Hi all, more news from the web.

The Great Britain Men's Volleyball squad continue their busy international season by hosting Egypt for a training camp that will conclude with an International Fixture between the two teams.

The camp will run from the 28th July to the 3rd August with the International Game taking place as follows:-

Date: Saturday 2nd August
Venue: English Institute of Sport, Sheffield
First Serve: 17.00

Please find attached details of the game and ticket prices.

The game once again gives the opportunity to see the progress of the team following their exploits in the European Championships and European League. For the games in the UK the GB team have an impressive record beating Denmark in the European Championships, Norway in a warm up game and then Portugal and Greece in the European League. Their only home defeat has been in a close fought game against the eventual winners of the European League, Slovakia.

Volleyball in Egypt has been making rapid progress and they are currently ranked 14th in the world and will be the African representative in the Olympic Games in Beijing later in August.

The game at EIS will take placed in the Blue Hall which has a smaller capacity than that used for the recent internationals so if you are interested in attending it is recommended that you book your tickets. Whilst I realize it is difficult in the 'off season' any assistance you can give in circulating the information to club members, other teams etc. would be appreciated.

Wimbledon Volleyball Club are looking for a coach for their men's teams. We are one of the largest clubs in London/Surrey with about 40 members and also have a large social squad. We have 3 men's teams and 1 women's team playing in the 3 divisions of the Surrey league. Training Mondays and/or Wednesdays at Raynes Park school. Renumeration offered.

The Torbay Sport Partnership is looking to work with a suitably qualified and experienced volleyball coach, to run sessions after school with secondary aged children in Torbay. It is anticipated that these sessions will ultimately feed into a junior club.

This opportunity will be for c.200 hours over the course of the year, approximately 5-6 hours per week during term time. Exact days and times will be negotiated as will an appropriate hourly rate depending on the qualifications of the coach.

For more information, please contact John Julyan

We are always looking for new recruits, for all teams. Being one of the largest clubs in the national league with four teams (2 ladies & 2 mens), both men and ladies having a team in 1st division, we have a sound club structure, with a junior development program too. Check out our website www.rigavolleyball.com for details of our welcome pack, training venues, times etc

Our guys are already training on a Wednesday night at Alan Higgs Leisure centre from 8pm and the ladies will start on a Tuesday night from 5th August at Castle Farm from 8pm We have recently obtained the EVA accreditation Volley 123. We are a friendly, social and competitive club with reasonably high standards; please feel free to try us out. All contacts can be found on the website.

Hi Dave, The Poole & Bournemouth Volleyball Association are going to use triangular fixtures for their local league matches this season. Looking at an old edition of "Volleyball Newsletter" (issue 51 / Oct 1998) I found that you'd created some templates on a website. However the link no longer seems to be valid. Do you still have this information?

Many thanks, Hugh Gurney vb_hugh_gurney@ntlworld.com

Triangular Match fixtures are commonly used in this area of the UK, for Regional matches and National League matches. They have many advantages, however there is one draw back which can be frustrating to both league organisers and team managers. If you do not have an even number of teams or a perfect ready made fixture template, you will spend hours trying to arrange that last team or fixture into the league program. Its often very tempting to do a best fit (to the annoyance of team managers) but in our opinion, a good set of triangular fixtures should have the following advantages.

1) All matches will be triangular fixtures, except when there is an odd number of teams in the division. When this happens, the remaining matches will be single fixtures and should be played between the teams with the least travelling distance between them.

2) Triangular fixtures mean that you do not need to repeat team and venue combinations. Therefore the majority of teams will not meet the same combination at the same venue during the season.

3) Travelling time and costs can be kept to a minimum. During our time arranging fixtures, teams in the East, South, West and North did not meet at each others home venues.

Likewise it was possible to give school teams an easier set of journeys. Thereby keep their day shorter than other teams.

Below I have listed the triangular combination required for divisions of 7 to 11 teams. Which will meet the above requirements. I trust they will be of use to someone in the future. League organisers should not have to keep reinventing the wheel, ready made volleyball triangular fixture templates do exist.

You can see the fixture template at: Triangular Fixture Templates

Dave.Reece@VolleyballNewsletter.com

Dear all, Please note the Men's Volleyball International that will take place on Saturday 2nd August between GB and Egypt at EIS Sheffield will now start at 15.00 and not 17.00 as originally stated.

If you were looking to attend I do hope that the re arranged time will not cause any inconvenience and if not that the new time is more convenient now allowing you to attend.

If you did manage to pass on the details to anyone else could you please forward the change in start time. Can I apologise on behalf of the BVF for this late change and I hope that this does not cause you any inconvenience. Your support in passing on the changed time would be appreciated.

If you require any additional information then please do not hesitate to contact me.

The South West Volleyball Association along with numerous event organisers will be running the 2009 South West Junior Beach Tour. The aim is to have between 5-7 ‘Open’ events at places such as Barry Island, Croyde, Exmouth, Weymouth, Perranport and Sandbanks. As well as 2-3 Grand Slams at Exmouth and Sandbanks, finishing with the South West Junior Finals at the Windfest in early September 2009.

Each player will be registered at each event and score ranking points similar to the Volleyball England Beach Tour. What I am looking for is an experienced person who quite likes processing data to keep an up to date record of the ranking points for the players, which will be updated on line. The format will should run with the same points as the VEBT so the format has already been worked out.

