Howdy all!

This week, we are getting back our usual training session slot at the Headington girl school, 8:00pm-10:00pm:http://www.oxfordvolleyball.co.uk//?page_id=6

For the most courageous of us all and the ones who want to perfect their tan, we could always fit an outdoor session, in the traditional Margaret Park (http://tinyurl.com/MargaretPark), between 6:30pm and 8:00pm, before  driving/cycling/running to the hall !

Of course, the traditional pub session will follow the training, where Neil might have to answer few questions about his saturday nights and his taste for crossdressing!

See you tonight,

Julien

Hi guys!

Just a reminder about the current Thursday training session:

Due to exams taking place in Headington school, we are currently playing every Thursday, outside from 6:30pm in the park on Margaret Rd, Headington, Oxford OX3.

Here is a link to the place: http://tinyurl.com/MargaretPark
See you there!

Cheers,

Jules

It’s been almost a week since the Men’s team closed the regular season with a fixture at Loddon Valley in Reading. This time to play the top (Basingstoke Mens A) and the bottom (Spikeopaths Mens 2) teams of the league. Basingstoke already had secured the league win, but for both Oxford and Spikeopaths the outcome could potentially result in advancing a couple of places in the league table, or in the case of Oxford dropping one place further down. So despite the apparent mismatch, the fixture was by no means a dead rubber. Only minor alterations of the team compared to the previous match were necessary, with Julien replacing Tim and Neil. Yes, he is that good.

Unfortunately, not all teams are equally good at getting results in to the BVA so I’ve postponed sending out the match report until the final position of OVC in the league table was known. As you may have guessed, this is now the case and OVC has secured an honourable fifth out of twelve. The mixed team selector may be fast to point out that this is not the least bit honourable when measured against their league win. Here the context should be remembered, with the Men’s league being so much more competitive than the Mixed league. Cornelius offers a perfect example of the commitment required to play at this higher level. Despite having inherited Sam’s cold that saw her sit out the Mixed league decider the previous Sunday, Cornelius stooped to no such letting down of his team. Even after being substituted out due to injuring himself getting entangled in some sports hall equipment, he reentered at the beginning of the deciding third set and fought heroically for the remainder of the match. Alas, to no avail as Oxford saw a 13-10 lead slip to a 15-13 defeat. As a consolation, in the tie break Basingstoke had to resort to passing all their play through their GB Olympic Volleyball team player, Marc Richardson, with the rest of their line-up pretty much closed down. As a further bit of evidence of the tougher competition in the Men’s league compared to the mixed league - if any such was needed - Jon once again failed even to be considered for player of the match, which this honour befalling Martijn.

The second match saw Spikeopaths the butt of the Oxford players’ desire to redeem themselves. With a 25-4 win - with Gerard serving 17 serves in a row - in the first set, Oxford equalled the biggest set win in the BVA this season. The second set was used more as a training session, giving Julien some experience on the setting position, with a more modest 25-16 outcome as the result. Puzzlingly a Spikeopath player was nominated player of the match, which can only have been down to the consistency with which he managed to roll the ball down to Gerard for his next serve. Still, Oxford could withdraw with 4 more points. Not sufficient to have any chance of climbing the table, as we started out 5 points behind the teams in third and fourth positions, but sufficiently few that Farnborough could still catch up. However, as they suffered a defeat to Newbold, Oxford remains in fifth place. A bit of uninteresting statistics: Oxford, together with Newbury, is the team in the Men’s league playing the most sets with more than a third of the matches going to three sets; on average less than one in four sets in the BVA Men’s league requires a tie break decider.

Rune

With two victories yesterday, OVC Mixed is now the official winner of the Berkshire league 2008/2009. Our impressing record only shows one defeat to Basingstoke Mixed Up in the beginning of the season. In order to win the league we had to beat Newbury but I will get back to that later.

