Headlines

Newbury Under 12 Girls win at Sandbanks

Newbury Volleyball Club sent 5 junior teams and 2 adult teams down to play in the Sandbanks Beach Volleyball Classic on Saturday. We woke up to pouring rain and gusty winds but a quick check on the Poole Harbour weather site showed that Poole and the surrounding areas were dry.
It was extremely windy on the beach and almost impossible to serve in one direction. Once the ball was served it almost blew back again. Receiving the ball wasn’t much better as it drifted everywhere. All the players remained very positive and carried on adapting their play accordingly.
We had 2 teams of 13 year olds taking part in the under 16 section, Newbury Surfers with Alex Whitehead and George Scholey and Newbury Jays with Jordan Ayres and Jimmy Hill. Both teams played well against much stronger taller players.
In the under 12 section we had 3 teams. Newbury Minis were made up of brothers James and Matthew Fellows and Conor McMenamin.  They managed to win two of their 4 games in division 2. Between matches they could be found digging holes in the sand.
Newbury Gang found themselves struggling a bit in division 1against some very strong opposition. But not disheartened, carried on even playing some friendly matches after the competition. The team was Robert Scholey, Oliver Craven Todd and Daniel Kowalski.
It was the Newbury girls under 12 team of Elisa Hill, Izzy McHattie and Laura who were triumphant. They won all of their matches; strong consistent serving put them well ahead of their opponents.
At the awards presentation on the centre court the girls were given gold medals a shirt and a mini volleyball which they had signed by England’s top lady beach volleyball players

Ashcombe Tournament

Four junior teams travelled down to the Ashcombe outdoor volleyball tournament held at Dorking Rugby club field on Saturday 21st June. This is part of the Let’s Play Volleyball festivals which are grass roots competition aimed at mass participation.
The under 13 team Newbury AJJ’s had a convincing victory winning all their matches within their pool. Alex Whitehead, James Hill and Jordan Ayres have been playing together as a team for the last few months and have really started to gel well with each other. They are already playing up in under 16 competitions forming the core of the six player team.
The under 14 team Newbury Blues,  Dave Godden, Theo Durrant and Daniel Roberts struggled against some more experienced players throughout the day but remained cheerful and energetic finishing in 3rd place in their group.
The under 12 team Newbury Aces was a combined effort with 2 players from Reading Aces juniors Matthew Stent and Fraser Carter together with our own Elisa Hill the only girl in the boys tournament. They all played an excellent game against one particularly strong team within the pool. They finished in 2nd place.
10 year olds Conor  McMenamin, and twins Matthew Fellows and James Fellows made up the Newbury Minis. Matthew and James are both from Wantage C of E School part of an after school club run by Newbury Volleyball Club. Matthew has been playing for 10 and James only 4 weeks. They played well together and are looking forward to their next tournament which will be 5th July at Sandbanks.
All the junior teams will be travelling down to take part in the Sandbanks Classic Beach Tournament

St Bart's Fete - Saturday June 7th

On Saturday June 7th Richard, Sue and Isabel attended the St.Barts School food themed annual fete. We set up the net and encouraged people to come along and have a go. At the beginning people seemed a little shy but a strategically served ball into the passing spectators soon drew them in. Throughout the afternoon we had a steady crowd of youngsters joining in. One lad stayed with us for 3 hours. We took names and e-mail addresses of those who expressed an interest.
There is a video on the NWN website which includes a very short bit of us playing volleyball
http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=6973

Further to this we were spotted by a Town Councilor and have been invited to attend a family fun day in Victoria Park on August Bank Holiday Monday 25th August.

See the Newbury Arts & Leisure Newsletter, where we got a full page mention!

Sue Sayers and Tomek Swierczek win in Kettering
Volunteer, Coach and Referee Awards Winners 2008 (from the Volleyball England website)

22nd May 2008

Volunteers are extremely important to aid the development of Volleyball across the country, without you and others like you, volleyball would simply not exist! The time and energy contributed by volunteers assists and assures the future development of volleyball.

Over the weekend in Kettering, we celebrated those volunteers that are the life blood of the sport with our Annual Awards Evening. Over 100 people doned their best suits and frocks to witness this years winners of the Volunteer, Coach and Referee Awards. Dr. Don Antony - Honary president of Volleyball England was also on hand to share his sporting memories after the 3 course dinner.

