‘Castle News

Number 52 December 2010

‘Castle Girls go Dutch!

Welcome from the Chair

Contents

3-7 – ‘Castle News Updates

8-12 – ‘Castle Girls on Tour

13 – ‘Castle in England senior action

14 – ‘Castle Juniors

15 – ‘NVL

16- Club Shop

17 – Castle online

Main sponsor www.marangoni.com

Main school-club link and training HQ:

Madeley High School

Official Equipment Supplier: www.sportset.com

Sponsors

CBL Welding Supplies Cornovii Investment Management www.cblsupplies.co.uk

www.cornovii.com

MATRIX

AGGREGATES

Over the Christmas period we saw our club at its best in three ways:

1 – 165 junior players taking part in the Christmas Turkey tournament at Madeley!

2 – 4 current ‘Castle players in action for the successful England Senior Development Teams against Scotland

3 – The under 18 girls going to Holland to play in the renowned Apeldoorn tournament, and coming 4th. Fantastic effort and energy from the players, coaches, volunteers and supporters!

Colin RobertsNSVC Chair

News Updates from ‘Castle!

Madeley Christmas Turkey TournamentFriday the 17th December saw the now famous Christmas Turkey tournament at Madeley High School – the intra school or form group Volleyball Competition. This year’s was the largest yet with a fantastic 165 young volleyball players taking part – that’s about 1 in 4 of all pupils at Madeley! The photo shows the older group who competed in the afternoon in front of the giant ‘Castle banners!

Web updates

The highlights of the national cup round 3 men’s match between ‘Castle and Super 8 leaders Leeds Carnegie has gone straight to the top of the charts for this season with 111 views in just 1 month! Keep checking the NSVC1 You Tube channel for more video content

The November 2010 edition of ‘Castle News set a massive record number of readers, reaching the grand total of 536 in the month since its publication! This beats the previous best of 351 which was the October edition!

Our Wikipedia pages have recently been further updated to recognise the recent achievements of our players and teams. If you want to know more about the club and its’ history why not check out “Newcastle (Staffs) Volleyball Club” on Wikipedia

News Updates from ‘Castle!

GB Volleyball Teams get the nod for 2012!

The GB Volleyball Teams on the indoor programmes had the perfect early Christmas present when the British Olympic Association announced that would be entering both the men and women into the 2012 Olympic Games. As host nation GB has the right to enter teams into every Olympic and Paralympic sport (except Basketball who have to qualify) but the British Olympic Association who have the right to enter teams had always put on the condition that teams would have to be able to ‘compete with credibility’. Confirmation of the Beach Volleyball and Sitting Volleyball Squads’ entry remains to be confirmed.

Richard Callicott, President of the British Volleyball Federation said, “I am absolutely delighted that the British Olympic Association has determined to enter the Great Britain’s men’s and women’s teams in the London 2012 Olympic Games as part of Team GB. The programmes for both teams has involved 173 full International matches since its inception in 2006 and we have developed exciting young talent with 20 men and 17 women now playing in over 24 different professional club sides in Europe and North America. It is a magnificent step on the road to London 2012, and a sign that volleyball in this country is moving forward. The sport has shown a tremendous solidarity between the Home Country Associations, and our coaches have set very high standards. We will demonstrate that GB can compete with more than just a credible performance.”

This is fantastic news for all of the players and coaches involved, and for British Volleyball as a whole – we will now be able to go and watch our GB teams play in the biggest event in the world down at Earl’s Court in London. For the ‘Castle Juniors involved in the full time training programme at Loughborough and former players like Sam Bragg and Roman Neveykinthis gives an outside chance of sneaking into the GB Squad... who knows – a couple of injuries here and there and good form on their part may lead to a call up!

Volleyball Olympic Coin launched –and in ‘Castle’s wallet!

You may have seen on the Volleyball England website in the autumn that for 2012 a series of special commemorative Olympic /Paralympic coins were being produced to represent the 29 sports. Volleyball is number 26 in the series that is released by the Royal Mint in 2011, and ‘Castle’s Will Roberts has got his hands on a copy of the coin which now takes pride of place in the Roberts household!

For more information on these coins, check out www.royalmint.com/sportscollection

News Updates from ‘Castle!