Final results 2008/2009(apart from one match to be played)
Oxford Mixed: 16 - 15 - 1 - 46 
Newbury Mixed: 16 - 13 - 3 - 41 
Basingstoke Mixed Up: 15 - 9 - 6 - 29 
Spikeopaths Mixed 1: 16 - 8 - 8 - 27 
Basingstoke Mixed: 16 - 8 - 8 - 26 
Maidenhead Mixed: 16 - 8 - 8 - 26 
Spikeopaths Mixed 2: 15 - 7 - 8 - 22 
Farnborough Lions: 16 - 2 -14 - 6 
Spikeopaths Mixed 3: 16 -1 - 15 - 6 

(played matches - won matches - lost matches - league points)

On Sunday afternoon we had a team of nine players; Jon, Rune, Corne, Tim, Tom, Kerstin, Helen, Maite and myself. Sam was meant to play but was too ill. To give you an idea of the OVC spirit in the run up to this day, I have copied in Maite’s reply to my email with the match details sent out one week prior;

Maïté Braud

That pretty much describes the atmosphere on the team. If I were Newbury, I would be scared!

Before the real battle we had to play Basingstoke Mixed Up. They turned out to be stronger than expected and we had a messy start, just for once. Nothing really seemed to work for us. At some point we were down 8 - 18 but managed to get 22 points before the set was over. By the second set we had recovered and won 25 - 13. Despite four serving mistakes in the tie-break, we finished off the match 15 - 10. It was a great team effort with good passings, sets as well as hits. Especially Tom and Tim did a good job. Jon was actually voted ‘Player of the Match’ - you finally got it! You deserved it.

The fight against Newbury had drama throughout the match. Although Corne and Rune hit and covered extremely well, we just managed to pull of 27 - 25 in the first set. Then Newbury reinforced their team even more and we got behind 5 -12 in the beginning of the second set. But after that we were all over them like a fat kid on a cup cake and managed to get to 12 -12 .We picked up all their tips and passed with precision. After almost an hour we could finally celebrate the victory 28 - 26, again a very close set which turned out to our advantage. Maite was voted ‘Player of the Match’ - well done! This leads me to the ‘Player of the Match’ scores for this season; 

Maite and Kerstin - 3
Jon and Helen - 2 
Sam - 1 

Thanks for this seasons guys. I am sorry that lots of you signed up for the mixed team but never got to play. Feel free to blame the bunch above. I couldn’t get rid of them! 

Thanks to Sam and Daniel for the support and cheering - are you really going to start up your own mixed team?

Yang

P.S. OVC ladies beat Oxford Brooks 2-1 tonight. Oxford rocks!

In today’s fixture Oxford Men’s team confirmed its status as top of the North in the BVA league. In a repeat performance of the local derby against Didcot and Newbury earlier this spring, Oxford again saw off the local competition. However, this time the team was made to work somewhat harder.

In the first match against Didcot, Oxford had to recover from being 6 - 14 down in the second set to secure a 25 - 17, 25 - 21 victory. The second match against Newbury was even more tense. After winning the first set comfortably to 19, the team slipped to a 25 - 14 defeat in the second set. When changing over at 4 - 8 down in the tie break, things looked pretty bleak. But thanks to a strong team effort against a Newbury team refusing to let anything drop, very vocal support from the bench, and a few well placed hits from Martijn in the waning minutes of the match, Oxford once again managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and clinch the tie break 15 - 12.

A job well done all but secures Oxford Men’s team finishing the season in fifth place out of twelve teams. What makes the performance even more impressive is the fact that both opposing teams were fielding two national league registered players, while Oxford made do with just one. Even with Neil banished to the bench for the entire first match, Jon still failed to secure a player of the match nomination.

Rune

Keeping with the food theme from last time, the Oxford Men’s team only managed one side of the deal in the fixture this Sunday. In the first match Oxford easily saw off a somewhat depleted Maidenhead team - that even had their coach playing, something yours truly has never experienced before - with a clear 2 - 0 victory. Without their usual guidance from the side, the Maidenhead team was clearly in disarray and at a loss against an Oxford team freshly drilled from beating the Oxford Uni students on Saturday evening.

Unfortunately, the Oxford team had to sit the next match out, watching Basingstoke warming up against Maidenhead while they were themselves getting cold. Still, in the first set Oxford recovered from 22 - 16 down to win a thrilling 30 - 28 victory. Unfortunately the team could not manage similar comebacks in neither the second set nor the tie break. In both sets Basingstoke pulled ahead about midways through the set with a 6 point run, and managed to hold on to the lead for 25 - 17 and 15 - 11 victories. However, Neil once again managed to impress enough to get yet another player of the match nomination. Jon’s dry spell continues.