Winners of each catagory are:

Young Volunteer of the Year -Kieron Bradley (University of birmingham)
Volunteer of the Year - Colin Roberts (Newcastle Staffs VC)
Services to Refereeing - Dave Gardner (East Midlands)
Putting Volleyball @ the heart of the Community - Sue Sayers (Newbury VC)
Long Time Service - Ian Wall (Tamworth VC)

Coach of the Year - Keith Trenham (Sheffield VC)
Female Coach of the Year - Lynn Allen (Wessex VC)
Male Coach of the Year - Tomek Swierczek (Reading VC)
Development Coach of the Year - David Richards (UEA)
Coach of Junior Players - Freda Bussey (Ashcombe VC)
Young Coach of the Year - Matt Rogers (Loughborough Lions/ University)

Profiles for Sue and Tomek:

Congratulations to Sue and Tomek!

Newbury Attains Volley 3!

12th May 2008

Newbury Volleyball Club and University of Birmingham Volleyball Club can be officially unveiled today as the first Volleyball Clubs in the country to achieve the coveted Volley 3 status.

Volley 3 is the top level of the Volley 123 club accreditation scheme and has an in-depth set of criteria that build on the minimum set of operating criteria for a well run club as set out in the Volley 1 (Clubmark) criteria. Newbury and University of Birmingham have a dedicated team of volunteer committee and club members who have helped to develop three year club development plans, form links with schools in different school sports partnerships and maintain a clear and up to date club website.

The Old Gits Win Again!

We held our popular interclub tournament after the annual general meeting. Players were divided into 3 teams depending on their age. The “Young ones” captained by Stuart Mculley the “Middle aged” by Chris Teoh and the “Old Gits” by Richard Cottle
The matches were one set to 25 points. The first game was the Young Ones against the MIdddle Aged, The Old Gits made their first tactical move by offering to referee first.
With 3 National League players the Middle Aged team looked fairly strong on paper. The Young ones were fielding a squad of 7 players they matched point for point throughout the game winning 25 – 22.
The second game the Middle Aged took on the Old Gits, who had a team of 6 experienced players and 2 beginners all over, or well over 45 years. Consistently good serving allowed The Old Gits to cruise through the set winning 25-12.
The third and final match was the decider. There was a fair bit of pressure for the Young Ones to beat their older opponents. It must have been quite a shock when Richard lined up his team to start having left 2 of his main hitters on the bench. The Old Gits were determined not to be beaten, newcomers Jane and Mark played well covering balls and serving, keeping the team within points of the Young Ones even ahead at one stage. Towards the end of the set the 2 Chris’s were substituted back on and the Old Gits won the set 25 – 22.

This is a win two years in a row for the Old Gits. Just goes to show you experience is what is needed.

Young Ones
Stuart McCulley, Tina Arendholz, Daniela Tradowsky,  Karol Kowalska, Dave, Becky and Tim Godden

Middle Aged
Chris Teoh, Garath Dawson, Kay Wallace, Jana Werner, Mirella Ainsworth, Alex Wilcox

Old Gits
Richard Cottle, Chris Giltnane, Chris Whitehead, Chris Ng, Sue Sayers, Sarah Holland Jane and Mark Godden.

Newbury Volleyball Club are new entrants into Men's National League division 3

Newbury Volleyball Club have been accepted by Volleyball England, as new entrants into Men's National League division 3.  This means we will be setting up NVL training sessions from May, working towards a September start.  Undoubtly you will see some new faces at the club, as players come to join us.  It will also mean that we are more able to offer strong players, we have developed, competitive volleyball, which will keep them at the club.
 
It is a great day for the club, helping us to break through the ceiling above us and raising our standards and joining the country's elite.  Strong club players will be welcome to join our NVL squad for training, which will help us in BVA too.  It also means that we removed another obstacle to our becoming a Volley3 club.  We know of one other club working to Volley3, we want to beat them to it.  So don't be surprised if Sue or I ask members to help out.  As the first part of this, we must show that we are able to gain sponsorship.
 
All members can help.  Have a think why the company you work for will sponsor us, and let us know how to approach them.  It does not have to be huge amounts of money, but obviously we would not turn that down.  Lots of small donations would serve us equally well.  Find out how your company gives money to the community and what their agenda is.
 
It would also help to know if any of our members have experience in media or PR.  I know we have a lot of talent in the club, we just need to target our acheivements ino the right channels.  Thanks to everyone for their help on this.   

