GRUNGELEGANT

SEATTLE, Washington: Bikes circle like sharks – lean, lithe and predatory. "Keep moving, just keep moving," Matt Messenger urges. Then he weasels his mallet between my wheels and snags the ball. Rookie meat, I jam the brake – yes, just one – smash the cycle into a horizontal skid and bounce out of the wreckage.

"Nice fall!"

The sport is bike polo, the "urban/hardcourt" strain, as opposed to the more sedate variety on grass. All players need is a ball, a mallet – monstered together from a ski pole and PVC pipe, usually – and a junker bike, often stripped of entangling elements like that pesky second brake and handlebar.

Read the full story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Inexplicably, three paragraphs from the sidebar migrated to the conclusion. But I got to trot out "bogarted" and introduce the word "grungelegant," so, hey, net gain!