Though not quite as victorious as has been the custom lately, the Oxford team can be quite satisfied with coming away from a fixture against the two top teams (at least until yesterday) of the BVA men’s league with 4 points. This all but secures a finish in the top half of the league, though chances for further advancement from fifth place are pretty slim.

Rune Lyngsoe, Men’s Team Selector

Once again, Captain Jon and Coach Rune lead the Oxford Mixed to victories. This time Kerstin, Tim, Helen, Sam, Corne and Maite beat Spikeopaths 1 25 - 23, 25 - 20 followed by Maidenhead Mixed 25 - 18, 25 - 23. As Basingstoke Mixed Up has lost another match, Newbury remains our biggest rival.

Oxford Mixed: 11 - 1 - 34

Newbury Mixed: 10 - 2 - 32

Basingstoke Mixed Up: 8 - 4 - 25

Spikeopaths Mixed 2: 7 - 5 - 22

Maidenhead Mixed: 6 - 6 - 20

Spikeopaths Mixed 1: 5 - 7 - 18

Basingstoke Mixed: 5 - 7 -16

Spikeopaths Mixed 3: 1 -11 - 6

Farnborough Lions: 1 -11 - 3

(won matches - lost matches - league points)

At a quick glance it looks like close matches but I never really doubted our team. In the first set, Jon started up with a couple of good serves and we reached 7 -1 fairly easy. Then we made some silly mistakes but luckily Maite decided it was time for a genius short tip and Oxford Mixed was back on track. In the second set, Rune joined in and blocked Spikeopaths’ hitters, while Tim and Sam continued the high standard; they even delivered a successful tandem hit. Excellent idea Jon! During the match we had four serving mistakes but saying that nine of our serves were direct winners.

We continued the team effort against Maidenhead; Corne, Kerstin and Helen were passing and covering brilliantly, while Maite and Jon delivered some really good sets. The Oxford boys also managed to block Maidenhead s players and force them to hit out. Rune even had a few successful backcourt hits. In the second set, we didn t seem to be in gear and for a short period of time, things weren t working out. Once again Sam and Tim delivered a number of well-placed hits and we managed to close the deal. We had four serving mistakes in this match, while six of our serves were direct winners.

Maite and Helen were voted ‘Player of the Match’. Well done girls! (Jon, if you try harder you might achieve this one day)

The next match day is away on 15 March.

Yang

Despite how tasty it may sound, this is not the latest offer from your local sandwich shop. The last two weekends the Oxford Men’s team has won bumper-to-bumper double 2 - 0 victories. Last Sunday the team made a decisive display of where the strength resides in the northern end of the BVA league, beating Didcot and Newbury in a tense local derby. Only in the very last set against Newbury was there any doubt about the outcome, though, with the Oxford team still clinching it 25 - 23. This fixture also saw Martijn rejoin the team after another one of his long injury breaks - evidently he sees himself as the Andrew Flintoff of Oxfordshire volleyball - to once again rank among such famous names as Jon, Tim, Gerard, Corne, Tom and man of the match Neil.

This Saturday the Oxford team had to travel to Reading for an early start fixture against Spikeopaths 2 and Reading University, a fixture that had been rescheduled from the autumn programme. Despite Spikeopaths 2 and Reading University making up the tail end of the BVA league, easy victories should never be taken for granted - only last Sunday Reading University pulled a surprise win against the top team of the league, Maidenhead. Before playing Reading Uni, Oxford had the good fortune of warming up against Spikeopaths 2. Despite a disappointing display, a 2 - 0 victory was still secured with relative ease, to a large extent thanks to the Oxford outside attack of Marc and Tim. Also Neil deserves special mentioning, securing yet another player of the match nomination. Due to their key role, setters are natural choices for this honour, but with the nominations consistently befalling Neil, the conclusion on Jon must necessarily be `Could do better’. The next match was between Spikeopaths 2 and a Reading University team only fielding 5 players. After being summarily defeated, Reading University suffered a further decrease in numbers - allegedly due to a hangover - and Oxford could return home with a further 2 - 0 no contest victory bagged.