If anyone is interested in helping launch the SWJBT for 2009 and would like to play a very important and integral part in the process please send your expressions of interest to Denise Austin denise@beachvolleyballinc.com

Thanks in advance, Denise Austin denise@beachvolleyballinc.com
Beach Volleyball Officer

Sunday 17th August Exmouth Beach Pairs

The next big event at Exmouth this year is the 2008 Exmouth Beach Pairs event, from 10 am to 6 pm and open to players of all levels. The format will be various leagues and pools to allow everyone to have a great day of volleyball playing against teams of a similar level. The cost is ?10 per team, more details on www.ExmouthBeachVolleyball.com or Entry Form

Southwest Junior Beach Championships 

SUNDAY 17th August

The 2008 Southwest Junior Beach Championships will take place on the Sunday 17th August at Exmouth, with separate events for: Under 18's Girls & Boys (2's), Under 16's Girls & Boys (2's), Under 14's (3's), Under 12's (3's). The tournament is open to any team with in the Southwest VA area and will start at 10:30 am and finish about 4 pm. More details on www.ExmouthBeachVolleyball.com or click for Entry forms

This weeks photo of the week come from Jason Squire of www.mysportstream.com, a new sport networking site. The Weymouth Photos direct link is: www.mysportstream.com/tags/weymouthclassic2008

Jason Squire jason.squire@mysportstream.com

Match photos from the Euroleague - EIS Sheffield 27-29 June 2008 and from Whitefield: Balory v Swiss Cottage 3:1 & Malory v England Juniors 3:2.

New Zealand beach volleyball internationals Anna Scarlet and Susan Blundell ran a free training session with the London Beach Volleyball Club last night to ignite people’s interest in the sport and to launch the new Team Jazz Sports Sponsorship scheme.

The session which ran on Monday at London’s sole beach volleyball court in Shoreditch park was a great success with young and old turning up to learn a few skills off the experts. With much being written about the need for more groups and activities to be made available for kids and teenagers to curb anti-social behaviour and in particular knife crime, London Beach Volleyball Club aims to offer these groups the perfect opportunity to take up a new sport for fun or even with the aim of making the London Olympics in 2012.

Anna and Susan who missed out on competing in this year’s Olympics have their sights firmly set on London 2012 but were in the capital to launch the new Team Jazz Sports Sponsorship scheme. The sponsorship set up by Jazz Apples is a unique opportunity open to all ages, backgrounds and sporting disciplines, offering applicants the perfect opportunity to gain additional support to help them in the pursuit of their sporting dreams.

With competing in sport often being a costly business, team members will receive ?1000 to help lift some of this financial burden, as well as receiving a publicity campaign with the aim of attracting additional media interest and sponsorship for each team member. The successful ten will also be taken on a motivational team building trip where they will meet the rest of the team and take part in an adventure activity day.

London Beach Volleyball Club was founded in 2007 and now has over 100 members. The club is continuously looking for new talent and a variety of training sessions take place for different ages and abilities every night of the week. Throughout the summer, the club is running various activities and sessions for all ages and levels. For the training schedule and more information check out and contact the club at www.londonbeachvolleyball.com

Susan Blundell comments: “The session went really well. Hopefully, there will be a few new members heading down to the London Beach Volleyball Club and applying for Team Jazz. You never know, we may even be playing against them in 2012.”

So after 35 hours and 10 time zones we arrived in San Juan at 2 am in the morning with 30 degrees temperature (already or just starting to fall a bit) and humidity fogging your glasses as you get off the plane. We were not quite there yet - 1 more hour by two vans and a truck and we arrived at their Olympic Training Center. Athletes were 4 and 5 in a room - we took 14 with us on the tour.

>>> Norceca plays with a "Molten Ball" which is like the older 'Tachikara'. They are softer and float much more than does the Mikasa ball. It is the official ball now of the Norceca Confederation. Also Norceca has used the "non-net touch" rule which we would follow. Basically calls on the net are only made on the blocking and attacking actions (near the top tape of the net). If you turn and touch the bottom of the net then a call would not be made.

>>> Senior Cristobal Marte - President of Norceca and First Vice-President of FIVB met us at the airport. He asked that we play his Jrs in the evening. What was I going to say to the potential next president of FIVB, of course we played 3 sets.

Click to read the Full Report

Arrived mid day to Santo Domingo and, to my surprise, we were met by Sr. Cristobal de Marte the President of Norceca and 1st Vice President of the FIVB. He was glad to greet us and gave a nice welcome talk to the players.

A bus took us to the Hotel Lina which is about a 10 min walk from their Olympic Training Center. This on the outside seems quite a mess but it is well used by all their sports. They hosted the 2003 Pan American Games where the Dominican Women beat Cuba in 5. At this time they built a 8000 seat volleyball hall which was next to their older volleyball training site.

Housed in the older site are the offices for Norceca and the FIVB Development Centre which is run by the Dominican Volleyball Federation. There are two courts with 'Sport Court' flooring on wood. Behind are another two smaller courts where additional training can be utilized.

Sr. Cristobal has personally financed the training of 230 athletes ranging in age from 12 to 30+. This program was started in 1995 and has blossomed into a full time training programme for all their athletes.

Click to see the full report

Lorne Sawula lsawula@compusmart.ab.ca