Current News / Press Release

Exmouth Beach League Winners

Exmouth Beach Pairs Open

It was another fantastic day at the beach on Sunday for the 2010 Exmouth Beach Pairs Open Tournament. Teams came from all around the South West with a few teams coming from as far away as London. But it was local talent at the end of the day that took the final positions and with it the 2010 Exmouth title in both the ladies and the men’s events.

Exmouth Beach Volleyball Club pairings of, Silvia Angelini & Gosia Krzyszkowska and Ali West & Nikki Batho both made it through to this years ladies final, with Angelini & Krzykowska taking the match 2-0. 

Silvia Angelini & Gosia Krzyszkowska

Joe Willis &Danny Lewis

Danny Lewis & Joe Willis from Ottery St Mary had an epic match against last years runners up, Lewis and Stout from Wales in the men's final. After taking the first set, the match looked like it was going to a third and final set but a late charge by Lewis & Willis in the second set got them through to a 2-0 score line and the 2010 Men’s title.

They finished fourth in last years championships, beaten in the semi-finals by the eventual winners, this year they were more prepared and paced themselves during the day which eventually paid off bringing them the championship title. 

Thank you to all who played at the pairs tournament; we had a great day of sunshine and volleyball, a selection of photos from the weekend can be seen on line here. Full results will be posted up soon. 

Looking for a New Coach

To all coaches out there... Devon Women Volleyball Club have steadily progressed through the National League divisions over the last few seasons, and with the retirement of our coach of 5 years, we require a new coach who would like to accompany us as we step into National League Division 1.  We are really looking forward to next season and if you think we are the right club for you, please contact us for more information on sarahsalt74@aol.com Sarah Salt sarahsalt74@aol.com

Exmouth Beach 4's

Over forty teams took part in this year's Exmouth Beach 4's tournament last weekend. Teams came from all around the area but it was success for local teams in both the Ladies' and Men's events. Fat Bottomed Girls took the top honors in the ladies' event, while Coolen's Gang took the Men's prize. Full results are now available and a selection of photos at: Exmouth Beach 4s 2010

Devon Schools The Devon Schools Beach Championships took place on Exmouth Beach on the 30th June.  The event was well attended with plenty of schools taking part from across the county. A selection of photos are available at: Devon Schools Photos 2010.

Exeter Coaver 6's

This year Coaver Open 6's title went to City Chiefs, who beat Speedwell from Bristol in the event final.  Event photos at: Coaver 2010 Photos

Exeter Coaver Fun 4's

Exeter Coaver Juniors

This year’s Exeter Coaver Let's Play Volleyball Junior competition took place on Sunday the 13th June, a glorious sunny day. Teams came from around the local area but the final positions were dominated by Kings School Ottery St Mary and Taunton Juniors. The younger age groups played timed matches in mixed age group pools, with the top teams playing off in their respective finals. The U15's played best of three set matches on centre court.

2010 Exeter Coaver Winners

More photos on line at: Coaver LPV Juniors

It's always Sunny at the Beach

This week it may have been raining, wet and miserable all day in Exeter but in sunny Exmouth, not a drop of rain all day so it was Beach Volleyball as usual. We are currently on the look out for a few more Beach 4's teams, so if you fancy getting a team from work or your indoor club, then please let Ali know or just turn up. More details via the beach league button above.

New U10's Volleyball Net

We have replaced our under 10's volleyball net with a second hand Park & Sun recreational net. It's nine meters long and can be adjusted to various heights from 1.95m upwards. It has light plastic telescopic posts, which allows the whole set up to fit into a 1m net bag, comes with junior 5 x 10m court lines plus a grass and beach mounting kit.