Newbury members attend sitting volleyball session
Report by Imogen Holland

Newbury VC in the Running for Volleyball Club of the Year 2008

Newbury VC has once more become a semifinalist for Volleyball England Club of the Year 2008.

For more information about the applicants please see the news release on the Volleyball England website:

http://www.volleyballengland.org/News.php?articleId=992

Newbury Volleyball Club in the Community

Newbury Volleyball Club prides itself on its diversity.  In a recent survey we found that only 45% of our players were white British.  This has been achieved in a predominantly rural community, in which the racial heritage background is 96% white British according to the 2001 census.

We like to think that we never miss an opportunity to promote the game.  Our MP was reported in the local paper as declaring his support for exiled Zimbabweans who were having a hard time here.  That day we wrote to him pointing out that we already advertise in Chishona, a Zimbabwean tongue, and encouraging him to send new members to us, as we are very welcoming.  I had previously got the translation done by a work colleague before he went back to Africa.

Not having any members who are Urdu speakers, we had to rely on a translation site on the internet when we approached our small local Islamic community.  Most will have good English but taking the trouble to reach out to them in this way will show our commitment to integrate them.  We also included a written Arabic version of our basic details.

Newbury Volleyball Club has continued to take volleyball out into the community. We have started working with a group of unwaged people.   Despite the English summer we have offered sessions in the park to a group in which ex-offenders, homeless, substance abusers, and mental health service users are all over-represented.   Some of these have come to our club training.  One chap had learned his volleyball in HMP Shepton Mallet.  He said he did not know all the rules but loves chucking himself about.  Another played as a child Africa but had to leave his country for safety.  He enjoys the fitness and confidence building aspects.

We were asked by the PE Coordinator at Whitelands Park Primary School in Thatcham to participate in a “Food and Fitness” fortnight from 11th to 22nd June during which time the pupils would take part in a wide range of sporting activities.  The project is first and foremost concerned with the health, welfare and development of all children through healthy eating and sporting activities, and as part of the “Food and Fitness” awareness initiative the children are being encouraged to consider the nutritional value of their food and ways in which they can improve their eating habits and fitness levels.   

We ran outdoor volleyball sessions on two days working with children from year 5 on the first day and year 4 on the next day, 108 children took part.

West Berkshire Family Resource Services asked us to run a taster session as part of the activity mentoring programme. Working specifically with children aged 8 to 13 activity mentoring offers a chance to support children who are have been identified as at a high risk of offending.  Coach Sue Sayers attended the Riverside Youth Centre in Newbury and took a small group of young people. The feedback has been very positive and we have been asked back to run further courses in the future.

Work continues by running after school clubs in several local schools with the aim to hold a school volleyball festival.

Future plans involve a taster session at the Healthy living day 29th August 10am until 2pm, which will be held at Moorside Centre in Thatcham.

This will be working with children who are in care or placed with foster parents

Junior Success at Sandbanks - July 2007

Newbury Volleyball Club sent five teams down to the Premier Sandbanks Beach Volleyball Classic Tournament in Poole. This annual event is the biggest in the UK with over 200 teams participating.

16 year old Will Lockyear paired up with 12 year old Alex Whitehead in the under 16 section. The competition in this age group was very strong but both boys held their own, taking all the matches within a few points of the winners.

The adult mixed team of Lukasz Bugno, Karol Kowalski, Sue Sayers, Leah Thompson and Magda Kowalska played throughout the day and were eventually knocked out in the quarterfinals.

Three of our youngest junior teams all 12 and under swept the board in their first ever beach tournament. They train regularly at indoor volleyball, but had to adapt to the heavy sand and wind making ball control more difficult.

The Newbury Girls team of Vanessa Blackmon, Samantha Giles, and Elisa Hill won all their qualifying matches through to the final play off then completed their victory with a confident win. This is their second success in recent weeks as they achieved runners up in the Ashcombe Tournament held at the beginning of the month.

The Newbury Boys - James Hill, Jordan Ayres and Nathan Blackmon only lost one of their matches in their pool and ended up in the final against our clubs other boys team aptly named the Newbury Gang who had also only lost one match. The final was a hotly contested match with both teams vying for the top position. Newbury Gang had not played in a tournament before and were very critical of each other’s faults but it was this dogged determination that saw them go on and win the match by 2 points.

All three teams were presented with medals and prizes on the centre court in front of a grandstand of people.

