Hi all, more news from the web.

Hillingdon Volleyball Club are looking for players for both their Mens(playing in London League Div 2W) and Womens (playing in London League Div1) teams. We are a friendly club, striving to achieve excellence through volleyball.

We have an extensive junior development programme and good links withlocal schools, businesses and Brunel University.

If you are interested in joining the club, please email info@hillingdonvolleyball.org

I am looking to hold a beach volleyball tournament in spring of next year. Ideally this will actually be on sand (rather than just following the rules on a standard court). It might be that I have 50-100 teams. Can you help me with finding a venue with sand courts?

I hope to run it somewhere between Richmond and Bracknell. Is this something you can help with? Or perhaps you could point me in the direction of someone who can?

The CEV will be the first volleyball Confederation to adopt the new electronic score sheet system developed by DataProject starting with the news Cups season and namely with the 2008/09 CEV Indesit Champions’ League. The new system will be implemented for all volleyball competitions staged under the CEV banner, both for clubs as well as for National Teams.

CEV President Andr? Meyer declared: “We are absolutely glad to have implemented this co-operation with DataProject. This agreement marks a sort of milestone in the history of our Confederation and specifically aims at facilitating the tasks that have to be performed by all the teams enrolling in the competitions organized by the CEV. This enhanced partnership also expresses our intention to fully benefit from the expertise of our partner DataProject, which is currently the leading operator all over Europe for IT applications that are especially conceived for volleyball competitions”.

Tonbridge Volleyball Club women’s team has a long history of success at the National League level. Over the past 7 years, the Angels have been National Shield champions and finalists, as well as being promoted twice in consecutive seasons. Last season, the Division 3 women were challenging for a promotion spot right up until the last game of the season. The Angels have set a goal of trying to improve on those results in the upcoming season.

We are currently looking for a coach and players to play for Tonbridge for the 2008-2009 season. The Angels are a highly ambitious team who are seeking to gain a promotion spot into Division 2. Tonbridge has an excellent history of developing players, with several of our players being developed from local league sides into the national league in recent seasons. Although experienced players would be ideal, we are also interested in people who are still developing as a player.

Tonbridge Volleyball is a competitive but friendly club that is made up of people who love the game of volleyball and want to develop to the best of their ability. We train on Tuesday evenings and play our matches on Sundays. If you are interested, please contact Anneke Loode at egphysioclinic@btinternet.com or 07972 359891. We look forward to hearing from you!

National League Players Wanted, are you interested in playing for a National League team that are looking to go all the way to the top? Brentwood has four National League teams (2 women’s and 2 men’s) and are looking for additional players!

Brentwoods ambitious women’s first team have entered Div 2 after an unbeaten season in Div 3, and now has a another team looking to make a similar impact. Likewise the men have been promoted to Div 2 and along with the second team will be seeking promotion.

Brentwood VC’s objective is to have a team in every division of National Regional and Local league so "you" can play the level that suits your talent. Brentwood VC is a Volley 1 Accredited Club and a finalist in the VE England Club of the Year.

Interested? Contact Brendan Osborne BrendanOsborne@hotmail.com

The 18th Cambridge Tournament will again be part of the Volleyball England Regional Grass Series 2008, one of the regional outdoor events across the country this summer. We will be at our usual location at the Rugby Ground on Grantchester Road, on the outskirts of Cambridge. We hope that the tournament will be bigger and better than ever, with more divisions and leagues to suit all standards (Mens, Womens and Mixed). Play will be 6-a-side on grass, with an additional 2-a-side competition running over the weekend.

The usual evening entertainment is offered too! Weekend passes (including camping) are payable on arrival and access to the site is possible from 3pm on Friday 1st August. (Please note that the 2's play will not be during the main tournament time, so it is possible to enter both, and that pre-entry is advised, but limited entry on the day will be possible).

