The forecast for Friday is good. Therefore there will be an outdoor junior training starting at 7PM. As usual it will be on The Rec on Anchor Road close to the Bowls Club.
The sun has gone down on outdoor volleyball
The last outdoor session of the summer was held on Friday night and indoor training begins on Friday 14 September (7PM for juniors and 8PM for adults). As the sun set, eight players enjoyed the last chance to play outside.
The new season starts here
It is September which means the new volleyball season is beginning. This season we are going to start things a little differently by running the first adult training session outdoors on the Rec at Anchor Road. The session will start promptly at 7PM because it will get dark. The first indoor training session will be on 14 September (at Calne Leisure Centre).
New players are welcome at any training session (and the first one is free if you are new to the club).
Matches get under way later in the month. The fixtures are due to be finalised and it looks like a busy start for the Meteorites with their first match at home on 23 September (which is before the pre-season tournament on 29 September, the team for which Marketa is organising). Comets have their first match on 7 October (away to Swindon Reds).
For the juniors the first grand-prix (now branded at JoVoTo) is on 29 September while regional training starts on 22 September (all the dates for both can be found on the SWVA calendar). The Wiltshire training starts on 9 September (this Sunday).
Fun in the sun at Salisbury
The baking hot summer continued for the Salisbury volleyball tournament at the start of August. We entered as Calne Voyager Ⅵ in the mixed category.
Having struggled to get a team of six together, we did not get off to the best start when Alex had to pull out on the eve of the tournament. However Cliff had met two boys who had come down to play the pairs and were looking for a team to join in the six-a-side; therefore Jake joined our team while his friend Casper played for Wiltshire Mavericks, although Mavericks wanted Jake to play for them on Sunday. The rest of our team was Anji, David, both Harriets and Neil.
There were nine teams in the Mixed 2 competition with each team playing all the other teams in 30 minute matches. We played six matches on Saturday. Although we only won the last of these, we had played well and came close to winning a few of the others. We did have a problem when Harriet Bentley hurt her ankle in the second match and had have treatment, although she did manage to return for the matches in the afternoon. The weather was very hot and sunny and we were glad to finish for the day.
On the Sunday we played the final two matches of the round-robin and discovered that we had come eighth of nine. That meant we were going to play PVC Storm and Cry Me A River for the remainder of the day. We started well and beat both teams but Harriet Adams was not feeling well and could not continue. We were very grateful to both the other teams for lending us players to enable us to play the matches. For the final match Nik Ball joined us and played very well.
The picture shows the Neil, Jay from PVC Storm, Lisa from PVC Storm, Harriet, David, Anji and Nik.
Serena Morten
Serena Morten passed away on 29 June at Great Western Hospital after a brief illness. This came as a shock to the entire club as Serena was much loved by everyone in the club. Our thoughts and prayers are with Richard and the rest of the family.
Funeral arrangements
Richard has sent the following message regarding Serena’s funeral.
“Firstly, thank you very much for your kind words of support. Serena’s funeral will be at Semmington Crematorium at 14:30 on Friday 20th July. All are invited, and we’d love to see you afterwards in the Town Hall, Calne (even if you can’t make the Crematorium). We’re going for colour rather than the traditional black and white. Family flowers only but small donations via uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SomeoneSpecial/SerenaMorten to the NSPCC and Diabetes UK would be much appreciated.”
Meteorites finish season at Wootton Bassett
The Meteorites ended their 2017-18 league campaign with a 25-12 25-17 25-23 defeat at Royal Wootton Bassett. Against a team comprised only of men (and as Richard pointed out their smallest player was almost as tall as our tallest player) it was always going to be a tough match. Things did not start well as Bassett raced into a 10-1 lead before we called a time-out. After that the Meteorites played to their strengths and produced a very good performance from which they can consider themselves unlucky to not win the third set. Harriet Adams was the MVP having produced some ferocious hitting in the second and third sets.
It means that Meteorites end the season bottom of division 1 but having produced some fantastic performances in the second half of the season.
Volleyball this weekend
The leisure centre has decided to close early this evening due to the snow and therefore both the junior and adult training sessions have been cancelled.
The Comets’ match at Salisbury on Sunday afternoon has been postponed. We have had a request from Salisbury to postpone the Meteorites’ match as well but we have suggested delaying a decision to see whether the weather improves. If the leisure centre is open on Sunday evening there will be an adult training session starting at 7PM even if the match is postponed.
Success for youngest juniors in first season
After their first season of competitive volleyball our U12 team finished as overall winners of the SWVA mini-volleyball grand-prix after winning the final round at LeAF.
Season 2017-18 begins
It is almost the start of the 2017-18 season. Training will begin again on Friday 1 September at the leisure centre (juniors from 7PM and adults from 8PM). Fixtures for the season have now been published but the Wiltshire pre-season tournament will be on Saturday 16 September at the Christie Miller Sports Centre in Melksham.
Outdoor volleyball on Friday
The forecast is reasonable so I will set up the net at the Recreation Ground on Friday evening. I will run a junior session from 18:45 to 19:30 and then there will be a game open to everyone.
As usual we would appreciate a £1 donation.