‘Castle SuperfansThe under 18 girls’ trip to Holland over the Christmas/New Year period was marked not only by the excellent performance of the girls (fully documented later in this edition of ‘Castle News!) but also the emergence of a cohort of what can only be described as ‘Superfans’...

Pictured below are the two ringleaders of this ‘ultra’ fan group.. .Chesea Viggars (in her awesome ‘Castle top!) and Rob Bellamy who clearly got into the laid back Dutch approach to things straight away!

City of Stoke-on-Trent 6th Form College

For the past 4 years NSVC has developed a fantastic relationship with City of Stoke-on-Trent College in Fenton, seeing the growth of the Talented Athlete Programme (TAP) at the college to provide three training session per week for players. In 2010-11 we will continue to work closely with the college to further develop this programme which is unique in North Staffordshire, to provide daily opportunities to train through a partnership between club and college. Whilst many ‘Castle Juniors will always opt to attend other colleges, the 6th Form College in Fenton is the only one with this formal link to the club, and is the only place where players will get the chance to train on a daily basis locally.

Junior Boys Head Coach Will Roberts said, “The link with Fenton is fantastic for our young players. I did my ‘A’ Levels there back in 1998-2000 and only wish I’d had the chance to train for volleyball at college as often as they now offer through TAP. It wasn’t until I started my degree at Loughborough that I got anywhere near the quantity of training needed to play at a decent level so I hope that by strengthening the link to Fenton we are able to help our young players progress and keep up to speed with their studies.”

My Perfect teamIf you would like to nominate your own perfect 6 please do so as soon as possible! Please remember that this is your newsletter so you need to contribute by emailing your selection to Will Roberts on willroberts1981@hotmail.com

Remember, it doesn’t have to be a ‘Castle team but could be from anything you fancy, for example an international team, or best ever NVL side etc!

News Updates from ‘Castle!

‘Castle Look alikes... Past and Present!!On those long away trips in the national league various nicknames emerge and players think up silly games to reduce the boredom. One favourite game is of course the good old look alike game... See what you think of these look alikes for ‘Castle players past and present – if you have any better look-alikes let Will Roberts know!!

... No offence intended to any of the players involved here! (or the famous people they look like!!!)

Andy Riding.......... Lego Man Falko Drijfhout.... Peregrine Falcon Dave Lovell.......... Shrek

Sam Allen... West Ham’s Freddy SearsChris Anderson.......... Boy George Alex Burt......... Andrew Strauss

Rich Guest...... Chris off ‘The Apprentice’Will Roberts.......... Jimmy AndersonJames Goodwin .. Nathan off ‘Misfits’

News Updates from ‘Castle!

Colin Roberts.......... Sean Connery

Roo Scott............... Dr Who

Adam Bradbury .. Action Man

Andy Saward .. Rob Green

Rod Stockwell .. Homer Simpson

Si Ibbotson .. Freddie Mercury

‘Castle ½ Dozen get England Junior Men call upNo fewer than six members of this season’s NSVC under 18s men’s squad have been selected by England Junior Men to play in their first round group in the European Youth Championships. It is the first time in many years that England have entered the Europeans Championships at the Youth stage and they have a very tough draw of Latvia (hosts), Germany, Slovakia, Holland and Belgium.

The ‘Castle players are: Roo Scott (Captain), James Goodwin, Iain McKellar, Stewart Ross, Sam Shenton and Alex Jenkins.

Their match schedule is:5th January - Latvia6th January – Slovakia7th January - Holland8th January - Germany9th January – Belgium

Updates and info on all of the matches is available through the Volleyball England facebook and twitter sites, and the CEV’s own site www.cev.lu

Good luck lads!

‘Castle girls on tour!Rabobank International Youth Tournament. Apeldoorn,

Holland27th -29th December 2010

Rachel Viggars

Team: Meg Viggars (captain), Paige Nelmes, Jen Bellamy, Lucy Preston, Zoe Rogers, Sophie Plant, Jess Roberts, Harriet Roberts, Ruth Gurgul, Lizzie Stuart, Katie LomasCoach: Ant ViggarsStaff and Surrogate mums! Rach Viggars, Libby Bellamy, Dawn Roberts. Supporters: Chelsea Viggars, on day 3 of the trip the group was joined by Jonathan Bellamy and Rob and George.

