VOLLEYBALL 

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The following Newsletter has been forwarded to you, from the Volleyball Newsletter  E-Mail list. The UK's leading on line Volleyball News service, providing up to date volleyball information, direct to newsletter members throughout the UK and Ireland. Articles are collected from a variety of sources and credited appropriately. The Volleyball Newsletter uses advertising sponsorship to support our free and non-profit making service to newsletter members. To advertise your volleyball events or products, direct to players, club and league secretaries throughout the UK & Ireland, then please see our web site for details or contact Dave at  Dave.Reece@volleyballnewsletter.com with the word "Volleyball" in your subject line.

Hi all, 

More news from the Volleyball Newsletter - as mentioned on Eurosport (thanks Simon), see below for a Q & A session with British Eurosport's, Sports Editor, Richard Copeman.

Cheers - Dave Reece Dave.Reece@volleyballnewsletter.com

Hello there, any chance you would have some contact numbers, details or addresses for women's volleyball clubs in Birmingham as I keep running into brick walls trying to find one!
Yours Hopefully,
Lennie Davies Lennielenz@aol.com

Hiya, my name is Charli and I used to play volleyball years ago and would like to find a team in the Newcastle area who play for fun. I'm 32 and very out of practise. Any info would be great. Thanks.... charlikennedy@hotmail.com

Charlene Kennedy charlikennedy@hotmail.com

I understand that there is a new club starting in Epsom, I live in the area and would be very interested to join. 

Thanks Emmanuelle Arbouch manoua@btopenworld.com

Hi, I am very happy to supply information, Peace Sporting Club is a division one volleyball club in Ghana. It also have from under 14 to 23 year olds. For under 23 year olds, I have four players selected to participate in the National team for this coming all African games in Nigeria later this year. My club is a registered company and its being supported by two recognise company in Ghana, Peace FM radio station 104.3 and Batsa Debra charted institute of Accountants, so we are a recognise team under the Ghana National sports council. 

For the accommodation we have a whole lot of hotels to take good care of you, and for your security we can arrange with Ghana Police for good care. So we are prepared for teams to come to our country Ghana. I will look forward to here from you, thank you. 

Mansah Dorglo mdorglo@yahoo.com

I’m contacting you, to see if you know of any Volleyball specific league and results software available anywhere? We are trying to drag our sad website into the 15th century (well the 14th at least) and we where hoping to have all fixtures / results and league tables online.

Any comments would be much appreciated

Cheers Jon Marley jon.marley@gov.gg

I'm not sure if this the right approach but we (Winchester Eagles Volleyball Club) are starting up training indoors after a summer of outdoor ball beating and various tournaments. We are after any players who live in or around the Winchester area who play volleyball to bolster our ranks. Usually we get a steady supply of foreign Students from abroad which makes for a great social scene as well. 

Could you please enter a small plea on your web site as we would be most grateful. Any requirements you need or I have missed please let me know.

Kind Regards Neil Marsh neil.marsh@bbrail.com

I was wondering whether there are any volleyball coaching courses taking place in the North East of England and If so when and where they are.

Look forward to hearing from you Anna O'Shaughnessy aoshaughnessy@longfield.darlington.sch.uk

Hi Dave, Could you please let everyone know in the next newsletter that I will be running a Grade 4 (Level 1) refereeing course in Cardiff on the 25th and 26th October 2003. The two day course will cost £25 per person and spaces are filling up fast. It will be on a first come first served basis so if anyone is interested, please can they contact me on ysaker@uwic.ac.uk for more information

Thank you
Yvonne YSaker@uwic.ac.uk

The SW is running a level 2 coaching course at Bath University on 10th/11th January and 31st January.

If you or anyone you know is interested please contact Jon McGugan, email jon@mcgugan.co.uk

Final costs have not yet been decided but will hopefully be less than £75 (including the EVA fee).

Jon McGugan jon@mcgugan.co.uk

Could you please advertise our forthcoming Volleyball Courses. 

Volleyball Level 1 Coach Award - Sundays 12 & 19 October 2003 9.00 - 6.00pm Tutor: Andy Craig

Volleyball Level 2 Coach Award - Sunday 1 Feb, Saturday 7 Feb and Sunday 8 Feb 2004 - 9.00 - 6.00pm - Tutor Andy Craig. 

