Charlton Athletic and the London Bicycle Polo league

Henry Irving

Some of you may have seen the article in the programme Saturday but there is limited space there so I thought I would expand here.

So the museum acquired a programme from a game.  Nothing unusual in that as we have 1000's but this one was different.

Chelsea 11 - 10 Charlton at Selhurst Park in the London Bicycle Polo League

 

Henry Irving

And our reaction was the same as yours, What the hell is that all about?

I had vaguely heard of Bike Polo. It was, so I seemed to recall, a version of equestrian polo played on bicycles by trendy people in Hoxton or Brick Lane and there my interest ended.

Supposedly this game was “played under the auspices of Charlton Athletic and Chelsea Football Clubs”.

It raised far more questions than it answered.

Henry Irving

Where did Charlton play their home games?  Were Chelsea spending huge amounts on professional Tour de France riders from France and Belgium to win titles?

The internet gave us a lot about bike polo in general. It was invented in Ireland in the 19th century, was an exhibition sport at the 1908 Olympics in London (not so strange when you learn those games also featured rugby, motorboating and tug of war) and was then popular in the UK either side of WWII.

Prince Phillip had once played the game and there has been a recent revival in the sport which is played, in London at least, by teams of three, first to five goals wins.   But there was no mention of football clubs or a London League in the 1940s.

 

Henry Irving

So I tried the Notes and Queries part of Robert Elms’s show on BBC Radio London, usually the best place to uncovered obscure fragments of the capital’s history and came up trumps. Keith Wood, the son of a former player rang in and then sent on a number of photos and leaflets.  The other teams were Arsenal and Brentford who, with Chelsea and Charlton, were the top flight London sides at the time as well as then Division 2 Spurs.  Division 3 South Crystal Palace were presumably only included as most of the games were played at Selhurst. Charlton played at home on Monday nights at the old Charlton greyhound stadium which stood roughly where Makros is now.

All the available players had been pooled and then allocated, six each, to the six teams to achieve balanced sides although we don’t yet have a final league table. 

One other oddity was that Charlton were described in our programme as playing in Green shirts although the photo Keith Wood sent us showed a quartered kit. 

ForeverAddickted

That sounds a brilliant sport that should still exist!!

Henry Irving

Henry Irving

Ladies Loved It, it seems.

Chizz

Highlights 

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/polo-on-wheels/query/polo

se9addick

Fascinating - must have had some financial clout if there were international matches taking place. 

“the Ladies Love It”! 

Henry Irving

ForeverAddickted said:

That sounds a brilliant sport that should still exist!!

Still going but three a side on hard courts.

Stig

Was interested that Wally Foxwell (what a great name) was capped for England, so did a bit of light Googling.  In 1939 a match he was in featured in a half hour broadcast on national radio. No mention of Charlton though.

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/national/daventry/1939-08-29

Also found a history of the sport. It seems to have been big in Ireland and was an exhibition sport in the 1908 Olympics. Again, no references to Charlton unfortunately. 

http://www.cnkbikepolo.com/History-of-Bike-Polo.pdf 

SporadicAddick

Chizz said:

Highlights 

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/polo-on-wheels/query/polo

at Selhurst Park