You may remember in a previous Castle News edition that over the summer 2 Dutch girls Wendy and Willeke (friends of the Bellamy’s) trained with the girls at the summer camp and invited the squad to enter this prestigious tournament. After much discussion, it was decided that we should enter and a loyal band of NSVC volunteers kicked into action. Availability of players secured we booked flights for Boxing day, hired transport to the airport, booked accommodation and paper work was completed – what could go wrong?........

For a full version of events I’m sure that anyone who went on the trip will give you a more detailed account but the facts in short were as follows!:3 days before departure (23rd December) during the afternoon the transport company – “Rockley’s Minibus Travel” informs us that “due to the bad weather the roads were too dangerous for them to take us to Doncaster airport? I hastily hired a 17 seater minibus and after a frantic phone call Rich Gurgulkindly came to our rescue and agreed to drive it! Also Jonathan Bellamy stepped in to drive as we needed extra space for baggage!

On arrival at Doncaster Airport we are informed that the flight has been delayed from 14.30 to 16.05hrs. After an hour in the Departure lounge after checking in all of our baggage, Easy Jet sent me a text to say that the flight is cancelled!.....

With Paige Nelmes now stranded on her own in Amsterdam, NSVCs volunteers again kicked into action. Libby rang her friend Helen who accessed our booking online and managed to transfer our flights to Liverpool for a flight that evening! By this time Richard and Jonathan had been called and immediately they turned round and headed back to Doncaster, joined by Martin Roberts.

We had only 2hrs 15mins to get to Liverpool to make the only possible flight, we knew it would be touch and go. With Ant and 3 girls in the car Martin set off – our main target was to get the first 4 onto the flight so that Paige would not be stranded on her own in Amsterdam. The 2 cars made it to the airport with the final 5 on the minibus having to dash across the airport car park making the check in desk with only a minute to spare.

“Simokos” – were again grouped with Castle and proved to be more difficult opponents 2nd time round. After winning the 1st set comfortably, Castle came under pressure from a strong serving Simokos. This along with a much improved attack from our opponents meant that they deservedly took the game into a deciding set. In a tense 3rd set Castle regained some sort of net supremacy led by setter Jen Bellamy and narrowly took the match 2-1. (25-17, 22-25, 15-12)

Day 1:On Monday NSVC faced games against differing oppositions of a high standard.

“Simokos” – a very good defence team whose main attack weapon was their strong, hard float serve. However Castle proved too strong in attack with Viggars and Nelmes dominating in a 2-0 victory (25-20, 25-14).

“Florie NVC” – an extremely tall powerful team with more than half of the squad at 6ft plus! Once Castle had adjusted to their opponents net advantage, we rallied well only to lose our rhythm at the close of the 3rd set and despite a fantastic performance we lost the match 2-1. (12-25, 25-22, 12-15).

“Devoko” – former winners of the tournament once again a strong team without so much height, but a team who make very few errors. A tired Castle team after the previous days trip battled in vain with Gurguland Lomas featuring well only to fall away in the closing stages of each set losing the match 2-0. (22-25, 20-25)Castle ended the 1st day in 3rd position in our pool.

Day 2:After a good nights sleep a rejuvenated NSVC returned to action against an expected weaker opposition in Day 2, knowing that only winning the group would put us in the semi finals. Team changes including Harriet Roberts switching her libero shirt to set and Sophie Plant taking over the libero duties.

“Libero 99” – a very young team who had previously been overpowered by their opponents and Castle didn’t disappoint to continue that streak, with an emphatic 2-0 victory. (25-3, 25-17).

Finally we made it to Amsterdam where Paige had been waiting with GB International Dan Hunter who was returning to Holland where he plays professional volleyball. And at 11pm our party are finally greeted by Peter, Jetty, Wendy and Willekein Apeldoorn, who generously hosted the group for the first night before we moved on to the Stayok Youth Hostel.

This left Castle with a 3rd/4th place game against hosts SV Dynamo. In front of a large crowd the 2 well matched sides battled out a fantastic encounter. Dynamo took a large lead at the start of the game taking the 1st set 25-16.