Rune

I am thrilled that Oxford Mixed is back at the top of the Berkshire league. With the wins over Spikeopaths Mixed 2 25-21, 25-23 and Farnborough Lions 25-11, 25-13, Newbury had to give up the top position (they also lost to Spikeopaths 1). We are now on 28 points with one defeat to Basingstoke Mixed Up and nine victories.

Oxford Mixed: 9/28
Newbury Mixed: 8/26
Basingstoke Mixed Up: 7/22
Spikeopaths Mixed 2: 6/19
Spikeopaths Mixed 1: 5/17
Maidenhead Mixed: 5/17
Basingstoke Mixed: 3/10
Spikeopaths Mixed 3:1/5
Farnborough Lions: 1/3

(number of won matches/league points)

As a new and exciting thing, I had decided to take notes on attacks and lost points but paying attention for 45+40 minutes turned out to be too much of a challenge. In the first match, the team (Jon, Tomas, Kerstin, Maite, Sam, Rune, Helen and Cornelius) had some good attacks and blocks, only three serving mistake, but overall the play lacked precision. In their defence, the hall was freezing cold. However, in the second set Oxford delivered a tenacious performance winning the set 25-23 after being down 18-21. Surprisingly a Spikeopaths player got the ‘Player of the Match’ - and it wasn’t their phantom player.

Against Farnborough, the stars were definitely, Rune and Corne. With 14 serves in the first set, Rune came close to beating Kerstin s record of 18 serves. A few balls dropped along our attack line and we had two serving mistakes in each set, but Corne to the rescue! Corne was all over the place throughout the match and had a number of well-placed hits. In the second set, Rune decided to put all the ladies on court with Corne and Jon and they really showed Farnborough how it is done. Once again Kerstin had some brilliant hits that must have impressed the referees as she was voted  Player of the Match  - this is a hat trick folks!

Thanks to Sam s family, Mark, Daniel and Andrey for the support. The next match day is at home on 22 February.

Oxford Mixed rules!

(Yang)

I don’t know if it’s due to the Haggis or the Whisky generously consumed by the whole mixed team on Saturday at Jeff’s but the 2 games played on Sunday in Reading by Sam, Corne, Jon, Kerstin, Rune, Helen, Tomas and me were of extremely good quality!

As a setter/occasional trainer, you have often seen/heard me complaining about the poor quality of our passing but this time I have nothing to complain about! It was so good that Jon and I didn’t even have to run and thus finished both matches almost completely dry! Admittedly the level of our adversaries Spikeos II and III was pretty low but despite this we often only managed to score victories by a tight margin or even to lose games in the past.

The first game against Spikeos III started quite relaxed since Kerstin scored the 17 first points of the match! By the way, I personally think that Kerstin should be exempted of any service training for a least one month considering the reliability and quality of her service! After Spikeos III finally managed to score a point and got the service back, they also managed to score 7 points until we finished the match after 13 minutes of play and only 4 players having served in our team…  easy! Thinking that it was unfair for the 2 last remaining players to not have the chance to serve, we decided to win the 2nd set only  25 to 13.

Oxford was refereeing the second match between the 2 home teams giving Kerstin and me the opportunity to practice our brand new referee skills. 
A task we tackled effortlessy and without even falling asleep!

Our second game against the supposedly stronger Spikeos II team didn’t really prove to be a challenge and after Jon helped us  take the lead with his service, Spikeos never really managed to catch up with us and let us win 25 to 11. The second set started with a tight score until Kerstin (yes she again!) helped us score 8 points leaving Spikeos II in the same position as team III.

By now, you will have guessed who has been voted player of the match.. But surprisingly not for the 1st match (the award was given to a Spikeos III player for a reason nobody really understood..), instead it was for the 2nd one.

Oxford is still second of the league right behind Newbury but I still don’t know why since we have exactly the same score as them…. Anyway.

Well done to everybody for this demonstration of Volley-ball and hopefully we’ll do just as well for our next games in 2 weeks time!

Maïté

(Regarding the points, our club geek, Rune, wrote a program to find out why Newbury is still in the lead. Apparently we are on the same league points but we are on 110 match points while Newbury is on 111 points. See you should not have given Spikeopaths 3 seven points! Yang).