The previous volleyball net for the under 10's got plenty of use at various park training sessions during the summer and indoors during the winter (cabled tied to a set of badminton post). One thing we have learnt from these sessions, kids are more inspired when the net looks like and feels like a real adult volleyball net (not a badminton net), hopefully the new orange and black net will help to get more kids involved in the game. The U10 court will be at this years Coaver tournament and the at the Beach 4's & Pairs events as the drop in kids U10 court. If you wish to borrow the net, please contact Dave.Reece@network 100.co.uk

Exmouth Beach League

The 2010 Beach season kicked off this week with the traditional shake down session on the first week.  Various teams went through the process of finding their sand legs and generally familiarizing themselves with playing out doors again. It was also good to see a number of new faces this year, the beach league, pairs and recreational four will start next week. If you would like to enter a team, please see the Beach web site for details.

Exeter Ladies Challenge 2010

Teams came from as far away as Birmingham to take part in this years end of season Exeter Ladies challenge, in the end the event was won by Plymouth, beating South Birmingham by one point in the final. EDVA teams, Torexe Aces picked up fifth place, with Torexe Top Cats in 6th, the combined team from other EDVA teams, the All Stars finishing in ninth. 

Space Hoppers from Totnes made a return to the volleyball court after a couple of years out and picked up tenth place, you can see more photos from this years challenge at: Exeter-Challenge-2010

Celebrating 25 Years of Volleyball in Exeter

An excellent turn out from local clubs last night, to help celebrate 25 years of volleyball in Exeter with the Torexe barn dance at the Coaver club.120 players, past and present all joined in the fun to make this an excellent and memorable evening. You can check out a few photos on line at: Volleybash 25 To try and document the last 25 years of Torexe, we have put together two online photo albums: Volume One / Volume Two

Coaver Tournament 2010

Entry Forms are now out for this year Coaver tournament weekend on the 12 & 13th June, fun 4's, the senior 6's and the Let's Play Junior Volleyball Tournament. More details and Entry Forms available on the Coaver web site at: http://www.coavervolleyball.org.uk

Exeter Men's Challenge 2010

This years end of season Exeter Men's challenge event was won by Cardiff Wildcats, beating the SW U17 boys squad by one point in the final. EDVA champions Torexe Buzzards finished third and the combined team of Torexe Hawks & Torexe Eagles picked up seventh place. EDVA associate members Kernow and Filton picked up fifth and tenth place respectively, more photos from the event at: Exeter-Challenge-2010

Exmouth Beach News Spring is upon us and it's only a month until the beach season starts!  For a quick run down of what's happening in the forthcoming season, check out the April edition of the Exmouth Beach News

The Deciding Match for Devon Women

(# Ops - Not quite correct, have amended item 31st Mar) It's time to get the calculators out, Devon Women are currently heading Division Two of the National Volleyball League. However Portsmouth are in second place with a game in hand and a slightly better sets difference. # The winner of the league will play off against the current 8th place team in Div 1 (currently Leeds) for a place in the new elite Premier league next season and it looks like it's all going to come down to the very last match of the season, Devon v Portsmouth on 11th April at Ashburton. A 3-0 win may be just enough but a few sets dropped by Portsmouth in their match against Guildford this weekend would be most help full.

Devon are the only team to have beaten Portsmouth this season but history could repeat it's self, Devon lost out on promotion a few years ago by just one set.

2008-09 Team Photos

Beach Volleyball Entry Forms

Only five and a bit weeks to go before the start of the Exmouth Beach League season!!!

Entry forms are now available for this years Exmouth Beach Volleyball league, beach pairs and recreational four's, all forms available via the above "Beach League" tab or at www.ExmouthBeachVolleyball.com. This will be the third years for the weekly Tuesday night league, this year we have had to put up the fees to £10 per player per league (that's about 25p per match!!!). All  members will also have access to the drop in/warm up nets and the free coaching (TBA), the league program will also enable players to play in both the Pairs and Fours.  We are also looking to run a couple of evening events this year, e.g. a Mixed Pairs tournament, more details to follow...

If you would like to get involved, the beach sub-committee is available for anyone to join, we also still have a few Event Crew positions available for the junior tournament and the Open Pairs tournament (paid positions or all expenses paid etc), the next meeting will be on the 13th April, please contact Ali West for more info.

Keep an eye on the web site or our Facebook site for pre season match sessions (weather permitting)...