Both will be held at MMU Cheshire, Alsager Campus, Hassall Road Alsager.

More info from:
Veronica Parkinson V.Parkinson@mmu.ac.uk

PHOTOS OF INTEREST

Poland upset Brazil to clinch title The ruling order of world Volleyball was shaken up as underdogs Poland pulled off the surprise of the Men's Under 21 World Championship in Tehran after they won the final over title holders Brazil in five magnificent sets. Poland, who lost to Brazil in their preliminary Pool match 3-0, sealed the victory 25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 22-25, 15-11 to win the cup for only the second time in their history.

Brazil were looking to add the Men's U21 title to their senior team's triumphs in the World League and last year's World Championship and their Boy's U19 win in Thailand in July. But Michal Ruciak and Michal Winiarski again proved to be influential figures for Poland as they upset all the Brazilian tactics with solid defense against the Brazilian attack.  Brazil made many uncharacteristic errors, especially the normally reliable Eder Carbonera and Wallace, to allow the Poles into the match as Poland took the first, third and fifth sets. Mariusz Wlazly also played a fantastic match against the tall Brazilian lineup, who struggled for cohesion right throughout the match.

In the other matches played on Sunday, Bulgaria finished third after they beat South Korea in straight sets (25-19, 25-16, 25-21). Bulgaria’s big star and one of the competition’s best Matey Kaziyski, led his team efficiently with perfect spikes and a solid block, along with teammate Danail Milushev, to Bulgaria’s best result since they won the title in 1991. Russia, with the tall timber of Denis Kalanine and Pavel Kruglov to the fore, took fifth spot after pulling off a straight sets victory over Iran (25-20, 25-19, 25-19) in just under an hour, as the hosts looked unprepared for the morning match.

And courtesy of the excellent play of Vladan Djordjevic and Ivica Jevtic, Serbia and Montenegro finished seventh after recording a straight sets victory over Germany (25-16, 15-22, 25-22), who were missing their best player Jochen Schops due to stomach problems.

Final Standing 
1 POLAND / 2 BRAZIL / 3 BULGARIA / 4 KOREA / 5 RUSSIA / 6 IRAN / 7 SERBIA & MONTENEGRO / 8 GERMANY / 9 CANADA / EGYPT / INDIA / SLOVAKIA / 13 ITALY / CHINA / TUNISIA / VENEZUELA 

A total of 36 matches / TV listings for September, please see our Reports Page for Simon's TV and Match guide. 

British Eurosport TV Coverage

It was the European final, a close five set match, 42-40 in the second set, 27-29 in the fourth, volleyball at it's best:

"To be totally honest, even I (as someone who insisted that we stay with the volleyball) was absolutely shocked at the desperately low ratings it received. And I mean really low". 

A bit of a tabloid news headline from Richard Copeman, Sports Editor of British Eurosport TV. An unbelievable match between France and Italy, unfortunately no one appeared to be watching, that is the result of the viewing figures for coverage of the European Championships from the UK. Personally I have been glued to it, the best championships I've seen to date, with excellent matches in both the men's and now the women's event. However I have been having a few problems with this year's TV coverage and wrote to Richard Copeman, with a number of questions about the scheduling and choice of language broadcast.

As well as the technical problems, that now appear to have been corrected, volleyball as a televised sport may well be removed completely from British TV.  You can see our full Q & A session with Richard Copeman on our Reports pages but here are a few highlights (and just in case you are wondering, Richard is a volleyball fan):

Q. For the live Germany v Poland match (6/9/03 I believe), this match was listed in the SKY TV Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for British Eurosport (which I set my video recorder up for) but it was replaced by Tennis. However you showed the match live on International Eurosport but without any English commentary (German was transmitted over the English audio channel).

A. We have an ongoing dialogue regarding the EPG of British Eurosport - details for which are outsourced to an external company. The schedules had actually been set in very good time. This is a very frustrating problem, which the people here are looking at. I don't doubt your frustration - and totally understand it. Regarding you seeing Eurosport International with German comms, I'm not sure how you managed this - unless you saw the new German Eurosport which, like us, is a separate channel. Otherwise, you should have heard Simon's dulcit tones...

Q. Sundays final was once again listed on British Eurosport and this time it was shown, an excellent match that was also extended into the next program when it over ran. With the match now being shown to a greater UK audience, I for one received a number of e-mails afterward, all with the same general message "this Euro Champs is fantastic".

