News

National Volleyball Centre 2013

The Sitting Team have had a good 2011/12 season reaching the National Finals in Kettering - they also took part in the Sport Relief tournament in March (picture above).

Two members were selected for the GB Women's Paralympic Squad - Jodi Hill and Emma Wiggs - well done to both of them (you were seen on TV !)

Volleyball England - 1st Grand Prix Event 2011-2012

The hotly awaited 1st Grand Prix of this pre-Paralympic year took place at the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering on Sun 30 October. Tier 1 consisted of the 4 semi-finalists from last year and a wild card team named Simpsons - which is a team containing some of the Great Britain Women. Also with a new club starting to develop in London through Malory Eagles, a newly formed team named 'Eagles & Gators' (as they are merged with Surrey Gators for this season) came through the day unbeaten despite some promisiing play from the other teams in the top tier, particularly Battleback who pushed them in the 2nd set to 28 - 26.

The game of the day in Tier 1 happened over lunchtime when the finalists from the previous year took on each other for the first time in this new look competition. Despite some strong play from East London Lynx Captain Anton Raimondo, Eagles and Gators came through to win in 2 sets. One of the matches of the day was between Simpons and FDSW Celtic Dragons - who themselves have 4 of the Great Britain Women. Despite some great play from both teams Simpons came through to win 3 sets.

Tier 2 was hotly contested with all 5 teams keen to gain promotion to the top tier, Portsmouth who were the top seeds going into the competition, survived early scares from both Loughborough Lions and Essex Pirates, who both pushed them close. They eventually won both games and emerged as sone of the top teams in the league along with Lincoln Imps who also played well.

Going into the last round of matches, both Portsmouth and Lincoln were undefeated and met in a match that would decide who would win the tier and gain promotion. Lincoln won a tight first set 26-24 but Portsmouth came back in the second and took it 25-23. In the final set, Portsmouth showed their quality and won the set relatively comfortably 15-10, to clinch the match and the place in tier 1 for the next Grand Prix in Dorking.

Overall everyone should take positives out of the day; a number of new players experienced competitive volleyball for the first time and should be proud of the contributions they made. A particular mention should go to Kent Wyverns who played with 3 juniors during the competition, encapsulating the inclusive nature of the game and providing them with much optism for the future.

Portsmouth Results:

Portsmouth v Essex Pirates 25-23, 25-22

Portsmouth v Kent Wyverns 25-13, 25-4

Portsmouth v Loughborough Lions 25-12, 24-26, 15-8

Portsmouth v Lincoln Imps 24-26, 25-23, 15-10

Grand Prix Series 2010-2011

Grand Prix 3

We atteneded the third Grand Prix at Kettering on Sunday 16 January 2011 with only six players, Steve Bailey, David Williamson, Mike Stoneman, Richad Osborne, Tarnya Barrows and Charlotte Hughes. Jodi Hill put in a couple of cameo appearnaces as she was playing for the Para-Balles (GB Women's Team)

We knew it was going to be a tough days as we had ten games to play !!!. So during the team talk it was decided not to worry about the results but to concentrate on three touch volleyball and not ping-pong, and also our defensive play.

We initially thought that this could be a tall order after our efforts at training on the Thursday, where this was not happening, no matter how much we tired. From the first game till the last our play was very good, we were playing three touch and defending well, everything had just seem to come together (the training was paying off after all). In this tournament everyone seemed to be playing not only for themselves but also for their team mates as well - WE WERE A TEAM AGAIN

All this team effort paid off as we managed to match our previous best of four wins in a tournament

Team

Results

Loughborough Lions
25 - 20

Lost

Celtic Dragons
25 - 18

Lost

Battleback
25 - 20

Lost

Kent Wyvern
15 - 25

Win

Essex Pirates
25 - 20

Lost

Surrey (GB Men)
25 - 10

Lost

Lincoln Imps
25 - 20

Win

London Lynx
25 - 6

Lost

Para-Belles (GB Women)
25 - 23

Win

Krafty Sliders
25 - 12

Win

At our first Grand Prix tournament of the season we came 5th out of ten teams that took part - results were as follows:

Team	Results		Points
Loughborough Lions	21 - 25	Win	16
Celtic Dragons	25 - 22	Lost	5
Battleback	25 - 21	Lost	6
Kent Wyvern	15 - 25	Win	16
Essex Pirates	25 - 21	Lost	6
Surrey	25 - 11	Lost	5
Lincoln Imps	25 - 19	Lost	6
London Lynx	25 - 11	Lost	6
Para-Bellas	23 - 25	Win	15

Olympic Launch

The sitting team will be at this launch on Thursday 30 September between 1600 - 1730hrs at Havant Academy (Staunton Community Sports School)

Cup Final Weekend (by Steve Bailey)

I congratulate you all who participated in this event in Crystal Palace, we did not disgrace ourselves. We played extremely well and we definately put the wind up Celtic Dragons (the overall winners), in fact we almost extinguished their flames. Again I was told on quite a few occasions on how we have improved over the four Grand Prix Series events and again in the finals.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank both Dave Willoughby and Laurent Faville for their time and effort in getting us to where we currently are, and also Helen for her efforts in obtaining sponsorship for our tracksuits and shirts.

Also congratulations has to go to David Williamson on his selection to train with the GB squad and Kat (if she accepts) to become the GB women's physio.

This now means we have now four members of the club playing and associated with the GB squad, these are:

Emma, Charlotte, David and Kat.

From Club Chairman (Ray Sharpe): This is a great achievement, for you to be in this position in your first year(ish) of competitions, apart from the learning to play volleyball, training and setting up the section of club, you are a credit to the Portsmouth Club and especially yourselves - Congratulations

If you continue to improve at the same rate who knows what next season will bring

Teams Results in Grand Prix Series

http://www.volleyballengland.org/National_Cups/sitting-grand-prix-series.php

Sheffield Team - 21 Feb 2010

The team are still going in the Grand Prix Series and gaining valuable experience - and still learning volleyball !. But every game they are playing they get better and at Sheffield on Sunday this was no exception. They started sluggish - for various reasons, but as the tournament progressed they all improved.

This series of games they won two (an improvement) and only lost to Surrey 26 - 24, so that could have been another win after a close fought match.

They still stand 4th in the overall Grand Prix Series and this will take them to the Crystal Palace National Finals on 24th April.

This all from a team/club which only started 15 October 2009.

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The club has now been nominated as a 'Sitting Volleyball Centre' for the South by Volleyball England. This, in the very short life of the sittting section is excellent, and, is in recognition of the effort that has been put in by all concerned. With this recognition it will also be helped by UKSport and other organisations.

Now, having this recognition allows money being available to further train coaches in sitting volleyball and assist with the finances of the section. Being new, has not hindered some members already being asked to attend for both the GB Mens & Womens team training and hopefully selection for better things including up to the Paralympics.

Training is on every Thursday (wef: THURSDAY 15th October) and will be at Mary Rose School, Gisors Road, Southsea. PO4 8GT between 6 - 8pm, so come along and see what 'sitting volleyball' is like.

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Competition - (29 Nov 2009) The sitting team took part in the Sevenoaks Competition - (actually submitting 2 individual teams) - but WON the outright competition on our first attempt at any competition. The final was a hard fought game and did not start well for the Portsmouth team (going 7 points behind early on) but they fought hard and gained alot of confidence and became the winners at their first ever event. (they will now be a marked team who people want to beat !)