Championship Play-Off

Sunday 28th March sees the EDVA Play Off finals at Riverside with Torexe Buzzards playing in the Div One match - come along and support the event. This is everyone's chance to see the top two teams in each division in action against each other, hopefully producing some good matches.

In order to help this event run smoothly we are also looking for a second ref, scorer and at least two line judges for each match, as we would like these to be as independent as possible, if you wish to volunteer, please contact Ian Sidwell at ian@sidwells.eclipse.co.uk

Order of Play: 

Match 1: Warm Up Start Time 13:00, Game Start 13:30 Division One Play Off - Torexe Buzzards v Taunton Thunder

Match 2: Division Two Play Off - Exeter College v Wanderers Vikings. 

Players to be available to start warming up at 15:00 for a match start time of 15:30 (assuming previous match has finished, or to follow as soon as possible after the first match, if it finishes later than 15:00).

Match Format: The matches will be the best of 5 sets (first team to 3 sets wins)

Rachel Swindell

2010 Division Title Play-Off

Although there are still a number of matches to be played in the conference league, the top two teams in the Division One and Division Two Title race are now known. They will face each other in a deciding match in the EDVA Play-Off at the Riverside LC in Exeter on the 28th March.

In Division One, Torexe Buzzards had looked favorites for a play-off place since day one but they have lost their last two matches against Exeter University and Torexe Eagles. It was not clear who would take the other play-off place but Taunton Thunder have had a good run during the second half of the season and have claimed the place, just ahead of the Eagles and the University.

Division One Play-Off teams, Torexe Buzzards and Taunton Thunder.

Torexe Buzzards

Taunton Thunder

Division Two Play-Off teams, Exeter College and Wanderers Vikings.

A number of teams could have claimed the second play-off place, the all girls team of Torexe Falcons were favorites at one stage, along with Taunton Meerkats, Kings Juniors who have steadily improved during the year looked like they would claim it but Wanderers Vikings have come though in the final weeks to claim the remaining play-off position with an excellent run and only three loses all season. 

On paper both of these matches are shaping up to be the highlight of the year, the normally reliable Buzzards are currently on a two match losing streak but division two looks like the match to watch. The teams last met on the 25th Feb at Exeter College, where they ran out of time when the score was 3-1, with two of the sets going to 25-20.

Exeter College

Wanderer Vikings

Our First Match Report

Express & Echo 1988 October:  The first season of the Exeter and District Volleyball League got off to an exciting start when Ottery St Mary met the Royal Marines. Ottery began brightly by taking the first eight points in the opening set but then the Marines made a canny substitution. Their big guns fought back to take that set and the next two to win 3-0. In the other first division match Teignmouth narrowly defeated Cuba Z 2-1.

Thanks to Nick Maye, we have uncovered more press cuttings from the past, including what appears to be our first ever match report . Other items include a Women's Referees course, Wonford's first club awards, The Transplant Games, our first coaching course etc: EDVA Press Reports

# The Royal Marines only played one season in the EDVA, a security clamp down meant they could not enter the 1989/90 season.

An Excellent Weekend for Kings Juniors

Congratulations to Kings Juniors who finished 5th in this years U16 National Championships on Saturday. The last eight championships took place at the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering, where the team played against teams from across the country. The top two (Wessex & Boswells) will play for the U16 title at the National Cup Finals on Sunday 25th April at Crystal Palace. On Sunday the team took on unbeaten Exeter College in division two of the EDVA at Ottery and pulled of an excellent 3-2 win against the league leaders. The win moves the team up into equal second place, level on points with the College and just one point behind the new league leaders Taunton Meerkats.

Ben Bendle, Ben Dawe, Jonny Youngman, Mitch Abbott, Tim Hughes, Glenn Chandler and Josh Meek. Missing, Tom Bennett.

