Places to play in Europe

Croyde, North Devon

Croyde, North Devon is a popular place for beach volleyball in the UK. Denise Austin one of the UK's top beach players lives here and many top players train here year round. Croyde itself has three permanent beach courts which are provided by the Academy of Beach Sports, summer membership is ??12 or you can join for the day or an hour. The courts are up from Whitsun to September and the nets and lines are left all the time, just turn up with your ball. They also hold the Gold Coast Ocean Festival on the third weekend of June, which is a King and Queen format.

For more information please contact Denise Austin on 01271 890676 or 077733 82 305 Contact Denise Austin for information about Croyde

St Andrews, 1 hour from Edinburgh

If you are looking for a game of beach volleyball on the East Coast of Scotland then you won't beat St Andrews for atmosphere, good quality sand and good opposition. Situated about an hour north of Edinburgh, and now home to two top UK beach volleyball players, Colin & Shelly Paterson. With another top UK player, Mel Coutts, living in Edinburgh, Scotland are developing beach volleyball with strong youth players coming through. There is a Scotish Volleyball Association Tour, for more information please contact Colin and Shelly Paterson.

beach@colinshelly.wanadoo.co.uk
Visit the Scottish Volleyball Association website with all beach information

Shelly Paterson hitting on St Andrews Beach

Boulton and Johns Make Main Draw!!

Following an early knock out in Acapulco, British Beach pair Lucy Boulton (ENG) and Denise Johns (ENG) are back on track in Phuket, Thailand at the SWATCH-FIVB Open World Series, the last FIVB Beach event this year.

Lucy and Denise were seeded 16th in the Qualification Round and were drawn to play against Russian pair Shmat-Stepanova, seeded 16th today 1st November.

The pair played strongly, taking the game 2-0 (21-14, 21-11) in a swift 33 minutes! This meant they went onto play one more game ahead of the Main Draw.

Drawn to play Chinese pair Zuo-Zhang, seeded 1st seeds meant the pressure was on for the British pair. Zuo-Zhang finished 4th in China and are a force to be reckoned with. But this did not put Lucy and Denise off beating China in two straight sets 2-0 (21-19, 22-20) and play strongly throughout the whole game.

The girls won the match with very aggressive serving and strong side-out showing how much the pair are developing each game they play, picking up confidence along the way. The pair attended GB training camps over the summer following on from UK Sport's announcement of funding for a GB programme.

“There’s a lot of stress being in the qualifier and knowing that you can’t lose a single match. Today, Lucy and I beat the Russians fairly well after a rocky start. Beating the Chinese was a huge win for us” said Denise Johns.

“Lucy played with her usual aggression and energetic attitude. It’s an amazing feeling making it into the main Draw. All our hard work has paid off and it validates us being here. I can’t wait to play tomorrow- the pressure is off!”

Some British press are over in Thailand and have interviewed the girls and will be running a feature pieces this week, so keep your eyes out!

NESTEA European Champs Tour Dates Released

Just when you thought the Beach Volleyball daydreams in November had all but finished, the 2007 NESTEA European Championship Tour dates have been released today, 2nd November by the CEV!

It’s the fifth year of the tour, which Morph Bowes and Jodi Gooding played on this summer, and there are currently at least six countries where tournaments will be held with a possibility of an additional one being added.

The tour will begin mid-May in St. Polten, Austria with the Austrian Masters at Lake Ratzerdorf. Hamburg will be the next stop for the German Masters followed by Moscow, where the tour will stop off in June. After the first half of the pre-Olympic season, the tour will continue with the Swiss leg in Lucerne in July and then onto the Dutch Masters in The Hague where the Championship Final was held earlier this year.

Valencia will be the destination for the final in 2007 and after the appearance of some Brits on the tour earlier this year, it is hoped the event will be one to remember for GB Beach players in 2007.