THURSDAY SOCIAL TRAINING - UPDATE

This coming Thursday will be our LAST THURSDAY TRAINING OF THE YEAR on 20/12/2018.

Then there is a break in January.

The date for the first THURSDAY training in 2019 will be the 7th FEBRUARY.

The Bulls Diaries - Half the season in 1 post!

Hello all,


Welcome to the Half Season post of the Bulls.
We have not been very active on updating the club with our results so you can read the summary of our first half of the entire season below:

Fixture 1 - Vs. Oxford Uni Men & Farnborough Vipers @ St. Gregory The Great

The first fixture of the year. Our 1st games against Oxford University. It was tough. But we won!
I remember that we managed to set our tempo & that I got MVP twice as a Libero.


Monty & Skye my 2 boys came to watch us (Thanks Julia & Lesley for looking after the boys) and Monty made a live action picture of the game. Dan made a big impression as he has his name on the shirt. There it is:

Final results:

Oxford Bulls Vs. Farnborough Vipers: 0 - 2
Oxford Uni Men Vs. Oxford Bulls: 0 - 2

Fixture 2 - Vs. Oxford Uni Men & Oxford Vollox @ Ferry Center

This one I remember a bit more. But I don't really want to talk about it as we lost both our games even though we got a set from Oxford Vollox & we nearly got a set from Oxford Uni. Funny moment: Harry was on court with food poisoning from the day before & had to "take a break" between 2 sets...


I was playing for Vollox as Gabi was unavailable so I can't really comment on the Bulls' performance. Nevertheless I believe the feedback was good from the coaches. However we  had to still work on getting our services right & dangerous, as well as finishing the points. Food for thought for the next training. I can't remember who got MVP.

Final results:

Oxford Bulls Vs. Oxford Vollox: 1 - 2 (25:23, 21:25, 7:15)
Oxford Uni Men Vs. Oxford Bulls: 2 - 0 (25:18, 27:25)

Fixture 3 - Vs. Oxford Uni Men & Maidenhead Mens 1 @ Maiden Erleigh

This was our final encounter against Oxford Uni for the rest of the season, and based on the 2 precedent ones we had to win. It was also our first fixture away from Oxford & we had to travel quite early. We stuck to the plan & followed our great coaches' instructions (Thanks Adi & Maite!)


For this one we have a few videos if you want to actually see how we play so I won't bore you with words.

Vs Oxford Uni

Set 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPrfXbBI5-0

Set 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly7p9NYjYLE

Vs Maidenhead

Set 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgiuqTo5RdU

Set 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw0NdR83XB4 

Final results:

Oxford Bulls Vs. Oxford Uni Men: 2 - 0 (25:22, 25:14)
Maidenhead Mens 1 Vs. Oxford Bulls: 2 - 0 (25:9, 25:22)




This puts us in a bottom to mid table situation for the other half of the season. Our next direct opponents are now Farnborough & Maidenhead. It will be tough!

Thursday club nights are full

As you might have noticed, our Thursday sessions are getting quite full and we are still receiving weekly emails from people wanting to join the club.

So we had to take the decision to not accept any new members. Don't worry if you have just joined, this only applies to future requests.

We also kindly ask you to not invite or bring your friends to Thursday training.

We will evaluate the situation again in January next year.

Our next beginners' course is starting soon!

Our next beginners' course is starting on Tuesday 16th October and runs until Tuesday 20th November. We have a couple of places left, check out the details on the tab on this website and please do contact us if you are interested

2018-19 indoor training information now updated!

Our indoor trainings will be starting again in September, which will be here before we know it... Training session details have been updated, please check the trainings tab for details. If you're a beginner, keep an eye out for information on our next beginners' course.

Indoor trainings have finished until September!

Our indoor trainings have now finished for the summer and will start again in September. Check out our beach section on the tabs at the top of this page! And we sometimes put up nets to play on grass in the parks over the summer, keep an eye on your email and on Facebook if you're interested in going along to that.

The Bulls' Diaries - A series of unfortunate events...