Further details and a down-loadable entry form are also available from the website: www.cambridgevolleyball.org/volleyball/web2/tournament/entry.asp

Hope to see you in Cambridge!
The Tournament Committee.
www.cambridgevolleyball.org

A new 'indoor' 6-a-side tournament to be staged at the Tal-Y-Bont sports complex at the Cardiff University Campus on Western Avenue, Cardiff. Cardiff Wildcats Volleyball Club, in conjunction with the university, are organising the very first indoor 4 court competition to be held in Wales !!

The campus at Tal-Y-Bont has the bonus of being able to offer competitors accommodation on-site, as well as allowing the club to arrange entertainment in the University Bar ( which is literally 50 metres from the sports hall !!! ) in order to maintain the sociability of the event.

The club made the decision to stage the tournament in September, as they felt it was an ideal opportunity for regional and NL teams to 'test the water' with friendly matches, before the season proper starts We hope you see the benefits of such an event and decide to enter.

Entry is ?60 per team .... you may enter as many teams as you wish, We are targeting regional and NL div 3 levels specifically.....but if you wish to enter and are undecided about your team’s level, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Entry Forms are available on our website Should you require any more information we have email addresses for you to contact too. We are hoping to attract 12 men’s and 12 ladie’s teams, which will allow us to offer you competition ( time set ) against another 11 teams over the weekend. Come along ..... visit the wonderful City of Cardiff, see the sites, enjoy your time here ....... and PLAY SOME GREAT VOLLEYBALL !!!

BVF staff put on an excellent event which impressed the CEV officials, a few behind the scene photos. More photos on our Photo Page

This weeks photo's are taken by Paul Burton of "Burts Kite Cam" at the Exmouth Beach Tournament. The kite is flown over the area and a camera (which is operated by remote control) travels up and down the kite string, giving some unusual images of our sport.

It's home advantage for the GB men's team in round three of Pool A of the European League. First on were GB against Portugal, two teams that had not yet met due to the Pool shedule.

Although GB lost the first set 25-27, you could not fail to notice the progress that the squad has made over the last year. As one coach commented, following the Dutch league experience "the players now make the right decisions on court".

Harry Bokking and the players dominated the second set 25-17 and although the remaining sets were closer, you always felt that the advantage was with GB, who ran out 3-1 winners. In the second match, Solvakia beat Greece in straigh sets 3-0.

The GB Players Thanking the 600 strong Crowd

A well deserved Standing Ovation

After yesterdays opening win against Portugal, the GB men faced the event favourites, Slovakia in round three of Pool A of the European League today. GB took an early lead in set 1, cheered on by the noisy home crowd who had brought along their horns, hooters and drums. But after a few serving errors, Slovakia just took the set 23-25. Both teams were neck and neck in the second set until 20-20, where Slovakia opened up a three point cushion and kept it for a 22-25 set win.

Some powerfull hitting by GB in set three saw the team open up a 17-14 lead, which looked like securing the set but Slovakia closed the gap at 24-24, a foot fault at 26-25 moved the advantage to Slovakia. The scoreboard moved on to 27 all, 28 all, 29 all until Slovakia took the match point at 29-31. The crowd immediately gave the GB lads a well deserved standing ovation, for a match which could have gone their way.

The GB Players once again thank the suporters

Problems for one GB supporter, as drum breaks during the match.

Nail biting stuff, after two hours eleven minutes, Britain takes it to 14-10 in the fifth set against Greece in the final match of this weeks Men's European League Pool A fixture at Sheffield. The crowd go wild and coach Harry Brokking calls a time out, a wise desicion, two of the prior serves had been completely fluffed by both teams and Britain's Daniel Weemes had given up jump serving.

14 - 10 a tense moment for the crowd

The GB lads got off to an excellent start in set one, power serving their way to an early 7-1 lead, much to the suprise of the Greek technical team next to us. At 10-3, the Greeks started to re-group but it was too late, 25-19 to GB.