A. This was a big decision for us to make and one which I'm glad you enjoyed the benefits of - unfortunately, not many did.... To be totally honest, even I (as someone who insisted that we stay with the volleyball) was absolutely shocked at the desperately low ratings it received. And I mean really low. As soon as the Italian football came on the ratings shot up to a very healthy figure. Unfortunately, this type of evidence does not serve volleyball's future interests well when and if a similar situation occurs, although we will always try and stay with a final of any competition in any sport.

Q. Likewise, during the previous Germany v Poland match, Eurosport (International) were quite happy to interrupt its coverage of the closing stages of the US open tennis to show the volleyball match but British Eurosport did not. Nor did I see or hear any on-screen information to say that we are staying with the tennis and that the volleyball match (as advertised) will now only be shown on the International Eurosport channel.

A. The coverage of the US Open on British Eurosport and Eurosport International was completely separate due to the complexities of our UK rights deal with Sky. Therefore what EI did and what BE did were never likely to be linked. At no point did we show the same live tennis, despite both being at the same event. We didn't even show the same live courts.

Q. You also have a second UK TV channel, British Eurosport News that I for one do not watch. Has Eurosport considered showing volleyball matches on its News channel, after all it would enable you to show all the above-mentioned sport events live. 

A. We do this already and have received reasonable figures for motorsports. You'll understand that, to make it worthwhile, the sport in question would need to be able to rate as well, or nearly as well, as the news channel. Recent volleyball figures suggest, strongly, that this would not be the case.

Have your Say

We all realise that TV schedules are based on audience figures and advertising etc but feed back to the channel, its producers and e-mails during the program to it's commentators, are also important and could also be a deciding factor in what to broadcast next. If you have been watching and enjoying the European championship (even via a video recorder from that 1am showing), then please let Eurosport know at studio@eurosport.co.uk and don't forget you can also forward your on air questions to Simon Golding at volleycomms@hotmail.com, he is waiting for them and they all count at the end of the day [up until last last weekend, not one single person from the UK had contacted him!!!]

You can see our full four page Question and Answers session with Richard Copeman (Sports Editor, British Eurosport TV) on our web site Reports Pages

Dave Reece 
Dave.Reece@volleyballnewsletter.com

European event breaks records

With more than 300 hours of television coverage, the 2003 Men’s European Championships also broke a record. Eurosport Europe, Eurosport Germany and Eurosport France broadcasted most of the matches, while national television channels from Italy, Serbia & Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland and Bulgaria also showed many matches live. A record number of 365 media representatives from 17 different countries were accredited during the Men’s European Championships. 

Men’s Senior European Championships 2003  Four years after winning the European Title the first time, Italy took the European Championship again here in Berlin, Germany on Sunday. The three times World Champion defeated France in an extremely spectacular final (3-2), watched by almost 9,000 spectators. Russia claimed the bronze medal after defeating defending champion Serbia & Montenegro 3-1.  Italy was not the real favorite for the European Title this year. The Squadra Azzura, who was the best volleyball squad of the world in the ‘90s, didn’t win a major event since the 1999 European Championship.

With the new coach Gian Paolo Montali, Italy played a great tournament here in Germany and was the right champion. In the seven matches played, Italy didn’t lose one and only lost four sets in the entire tournament. 

The final was one of the exiting matches played in the history of European volleyball. Italy took the first set and was leading by five points in the middle of the second one. This was the moment for France to start fighting. ‘Les Bleus’ surprised during the event where the best 12 teams of the world’s strongest volleyball continent met by great defense and a perfect fighting spirit. France leveled the match by winning the second set 42-40, a record for European Championships volleyball. 

After Italy won the third set, the 2001 silver medallist had a match point at 24-23 in the fourth set. After a long and exciting rally, France saved the match point and even won the set. In the fifth set, Italy took immediately a big lead. Two aces of Luigi Mastrangelo, the best blocker of the tournament, put Italy in the driving seat. Italy won the championship on the third match point and took over the title from Olympic Champion Serbia & Montenegro. 

Andrea Sartoretti was the best scorer with 27 points. He was also awarded as the best server of the tournament and it was also no surprise that the left handed opposite attacker received the MVP-award. Samuele Papi, best receiver of the tournament, made 24 points, while Mastrangelo scored 21 points. On the French side, Laurent Capet and Franz Granvorka both made 19 points. 

