Ride for victory!

I may be wrong but I'm guessing that most of you reading this don't have $30,000 to spare. I'm also guessing that if for some reason you do, you're not going to spend it on a horse. Lastly I'm guessing that if you did spend it on a horse, you don't plan on using it to ride around like a Renaissance knight and whack a ball with a mallet.

Polo, in case you haven't caught on, is player-for-player, the most expensive major sport in the world and long regarded as the sole provenance of the wealthy. Logically, it should die out as the global economy withers. Yet there have long been men who infiltrated the sport and revived it among the common people, albeit in a slightly different format. Subtract the horse from the equation and suddenly polo looks a lot more feasible.

Bicycle polo, which was invented in Ireland and flourished in the U.K. until the middle of the century, has experienced a resurgence in the last decade with regular international tournaments and weekly meetings in both Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The game is essentially the same as polo, two teams ride around and try to score goals on each using the ball and mallet, only the horse is swapped out for specially fitted bicycles and instead of grass they play on any hard urban surface available. Parking lots, hockey rinks; anything will do. Teams of three players ride graceful loops around each other before clashing, mallets swinging wildly, in pursuit of the ball.

New players are encouraged, but the welcome includes a long list of disqualifying conditions. If you're afraid of intense physical contact, severe injury, speed or general embarrassment, then you are advised to stay at home. Otherwise, participation in everyday matches is free. Heck, you don't even need to show up with a team as they are created at random to put newbies at ease. There's also a pledge on the site for NYC Bike Polo, which organizes the matches, that promises the more experienced players won't knock you down until you've played at least a few matches.

Admittedly, bicycle polo is quite a step up from the high-octane but largely immobile action of foosball, but those looking for a little more danger in their lives would do well to check this one out.