Set 2 and the Greeks blocked all the GB attacking channels and took the lead, the teams traded points for the rest of the set but Greece could not finish it and GB saved four set points, to bring the set score back to 23-25. Set 3 was almost the same, a 0-7 lead for Greece which they kept for a 2-1 set scoreline.

A better start in set 4, opening up a two point advantage, at 9-8 the Greek captain and setter Sotirios Tsergas suffered an ankle injury. The next ball the Greeks lost in the roof and it looked all over for them but they fought back to level the score at 19 all, however GB took the final few points (25-21) to level the game at 2 sets each, bringing up the nail biting decider.

A fantastic 3-2 win and another well deserved standing ovation

Our Player of the Match, Mark Plotyczer, for an excellent all round game.

Denies Austin coaching one of the teams taking part in Cornwall schools beach competition run in conjunction with Gemma Wilson the Schools competition Manager. Denise should note I still have her eye shade hat if she wants it back. A grand day which attracted 17 teams hosted by Countrymen volleyball club and officials from Cornwall college.

Next years Countrymen Beach Volleyball Competition starts 19/6/09 with the Cornwall Schools 4 a side comp with two groups 11 to 13 and 13 to 15 year olds. The Charity pairs will take place on 20/6/09 and the Club 4's on 21/6/09 all held at Perranporth Beach Cornwall.

After a long flight we arrived in Almaty around 3 AM in the morning. We got to our hotel, which was nice compared to last year, and got some sleep until noon. We had a early afternoon training at the competition site (an old ice hockey arena). Apparently, they are making a new facility for next year.

This is the 15th Cup of the President Tournament and is worth $100,000 in prize money – something we don’t get to take part in too often. First prize is $30,000, 2nd is $25,000, 3rd $20,000, 4th $10,000, 5th $8,000 and 6th $7,000. The teams are KAZ National Team, Nigeria National Team, “Sichuan” China Club Team, “Iller Bankasi” Turkey Club Team,“Iskra” Russia Club Team and ourselves.

At the Technical meeting we found out that some of the KAZ National Team were late coming back from the Grand Prix so we would have a mixture of players including Yelena Pavlova, their super power player. We played the match on Tuesday, July 8th at 1:30 PM.

Vs KAZ July 8, 2008 (3-0)
A mixture of their extended squad and players like Pavlova who is one of their top attackers and starters. The rest of the team was just getting back from the Grand Prix. This country had just qualified for the 2008 Olympics in Japan, a first for the country but shows its emergence in World Volleyball. Some of these players are part of there extra players who are training within their system. I think one of them is around 6’5” tall.

Starting:
Lucy Wicks (S), Rachel Laybourne (RS), Janine Sandell (P1), Jen Taylor (P1), Nicky Osbourne (C1), Grace Carter (C2) and Maria Bertelli (L)

First set was all ours – we served at our target areas, Maria Bertelli passed first receive perfectly and the team responded with sound control and side-out volleyball. We rattled them a bit in the beginning and they never found their stride. Strong blocks by Grace Carter and a good double sub by Joanne Morgan and Jen Thom, lifted the team to a 25-16 win.

Set two was closer but actually we were ahead most of the match by 1 or 2 points.

GB Women v Sweden (Match 1)

We played a up and down match, coming back into competition after being away from the court for almost one month. Sweden was our opponent and we won the match 3-0 with scores of 25-18, 25-23 and 25-23. Although it was a 3-0 win it was fair from easy. We had chances to control the match after steady play in Set 1 but didn't execute when we had the chance to control sets 2 and 3.

In set 2 we were up 19-16 and then missed a serve and two attacks - leaving us in a close match. Jen Thom came in for Rachel Laybourne and played steady which helped us to take the set - Janine Sandell came in for Paula Scott.