Celebrating 25 Years of Volleyball

Volleybash 25 - Mosie on down to the Torexe Barn Dance, round up your partners past and present and rope in a few of them opposition folks too! Dig, Set and Dosey Doe with Jigs 4 Gigs, Buffet and Barn Dance, Friday 23rd April 2010, 7pm till late, Coaver Social Club. Come and celebrate 25 years of volleyball with the Torexe Volleyball Club, tickets are now available for all volleyballers, there is a limited supply of tickets, so get in early!!  Tickets available from Rachel Rachel.Swindell@network100.co.uk

Volleyball as we know it

Up until the mid 80's, there were no public sport halls in Exeter or East Devon and hence no local indoor volleyball. In 1984, the Clifton Hill SC opened and a number of Coaver teams got together and took a weekly four hour Friday night booking. Initially they just played matches but soon formed themselves into the "Clifton Hill" VC, the name was changed in 1987 to the Exeter VC and combined with Torbay VC to form the "Exeter & Torbay" VC, but it's known to everyone as "Torexe". Over 2,000 people (or 2% of the population of Exeter) have played or trained with Torexe during this period.

Do you have any old team photos? We have put together a collection of photos (players etc from the first 25 years of Torexe). We are now working on volume 2, so if you have a team or action photo, indoors or out, then we would like to add it to the collection. Please forward to Dave.Reece@Network100.co.uk  To see volume One, please click: Volume One Torexe-25-Years

Men's Development Event

A total of five teams took part in the EDVA's first men's development event at the Riverside LC, an action pack day that gave each team over three and half hours of court time.

An enjoyable day for everyone, in the end, it was Vikings who pick up the most points to take the event title. 

Kings Volleyball Tournament

Years 6 - 10  (Under 11 - Under 15) 3 v 3 Games SUNDAY 21ST MARCH  COLIN TOOZE SPORTS CENTRE, Ottery St Mary  12.00 noon - 4.00pm £10 PER TEAM

This is a recreational level tournament for young people. Teams are of 3 players but rolling substitution is allowed.  The tournament is part of the South West Volleyball Association Grand Prix Series. To enter go to the www.SWVA.org website and click on Calendar. Then click on the Kings competition 21st March.  The players will be expected to help with the refereeing and scoring for the event. Please bring a whistle with you. If you are unable to enter online or have any enquiries please contact Ros Sutherland on 01395 514618

Exmouth Beach VC v BBC Escape to the Country

Exmouth Beach VC, Clare Babbage, Ali West & Silvia Angelini were featured in last weeks BBC's "Escape to the Country" program. The program looks at various properties within a geographic area, the program also adds a number of local attractions to each program and chose Beach Volleyball for their South Devon program.. 

 

Clare Babbage, Ali West & Silvia Angelini

Escape to the Country - Series 10 (South Devon)

The two and a half minute segment took part on one of the four permanent beach courts and featured a short 3-A-Side knock about and an interview with EBVC Beach Director Ali West.

The program is available via the BBC iplayer (Direct Link: http://bbc.co.uk/i/qbwt4/) and the beach volleyball item starts at 18 minutes into the program.

EDVA Men's and Ladies Development Tournaments

The first EDVA Men's Development Tournament will be taking place in Exeter on Saturday 13th February (Riverside LC). In addition to this tournament, a Ladies tournament has also been arranged for Saturday 13th March. Teams will play a number of one set matches (within a half hour time frame), each event is limited to 8 teams. Entries are now being accepted for both of these tournaments. To enter, please send the following information to Steve at: swm204@exeter.ac.uk Which tournament you are entering: (Men's, Ladies ), team name, club name, contact name, phone number, email address, playing standard (EDVA Div 2, intermediate, beginner) and whether it is primarily a junior or adult team. Closing date for entries is Wednesday 3rd February (Men's) and Saturday 27th February (Ladies).

Action from the 2009 Ladies Development event

The EDVA committee position of Officials Secretary has now been filled, Ian Sidwell has volunteered for the role and one of his first jobs is to revamp the Referees Support section of the EDVA website. This has now been completed and hopefully this will make it easier to read and find what you are looking for, like a one-stop place for all things EDVA refereeing. 

Referee specific documents are now held there, but the old links (via the Documents menu) remain to prevent confusion. Content has not altered that much, but the Volleyball England's Code of Conduct has been added and a link to their referee pages on their website. 