By the 2nd set, the Castle defence led by Lucy Preston had adjusted to the varied Dynamo attack, and began to dominate the net, winning the set 25-17. The 3rd

set saw both teams attacking with power and trading points until 12-12 when unfortunately the Castle attack floundered, leaving Dynamo to win 2-1 (16-25, 25-17, 12-15)

Despite a winless last day, NSVC left the tournament extremely proud of their performances, winning many plaudits along the way. Playing in the amazing Omnisport Arena was an unforgettable experience alone. To finish 4th was an extremely credible achievement as we were aware that we were competed against the top 6 girls teams in Holland and against a fantastically talented French team. With a final dash for the train the team returned home a much stronger unit both on and off the court having had a Christmas to remember.

“Next Volley Dordrecht” – with victory needed to gain a semi final place, Castle started full of energy and easily took the 1st set with Lizzie Stuart featuring strongly and Jess Roberts taking over from the consistant but now tired Zoe Rogers. Despite struggling to maintain 1st set momentum, NSVC girls stayed focused enough against improving opponents to take the match 2-0. (25-13, 25-17).

We finished day two leading our pool!

Day 3:Semi Final:‘Castle took to the court for the semi-final against tournament favourites, French side Levallois Volley. The girls were aware that they would have to be at their very best against their fast attacking unbeaten opponents. Our serve reception struggled in the early stages to cope with a driving jump float serve but by mid set the team were aware that we would match Levallois once we got into rallies. With a few hitting errors towards the end of the set Levallois ran out 25-18 winners.

NSVC started the 2nd set much stronger with Levalloisstruggling to adjust their defence to the Castle back court attack. Unfortunately serve reception problems again came back to haunt Castle from the serve of the tournament MVP, Mariam Diallo.

The French side remained unbeaten winning 2-0 (18-25, 15-25) and subsequently won the overall tournament beating Florie 2-0.

Report from the SV Dynamo website:

18th International youth tournament SV Dynamo great success!The eighteenth edition of the youth tournament time after three wonderful days with beautiful volleyball in the Omnisportand the WSV-Hall are the prizes and we can again look at the 19th Edition in 2011. With the participation of 13 foreign teams (of 48, divided into six categories) this was the most international tournament in the history. The teams from the Belgian Zoersel (winner girls B and runner-up boys B) and Leuven (winner boys B), the English Newcastle and the Norwegian Sunnfjord, were a nice addition to our regular visitors. Especially the French of Levallois from Paris (winner Girls A) were a feast for the eyes. With beautiful combinations and physically strong volleyball they knew their opponents every time to impose their will. The prizes in the other pools (Girls and boys top and boys A) were a prey for the strong teams of the this splendid Association. Remarkable was that this year, not a few remarkably strong attackers but three players an individual prize got home. The organization wishes everyone all the best for the new year and hopes to many sporting successes during the 19th International youth tournament of SV Dynamo Apeldoorn on 27, 28 and 29 December 2011!

Libby BellamyThe hospitality shown us by the Dutch was fantastic too , they could not have been more helpful and the organisation of 48 teams playing 8 matches each over 7 courts was very impressive. The current results were all put up on screen for the different leagues. Our own team match times and courts were text to us in advance of matches.The referees over all were excellent , with no linesmen they did a great job with very few bad calls and teams did not question their decisions .

Lunch was provided each day for everyone – bread cheese and meat, tea cakes (not toasted) and fruit .An interesting first day traditional dinner in the evening at bit like bubble & squeak with sausage did not go down with everyone but our girl from the north (Katie) asked for extra helpings ! You’ll have to ask the girls about the disco party on the Tuesday night – buses at 12.30AM or 1.30AM made it a long day from some teams that had caught the 9AM bus to the venue from the hostel that morning.

Some one word comments we have recorded from the girls towards the end of the tour :

AmazingInspiring FunFantasticHot !AwesomeTiringBeneficialGreat

Newcastle (Staffs) VC would like to pass on our sincere thanks to SV Dynamo and particularly Peter, Jetty Bon and family for their brilliant hospitality and organisation and a huge thanks again to the fantastic band of NSVC volunteers who made this trip happen.

We were all extremely impressed how well this tournament was organised by a team of club volunteers lead by Auke and Marion. 48 teams played 8 matches each over three days, everyone involved was extremely helpful.

As voted by all the NSVC members present on the trip, the following awards were kindly announced by the Easy Jet cabin crew over the tannoy on our return flight!

•Most Valuable Player – Meg Viggars•Most Improved Player – Lucy Preston•Most silly squad member of the trip – Harriet Roberts (you’ll have to ask her why!!!)

