
2- break fast, lunch, and dinner every day.
3- full access to the complex facilities like swimming pool, lockers, bathrooms, coffee shops, …etc.
4- 24 hours (day and night) bike polo court with night lights available for competitions.
5- t-shirt with prints for each player.
6- prizes (cups and medals for 1st place and 2nd place teams).
7- game format 3vs 3.
8- tournament format and lottery TBA after registration close.
9- court dimensions and rules set based on NAH rules set.
10- spots available for 10 international teams (30 players) + two Egyptian teams.
11- preferred and recommended to register mixed teams.
12- many historical places dating back to 7000 years will be around you (civilization museum will be 15:min from the complex).

Please note that,
No local or domestic transportation or flights required because we optimized the residency and bike polo court at the same sports complex to save your time, money, and effort.

Registration is open for one week from now and available for teams and free agents (teams recommended).
To confirm your registration send us your full name, age, gender, country, t-shirt size, copy of your passport, and ask about purchasing options.

Registration could be through telegram messages,
Instagram messages in Cairo Bike Polo page,
Or email: Raniaammar56@gmail.com

In the first place your participation means a lot for us and it means a great support to bike polo in Egypt and Africa.

[Cairo_Bike_Polo]

Dear bike polo friends we already have slots reserved for local and international teams and we still have 4 slots available for 4 international teams to participate in the first Pharaoh’s International Bike Polo Cup.

Be sure that every one here is dedicated and enthusiastic to organize a threlling and different bike polo event to boost bike polo in Egypt and Africa

Please don’t hesitate to ask about the registration or any details, there are only 5 days remaining in the registration period.

[Cairo_Bike_Polo]

[air-thouin]

Hello,

Do you have the team list ?!