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Gloucester City Festival
The Gloucester City Festival of Volleyball Tournament came of age this year celebrating it’s 21st, originally the tournament was played at Dowty Rotol, Staverton before moving to Aspires Oxstalls Tennis Centre four years ago. At its peak the tournament attracted 125 teams, but with many more tournaments available most weekends, the 70 teams at this years Festival is more the norm these days.
Teams converged on the Tennis Centre from all over the country, camping on- site from Friday ready to begin play from 10am on Saturday. The format sees teams compete in Men Division 1 & 2, Ladies Division 1 & 2 and Mixed Division 1, 2 & 3 pools, to find out who qualifies for the quarters finals on the Sunday.
Despite heavy rain on Saturday the 6-aside teams all took to the grass courts and played through until 7.30pm, just in time for food and the Tournament Disco, which is always a eagerly awaited event, with the players dancing non-stop ready for Sunday morning when play starts at 9:30!
There are many weird and wonderful names for the teams competing, sometimes entrants have to choose another name if the original is deemed too offensive! ‘To Kill a Blocking Nerd’, ‘Setting Ducks’, ‘Twelve Bad Knees’ and ‘Hogwarts’ were
just some of the team names. ‘Blocking’ and ‘Setting’ being volleyball terms.
Bleary eyed and not feeling their best from the night before, all the teams start over again. At this point teams are either in the quarters or entered into a plate competition where they still have a chance to win something.
Sunday saw blue skies and plenty of sunshine, which was great for the players and organisers alike. There were many closely fought matches
throughout the day with the Finals take place mid-afternoon.
Photos from the Tournament can be viewed at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=265781&id=665793451
Liz Gooding cushygooding@mac.com
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