It is easy to write when we win but not so easy when we lose.

However each match is important so here is a short summary of what happened yesterday in Headington.

1st Game - Spikeos 1 Vs. Oxford Bulls

The team on court was Lucian, Seb, Luke, Anders, Marco & Dan (+ me  libero). Even though we had warmed up decently, it was not enough to contain a strong & stable Spikeos & the first set was not really good as we finished 25-12 in 20 minutes. However we had gathered momentum & started the second set in a much better situation. For this time Marco was replaced by David. We kept the score tight  until 18-18 but then we collapsed & a succession of mistakes sent Spikeos to the victory 25-20.

Luke got the MVP title for this game. In hindsight, we could say that everything was OK in our game but not much more than just OK & caused us to make more mistakes than our opponents.

2nd Game - Farnborough Vipers Vs. Oxford Bulls

We came on court with the frustration of losing the previous game so we had motivation. The team on court was Lucian, Peter, Luke, Anders, Simon & Dan (+ me, again...). Unfortunately Farnborough took straight away a comfortable advance (11-5). We regrouped & regained confidence, starting to block a little bit more but it just did not work as intended. At 18-13, our coaches took a timeout in order to break the momentum. It worked, but only for a few points. And following from good choices made by their setter & smart attacks Farnborough took the 1st set 25-20.

More frustration & will to win was brought on court. We felt that we were defending ourselves well but we were lacking finish. The whole set was much tighter & both team showed good spirit in playing. First timeout from us was when Farnborough was in the lead 14-11 but then they took a timeout at 16-16. Then they were up again 22-19 but we caught back 22-22. Then we took the lead 23-22. They had more faith than us (even though we had the 1st attacks) scored 3 points in a row, giving them the 2nd set 25-23.

I got the MVP title (hence why I am writing today) for rolling on the floor regularly. And I guess our coaches could say that the conclusion was the same & that we were lacking finish. We have one more fixture to play - next Sunday - and we are fearing that we will have to play the relegation triangular in May. Even worse, we are not far from the straight relegation zone...  Let's just not go there !

Thursday club nights start again this week!

We know you've missed them and now they're back... our Thursday club training nights start again this week, Thursday 1 Feb, 8-10 pm at Headington Girls' School. See you there!

The Bulls' Diaries - 3 More points!

Hello !


Just a quick update to inform you that the Bulls brought back 3 points last weekend.

1st Game - Vs. Reading Aces

A very important game we had to win to secure our current position in the league. Team was Seb, Simon, Corne, Anders, Peter, Luke, Harry, Dan & myself. We started the first set after a nice & long warm up & it made the difference. We won very quickly & easily 25-8 managing to contain there attacks with strong blocks & amazing "off the blocks" from Dan.
Sam changed the squad on court for the second set, and it went all a bit pear shape. First Reading had started to be much more focused & our block was not as effective as in the 1st set. Our passing was all over the place, we could not recycle or finish the points,... In the end, Reading won the set 25-20.
So Sam put on court the first squad back, and the chemistry worked one more time. We quickly secured a safe 5 points advance, reached 8 ahead & finished the set 15-10.


Dan deserved his MVP title as he scored many points with effective line attacks. Well done mate !

2nd Game - Vs. Spikeopaths 1

We have all decided to forget about the 1st set. Spikeos set up their pace to the set & destroyed us 25-5. It was a lesson.
The second set was more what we were expecting to do. We managed to start recycling the balls more (and maybe everyone was starting to be a bit tired...) Nevertheless we kept a tight score up to 23-23 but Spikeos upped their game at the right time & finished us 25-23. A bit disappointing as we were hoping to go for Tie Break but the result is what it is.


I am not sure who got the MVP for this one. Maybe this can be clarified by whomever is reading this in the comments?


Next fixture on 11th February in Oxford against Readin Uni & Oxford Uni. Bring it on !!!!!

Trainings start again very soon...

Most trainings start again next week (week commencing 8 January), Thursday club nights start again in February, see you on court again very soon!