‘I am so happy with this title,’ Italian captain Andrea Giani said. ‘It is the fourth time that I won the European Championship in my career. I am afraid that I will not make it to the next European Championship, that’s why it is so great to win the title again.’ 

Russia claimed the bronze medal after defeating defending champion and Olympic gold medallist Serbia & Montenegro 3-1. Both teams were disappointed not playing the final, because they not only lost an opportunity to get qualified for the World Cup, the first Olympic Qualification tournament to be held in Japan in November. 

‘The victory is at least a small relief for our fans, but we are not satisfied,’ Russian coach Guennadi Chipouline said. ‘We wanted more than the bronze medal.’ 

Poland took the fifth place after blowing Netherlands off the court (3-0). Host Germany finished seventh after defeating Spain 3-1. 

The Men’s European Championship has been a great success. Lots of volleyball fans were present in the German cities of Karlsruhe, Leipzig and Berlin during the last ten days. Almost 140,000 fans passed the entry gates. ‘I would like to thank the German Volleyball Federation for organizing this event in a perfect way,’ CEV President Andre Meyer stated. ‘For the first time, there was more than 300 hours of television coverage, thanks also to the excellent co-operation with our partner Eurosport. I have been in Karlsruhe, Leipzig and Berlin and saw great matches watched by a lot of spectators. This tournament was a very successful one, thanks to the co-operation between the CEV and the German Volleyball Federation and its President Werner von Moltke.’ 

The next Men’s European Championship will be held in 2005 in Serbia & Montenegro and Italy. 
More on the net at www.cev.lu

Portadown man Nick Wright lead Northern Ireland to silver medals success at the International Volleyball Tournament in Newbridge Kildare this weekend.
Some historic wins are arguably the best ever achieved by a NIVA men's team away from home.

Northern Ireland got off to a great start coming from behind to beat Aer Lingus 3-2 after 2 ½ hours. This is a blow to the All Ireland Champions who become Ireland's first ever entry into the European Volleyball Cup competition next month in Finland.
Dutch side De Burgst from North Brabant were beaten 3-1 for Northern Ireland's first win in years over opposition from the former Olympic gold medal winning nation (Northern Ireland 25-23, 21-25, 25-21,25-21).

Organisers Newbridge proved a tough nut to crack also and after another epic 2 ½ hours the Ulster visitors edged their hosts 3-2.
But without Mark Robinson who does not play on Sunday and the cumulative effect of 14 hard fought sets, the experienced Scottish 'Bon Accord' proved too much for the young NIVA team and the Gold medals went "over the seas to Skye" on a 3-0 scoreline.
" We played very well and learnt a great deal as a squad," said Captain Wright. " The wins over the Dutch and southern teams were hard fought and everyone of the players found something new and fought with spirit to win."
Ends 07 Sept 2003

PADYMURPHY@aol.com

Los Angeles, USA, September 21, 2003 - America's Misty May and Kerri Walsh won their third consecutive SWATCH-FIVB World Tour final against Brazil's Ana Paula Connelly and Sandra Pires Tavares on Sunday when they produced a stunning comeback to defeat their archrivals in the gold-medal decider at the $300,000 Nissan Grand Slam.

Los Angeles, USA, September 21, 2003 - Brazil's Ricardo Alex Costa Santos and Emanuel Rego claimed their fourth title of the 2003 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour on Sunday when they outclassed Switzerland's Sascha Heyer and Markus Egger in a one-sided final at the $300,000 Nissan Grand Slam. The dominant Brazilians stamped their authority on the men's Beach game and extended their lead at the top of the FIVB World rankings as Ricardo produced a supreme display of blocking on the way to a 21-11, 21-18 victory over their struggling Swiss opponents. Pic: Ricardo (L) and Emanuel after winning the Nissan Grand Slam.

www.fivb.ch

Hi Dave, I noticed that you have links to two manuals I compiled.  I have updated the manuals since and they are located at my website below.  Please note that they are now in Adobe Acrobat format.

[Colin's free volleyball manual are one of our most popular down loaded items, you will find then on our web site via the on-line Book Store link].

Thank you.
Colin Glass 
http://members.shaw.ca/colinglass/volleyball.html

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