This weekend, the 17th-19th December five 'Castle players past and present featured on the England Development Teams that played against Scotland.

First up the men, where current 'Castle u18s captain and first team regular Roo Scott played alongside Rashad Ali and former 'Castle Junior Roman Neveykin in the England Men's Development Squad that won 3-1 on Friday in Glasgow. The England team played excellently to beat an experienced Scottish outfit, but could not maintain this level of performance on day two when they went down to a 3-1 defeat. Still, an England squad that was 50% teenagers and not featuring any GB or GB fringe players did pretty well!

On Saturday the England Women's Development Team also beat Scotland 3-1 with 'Castle Meg Viggars playing the whole match as setter and Paige Nelmes captaining the team! The Scots again seem to have had an experienced side on court to take on the England Development programme, so as with the men this was also a very young England Team, and Ant Viggars noted that the ‘Castle duo were key players for England alongside former Tameside junior (now playing for Team Northumbria) Magda Ropiak. On Sunday the girls went one better winning 3-0! Well done to both Meg and Paige -fantastic achievements.

All of these players join a significant line of ‘Castle players that have gone on to be recognised by England at Senior level, a proud weekend for ‘Castle!

‘Castle in England Senior Team Action

Rashad Ali tips

Roman Neveykin (7) blocksEngland team for match 1: back row: coach Keith Trenam, Ashley Trodden (Malory), Adam Kendray (Sheffield), Andy Sinclair (Team Northumbria), Roman Neveykin (Sheffield); Front Row: Roo Scott (‘Castle), Jamie Baker (Sheffield), Darius Setsoafia (Malory), Rashad Ali (‘Castle)

‘Castle Juniors in National Cup matches in January

GIRLS

U16 round 2 – 8th January at MadeleyNSVCTameside ANorth RidingWirral

U18 round 2 – 16th January at MadeleyNSVC ‘A’TettenhallRedhillLeeds Carnegie or North Riding

BOYS

U16 round 2 – 15th January at MadeleyNSVC ‘A’ RedhillAcademy of Beach SportsHaughton

U18 round 2 – 22nd January at MadeleyNSVC ‘A’NSVC ‘B’RedhillYork

Upcoming home fixturesJanuary

8th: Ladies v Brentwood – 6pm @ Madeley(National Shield)

15th: Ladies v Sheffield – 6pm @ Madeley

22nd: Ladies v Northampton – 4pm @ MadeleyMen 1 v Leicester – 7pm @ Madeley

Both of these match days are linked to our Junior Teams being in action at home, so why not get down early and support the young ‘Castle players... Or stay on later and support the senior teams!!

We are looking to get a capacity crowd at both matches so over 120 spectators for each, with balloons, drums, trumpets. Club t-shirts etc etc ....

SUPPORT YOUR TEAMS!!

‘Castle Shop

Training T-shirt: £15.00

High quality performance material NSVC club t-shirt, Navy Blue and now in White!

Classic Grey ‘Castle T-shirt ‘Castle Hoodie ‘Castle Polo Shirt ‘Castle Drawstring Bag

£10.00 £20.00 £10.00 £5.00

To purchase any club kit please contact your coach or a club official on match-day or at

training

Stay in touch with ‘Castle: online

The club’s communications strategy (part of the four-year club development plan) is now very well advanced following the launch of our You Tube channel and Wikipedia page in the first few months of 2010. These additions to the existing ‘Castle News, www.nsvc.co.uk and Facebook group give us what is hopefully excellent connectivity to our members through whatever medium they prefer. Soon to come on board is the final piece in the jigsaw for now! Happy browsing!

www.nsvc.co.uk The club website gives regular updates of information on both the home and news pages,, team and player profiles, plus carries all club match reports and an up to date club calendar

‘Castle News The club’s unique monthly e-newsletter is now available only as a download through the club website’s news pages at www.nsvc.co.uk/latest-news

FacebookSign up to ‘Castle at www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=12327566316

WikipediaThe NSVC Wikipedia page was launched in March 2010 and will provide a great historical record of the club and its’ achievements over the past 30 years and the years to comehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_(Staffs)_Volleyball_Club

You TubeMatch videos can be posted online at our very own You Tube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/NSVC1

TwitterCOMING SOON – NSVC TWITTER FEEDS