Also added are the generic rotation slip templates, as well as a downloadable pdf sheets of the referee's logbook.  This committee position has not been filled for a few years and hence the committee is working on a new job description for the post, hopefully we can also get many of the new referee's refereeing, and to improve standards, not only within the EDVA, but further a field. Any suggestions for the website or about refereeing in the EDVA, please contact Ian at refsupport@volleyballtaunton.org.uk

The EDVA Committee post of Press & PR is still available to anyone who would like to give it a go, there is no fixed job description for this post but the EDVA and others run quite a few leagues and events each year, they all need to be promoted to the Volleyball community and to the wider world. The EDVA is also responsible for keeping up to date two web sites #, with news and events. If you are interested or would like to give this ago then please contact Dave Reece for more details.

[# You will not be responsible for the administration of the web sites, this is done by others but all Officers are responsible for adding their own content to the web sites (lessons and software available if required)].

Beach Volleyball 2010

We have an exciting 2010 beach program lined up for everyone this summer and hence we would like to get as many people involved as possible. We are looking to form the 2010 beach sub-committee shortly, so if you would like to be part of the setup, then please email the EDVA Beach Director Ali West as soon as possible.  The first meeting will be at the end of January.

Exeter Challenge Entry Forms

Advanced entry forms for the end of season Exeter Challenge Tournaments (Men & Ladies) are now available, EDVA teams have until the end of January 2010 to reserve a place. After January all entries are accepted on a first come bases with everyone else, both events were sold out last year. 

Exeter Men's Challenge	Exeter Ladies Challenge
Date: Sunday 18th April 2010 / Exeter Riverside LC Web Site: www.ExeterChallenge.com	Date: Sunday 26th April 2010 / Exeter Riverside LC Web Site: www.ExeterLadiesChallenge.com

Eagles end Taunton's 100% Record

Division One team, Kings Otters took on leaders Torexe Buzzards this weekend, although an out right win may not have been on the cards, the team did come close to picking up a bonus point in set three but in the end it was a 5-0 win for the visitors. Ann Davis (No. 3) picked up the player of the match for Kings. There was better news for Kings Juniors in Division two, they came away from the Riverside LC with a 5-0 win over Torexe Condors, the win plus bonus points takes their tally to 31 points and into equal top spot in the division.

Kings Otters

League Update

As we approach the Christmas break, Torexe Buzzards and Taunton Thunder are neck and neck at the top of division one, with Exeter Uni & Kirton Revolution close behind.

 

Torexe Buzzards

Taunton Thunder

Kirton Revolution

In division two, Torexe Kestrels are just a head of the all girls team of Torexe Falcons but the team to watch out for is Exeter College, after a late start, they are unbeaten and closing in on the leaders.

Torexe Kestrels

Torexe Falcons

Exeter College

A Snap Shot in Time

Like everything else, the sport of volleyball in Exeter changes and evolves over time. Back in the late 80's and 90's their was no internet, press reports in the local newspapers were the only means of publicity, volleyball reports often appeared twice a week in the Exeter Express and Echo, as well as the EDVA, all the major clubs had their own press officers, Torexe, Wonford, Teignmouth & Exeter University etc. This gave the sport good exposure, looking back, it has also record some of our history and shows how the sport has changed in our area.

I have put a selection of press releases on line, as well as side out scoring and best of three sets to 15 points, you will also see that teams and leagues were often sponsored #, that the EDVA has also covered quite a wide area at times, as well teams from Teignmouth, Totnes, Cullompton, Tiverton, Honiton, we have also had teams from Minehead, Barnstable and Burnham involved.

We also played in more leagues (Devon had three local leagues at one point), Torexe, Teignmouth and Wonford all had teams in the Plymouth mixed and ladies divisions as well as the EDVA. Torexe, Teignmouth and Exeter University also competed in the Southwest Men's and Ladies leagues and Torexe had teams in both the men's and ladies National Leagues. 