Same for Set 3 - up 13-11 we had some good rallies with Sweden showing good defense and getting us frustrated (or not believing that Sweden was playing that well) and allowing Sweden to take a 16-13 lead. However, we composed ourselves behind the serving of Grace Carter and went ahead 17-16. The match was close after that, like Set 2, but we managed to come out on top. A double sub with Jo Morgan and Jen Thom also helped with steady play.

We are capable of more and have to show that tomorrow evening when we play again at 4 pm. It was our first match in a long time so we should improve. Nice to have Jen Taylor back on the court after almost one month off with her injury. From what I was told it was the first win over Sweden by a UK team for quite awhile.

Starting: Paula Scott (P1), Rachel L (RS), Jen Taylor (P2), Grace Carter (C2), Nicky Osborne (C1), Maria Bertelli (Lib) and Lucy Wicks (S).

Jen Taylor 8 kills
Rachel Laybourne - 8 kills
Grace Carter - 6 kills
Janine Sandel - 6 kills
Paula Scott - 3 blocks, 2 kills
Lucy Wicks - 4 service aces
Maria Bertelli - was very steady in Serve Receive and defense for us.

Starting on the 4th of July our Talent Development group will take over and train and play against Sweden for 3 days. We have 14 athletes (who we invited after the first 3 camps) in for training and in another e-mail I will give you their names. Ian Goswell is the Head Coach and Simon Loftus is the assistant. They started their training today as well.We leave on the 5th for Kazakhstan, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.

GB Women v Sweden (Match 2)

The GBR Squad defeated Sweden for the second night 3-0 with scores of 25-20, 25-21, and 25-19. For GBR it was a better performance than yesterday with better execution of serve, block and setting tactics. Defense was strong around the block and this was due to strong digging by Maria Bertelli and better team system blocking.

Starting were: Grace Carter (C2), Nicky Osborne (C1), Lucy Wicks (S), Rachel Laybourne (RS), Janine Sandell (PH 1), Maria Bertelli (L) and Jen Taylor (PH2).

Set 1 was close (with only 1 or 2 points separating the teams) throughout with GBR coming through in the end with a good double sub by Jen Thom and Jo Morgan contributing to the win. Strong blocking by Rachel Laybourne and Janine Sandell, along with solid setting choices delivered by Lucy Wicks allowed the team to pull away in the end to control the set.

Set 2 was also also close but we managed to gain a 4 point lead where we only had one hic-up, where we let them back into the game. However, we then rallied back from a 2 point lead to finish off the match with a solid block by Liz Reid. The strong double sub of Jo Morgan and Jen Thom did their job again.

Set 3 saw Paula Scott starting for Jen Taylor and she responded with a solid set getting 2 solid blocks, some nice digs and a few kills. The start was not 'rosie' for us as we were down 6-2 before we rallied back to an 8-7 lead. It was close to 16 with us up by two, then we started to pull away. This time the double sub was Rachel Bragg and Jo Morgan who finished off the match for us.

There was a strong performance by Rachel Laybourne, an improved serve receive anchored by Maria Bertelli,and a team of players who all contributed to the victory. Steady play, good composure and unlike the other night we were not emotionally spent. There was more in the tank. Nice to win 2 in a row for a change - that was our goal - "to play and win 2 matches in a row".

Nicky Osborne - 2 blocks, 5 kills, 1 Sr ace
Grace Carter - 4 blocks and 7 kills
Janine Sandell - 10 kills and 4 blocks
Rachel Laybourne - 9 kills, 2 blocks, 1 Sr ace
Lucy Wicks - 2 Sr Aces

We scrimmage against Sweden twice before we turn Sweden over to our Talent Development athletes who will train twice a day and play 3 more matches with Sweden over the next 4 days.

GBR, after Wednesday, will turn their attention to Kazakhstan and leave on Saturday for a 6 team tournament. This is followed immediately by a trip to Puerto Rico for 5 days and then another 12 days (and 16 matches with teams in the Dominican Republic). This should test our mental toughness and our resolve to understand why we train.