Mixed team beat the weather to win Epsom Tournament

Newbury’s mixed volleyball team travelled down to the Epsom Volleyball Tournament on Saturday set in the grounds of the prestigious Epsom College. After a week of rain and high winds the sun came out and shone all day.  The tournament consisted of two parts; the morning sessions all the teams played in four mixed ability pools, two sets to 25 points and then a further compulsory set to 15 points. One point was awarded for each set won. Newbury comfortably beat all their opponents in Pool 1 winning every set and the maximum points available. They went on to win the semi finals and finals.

The afternoon was run on a similar basis this time the pools were of equal ability and were timed sets of 12 minutes. Newbury retained their winning formula and won every set taking them into the finals. The set started on a fairly equal standing but Newbury’s consistent pressure took them ahead by 3 points to win the final match.

Team Lukasz Bugno, Richard Cottle, Karol Kowalski, Sue Sayers, Leah Thompson, Magda Kowalska

Juniors at Ashcombe Tournament

Three teams travelled down to the Ashcombe outdoor tournament in Dorking on Saturday. The junior section was amalgamated through lack of entries in the various ages, which meant our two junior teams both 12 years and under ended up playing 12 and 13 year olds. The day started with hazy sunshine but a couple of hours later a huge thunderstorm went over. All the teams ran for cover and waited until it passed except many of the juniors who thought it fun to carry on playing in the pouring rain.  Once it cleared up the matches resumed in a slippery mud patch.

The boys team of Nathan, James and Jordan played well against much taller stronger boys. Although they lost all their matches they gained lots of experience taking part. They also had to learn to referee and score the other matches.

The girls team of Elisa, Sam and Vanessa were on top form winning all their matches to get into the final. It was their accurate serving, which put them ahead of the other teams. They were sadly beaten in the finals by Devizes. All the juniors were awarded players medals for taking part, and the girls team silver medals for coming second.

More success for Newbury at CCPR awards

A week after Newbury Volleyball Club were named as Volleyball England's volleyball club of the year, Newbury achieved further success at the CCPR (central council for physical recreation) awards when they were named runner up in the Sports Club of the Year awards. As well as a great achievement for Newbury, this helps bring volleyball as a sport to the fore in England. Sue, Richard, Kay and Derek were at the awards ceremony to pick up the plaque, and a cheque for £3000 while will help Newbury further its work with juniors, as well as allowing Newbury to make further inroads into the community with sitting volleyball planned for local disabled groups.

Pictured along with Kay, Richard, Sue and Derek are Sports Minister, Richard Caborn (left) and Sir Bobby Charlton, world cup winner with the England football team in 1966 (right). Now if he could hit a ball as well as he could kick one, he would have made an awesome spiker.

The following is from the Volleyball England website:

Club of the Year 2007

Newbury Volleyball club won the prestigious award for Club of the Year at this year’s annual National Volleyball Awards held in Kettering on Saturday.

Four of Newbury’s coaches attended the coaching conference during the day. This was a combination of practical and theory based sessions run by high profile volleyball figures. The evening included a three-course meal followed by the annual club awards for players, coaches and officials. This culminated in the top award, The Volleyball Club of the Year, which Newbury were honoured to receive.

Newbury Volleyball club has also been chosen as one of six nominees for the CCPR Sports Club of the year to be held in London Tuesday 8th May. Numerous high quality applications had been received form all different types of sports clubs.

Newbury’s achievements this year included becoming the first club in the country to attain Volley 2 accreditation in February. Volley 123 is the Club accreditation scheme for volleyball in England. It is designed to recognise and reward clubs that stand apart from the rest in terms of good practice it is a mark of a quality club that is equitable, inclusive, friendly, well run and most importantly safe.

The club has striven to actively promote volleyball in the area. We have four teams in the Berkshire league whose season finished this weekend. The men’s team finished third, the ladies second, and both the mixed team and junior development team were top of the league. The annual Berkshire Volleyball Tournament takes place at Bradfield College on the 19th and 20th May and Newbury will be hoping to maintain their success.

The junior section has trebled in size with the help of an Awards For All grant. A mixed aged team won the Melksham tournament. We sent players to the National Junior Volleyball Championships in the under 16 and under 18 sections. The under 18 team went through to the semi-finals.