We started in 1988 with 14 teams, in 2002 we had 27 teams in the EDVA (the maximum number of teams I can find), which included a six team ladies division. Among others things, I have also included press reports about the: The first Exmouth Beach Tournament Funds received for the EDVA volleyball centre at Exeter School The start of the National League Ladies team Start of the Exmouth Beach league National Honors etc Press reports were written by many people, myself, Martin Oram, Jerry Fardon, Nigel Weaver, Rick Partridge, Andy Pym, Rachel Swindell and many more. Past EDVA Press Reports  [To view / read, select the report and then click on the image when it's highlighted and chose size (Medium / Large / Extra Large) depending on you screen size]. # According to the 1994 club SW survey report, 37% of clubs were sponsored. 12% received between £500 - £1000 / 76% between £100 - £500 / 12% less than £100

Ref's Course

Retired International Referee, Dan Dingle made a welcome return to the UK this weekend, flying in from Jersey to host the Exeter & District VA referees course. Providing courses as part of your on going development is an expensive part of running any association but with a large practical element and plenty of amusing stories from past matches, Dan's courses are extremely popular. Hence it was a full course, students came from throughout the EDVA area and the feedback has been excellent.  Hopefully we will seen a new batch of referees at our matches, teams select their referees from the EDVA referees list, to have your name added to the list, please email Rachel.Swindell@Network100.co.uk with your details.

Volleyball In Germany

Corinne Jeffries is one of our exciting young players who just can't get enough of the sport. She started with us as a junior and has worked her way up through the ranks, last year she was playing National league for Devon Women, South West with Torexe and Beach with Exmouth BVC. This year, Corinne has moved to Hamburg, so I asked her how she was getting on....

Well, where to start! Yes it really is a whole new world here in terms of volleyball, and there are a lot more levels to play at. In Hamburg there are two teams both playing in the division two Bundesliga which is divided into north and south Germany. In terms of playing standards it's more div 1 if compared to the English league. 

However even in the division two, the players are paid to play, and all the clubs' finance is from sponsors. So the idea of paying to play for a team is a very foreign one! I'm training with a club called VT Aurubis Hamburg ( http://www.na.hamburg-volleyball.de ), and the club has a team in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga.

The 1st team are all professionals, so they train twice a day. I'm training with the 2nd team, where the age range is from 16 to about 28. We train every evening for 2 to 2.5 hours a night. strength and fitness training is built into that time. The team has a first and second coach, plus a physio, which is really great, and also means that the players are given more one to one attention.  There are between 10 and 12 of us in the team, so team spirit plays an important role in the club. I only joined in mid-September, and they had all been training since early-august, so I'm a bit behind. Training is always very intense and focused, often spending over an hour practicing one drill, such as free balls, defense and serve receive. Friday's training is more game orientated, in preparation for the weekends match and to put into practice the training during the week.

VT Aurubis Hamburg - Division Two Bundesliga

I haven't registered to play competitively because I can't commit 100%, I am working as a full-time au pair here in the city. Up until now this has worked really well, I have most evenings free, which means I can get to 3 or 4 training sessions a week, but I do have to make work a priority. I'm living and eating with the family, so financing myself isn't a problem, which is great, and takes a lot of stress away as I don't have to worry about bills/rent...

As well as the indoor volleyball, I've recently got a membership at a huge indoor beach centre ( www.beachkurs.de ) just up the road from where I live. With 10 indoor courts and 8 outdoor courts, this centre caters for beginners all the way through to the top German beach pros. It is a really amazing venue, and so I'm playing there around twice a week, depending on work commitments.

This means that I have access to beach coaching throughout the winter months, which is so great, because as a player I'm still undecided which route I want to take. At the moment, with the beach opportunities that I have available, I'm leaning towards focusing on beach, but I feel I'm still in need of a lot of technical improvement!

As for costs, I have a two month pass (40 Euros) which allows me to play 4pm-6pm week days and Sundays from 3pm for free. Training sessions are 11 to 14 Euros, depending on numbers.

Best wishes,
Corinne Jeffries corinnemjt@hotmail.co.uk

Press Releases Page 2