We are currently coaching in local schools introducing volleyball to ages 8 years and upwards. This will lead to a mini catch and throw volleyball tournament to be held within the next few months. The club is reaching out to other youth organisations with offers of free coaching and friendly organised matches. We have already taken the game out to the more rural areas holding a come and have a go and demonstration at a village sports day.

We are looking into introducing sitting volleyball which allows disabled and able-bodied players to work together to play volleyball, links have already been made with the Thatcham wheelchair basketball team.

After the AGM - A bit of fun

The club AGM was held on Tuesday 17th April, at which the chairman, Richard thanked the club for a very successful season, and set out an ambitious plan for the forthcoming season. Richard and Sue were re-elected as chairman and secretary, and Sarah Holland took on the job of treasurer. The we got on to the fun.

The members, or at least those who attended the AGM, split into three teams, the juniors, the seniors and those in between, or as you may put it Raw Youth, Midlife Crisis and Saga Squad. Each team played each of the other team in timed games, to see where the real strength of the club lay. Raw Youth started against Midlife Crisis, and raced into a big early lead. Midlife Crisis staged a bit of a comeback, but too many unforced errors from the Midlife Crisis allowed Raw Youth to win easily 26-17.

For the second match, the Saga Squad threw aside their zimmerframes and, after a slow start, brushed aside a still shell-shocked Midlife Crisis 22-17 to set up a decider against Raw Youth.

And so, father against son; grumpy old gits against arrogant brats; Saga Squad took on Raw Youth. In the end, Raw Youth proved no match for the experience of the Saga Squad, who triumphed easily 25-16 - and yes - the Celebrations were very good. Roll on next season.

Newbury men finish in style

Newbury’s men’s volleyball team finished their season on a high on Sunday when they took on Basingstoke and Didcot at St Gabriel’s School.

While Newbury and Didcot’s fates were already decided – Newbury safe and Didcot already relegated, Basingstoke knew that they needed to win both their matches, and hope that results elsewhere went against Oxford in order to avoid the relegation playoff match.

Basingstoke fielded a strong team, including Craig Richardson who has just received a full England cap, along with his brother Marc, who has recently been invited to train with England Juniors. Their first match was against Didcot, who also fielded a strong team with three National Volleyball League players. Basingstoke started slowly, but once they got fully warmed up, proved too strong for Didcot, winning 25-21, 25-16.

The next match was Basingstoke against a strong Newbury team, with Newbury’s usual line-up strengthened by the addition of two National League players, Antonio Codrington, an England Junior, and Rafael Ferro. Both players combined well with setter Łukasz Bugno to equal, and indeed exceed Basingstoke’s hitting power, but if the day proved one thing, it was that every member of a volleyball team is important, and it was Newbury’s whole team performance which enabled them to stay level with Basingstoke up to 20-20, then up their game to take the first set 25-21.

The standard in the second set was even better than that of the first set. Accurate serving from Richard Cottle took Newbury into an early 12-8 lead, but Basingstoke never gave up, and it again came down to Newbury’s all-round strength to take them to a 25-23 second set win.

Antonio Codrington was a well-deserved player of the match, if for no other reason than for his immense back court hitting.

The final match between Newbury and Didcot gave Newbury the chance to try out Newbury Junior, Will Lockyear in his first match as libero, and Will didn’t disappoint, holding his own amongst National League players, and other players vastly exceeding him in experience and height. Newbury again won is straight sets, 25-20, 25-21.

Newbury team: Richard Cottle, Łukasz Bugno, Rob Scarr, Antonio Codrington, Rafael Ferro, Will Lockyear, Karol Kowalska and Alex Lusby-Taylor

Newbury achieve VolleyballEngland's Volley 2 accreditation

21st February 2007

Newbury Volleyball Club have become the first club in England to achieve the prestigious Volley 2 club accreditation award. Volley 2 is a step up from a Volley 1 award and shows that a club has further excelled in areas of good practice and club development.

Being the first club to achieve Volley 2 is an amazing achievement for Newbury who achieved Volley 1 accreditation in November 2006. Through their Volley 2 work they have managed to formalise no less than 3 school-club links and at the time of writing this article were well on their way to making it 4-6!

Newbury are dedicated to developing and recognising their valued volunteers. As a new webpage feature for 2007 they are nominating a volunteer of the month.

Laura Brown says ‘I am really pleased Newbury have achieved Volley 2 status, they are such a pro-active club and really deserve this accolade. Hopefully this will lead to bigger and better things for the future for the club’.