‘Castle News Numbers 73/74I September/October 2012

Contents: 3 – Castle Shop

4-11 – ‘Castle News updates

12-13 – North Staffs League

14 – Social Volleyball

15 – Sportset

16-17 – Rod’s Olympic Story (2)

18-19 – Paralympic Inspiration

20-21 – NVL 2012-13 Submit your own content (please!) to willroberts1981@hotmail.com by the end of each month.

Castle News, no.73-74 Sep-Oct 2012

Welcome from the Chair The new season is well and truly back with a bang and it has seen the start of two exciting ventures in local volleyball. Firstly the new Volleyball England Satellite Academy is up and running in partnership between NSVC and Newcastle College – this is incredibly exciting for aspiring young players and means that daily training on court and in the gym is now available. This is something we seek to grow in the next few year to contain c20 players with 2 training groups.

In addition the re-launch of the North Staffs league is fantastic and to see so many players taking to the court in highly competitive, fun and locally based volleyball gave everyone involved a huge buzz!

Colin Roberts Club Chair

Get your essential ‘Castle clothing now – the club t-shirt... perfect for training and supporting your teams... only £15

6th July – ‘Castle Presentation Night, BBQ and Sitting Volleyball Challenge Sam Allen 100 club

September and October is a particularly busy time of year for the committee and team coaches as they try to ensure that everyone has paid their membership fees and submitted their forms – if you haven’t done this yet you are on borrowed time and really need to sort it out sooner rather than later... THE CLUB CANNOT FUNCTION WITHOUT ITS MEMBERS’ CONTRIBUTIONS.

Last year a significant number of members avoided paying their fees and this left the club in a very weak position by the end of the season with our reserves almost entirely depleted as we sought to continue functioning at full capacity. Please make sure that you have paid your fees, or if there is a challenge for you to do so please let your coach or a member of the committee know so that you can be supported in this regard. If you are not sure of your situation, again please make sure that you ask.

The response so far this season has been tremendous and particular thanks must be made to Dawn Roberts who has led this task with our many junior members. Senior players – please don’t let the side down whether you are NVL or social players you are benefitting from the club’s investment in balls, court hire, equipment and coaching expertise.

2012-13 MEMBERSHIP FEE STRUCTURE

NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYERS NON NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYERS

Method Seniors/Full time work

Students 18+ years

Under 18s

TOTAL PER SEASON £279 £179 £118

Per month standing order

£25 £15 £10

One off £250 £150 £100

2 instalments (Oct/Jan)

£125 £75 £50

NVL registration fee £29 £29 £18

Method JUNIORS SOCIAL

TOTAL PER SEASON £60 £144

Weekly cost N/A £3

Per month standing order

£5 £12

One off £60 N/A

Join at Christmas £40 N/A

Join at Easter £20 N/A

6th July – ‘Castle Presentation Night, BBQ and Sitting Volleyball Challenge Sam Allen 100 club

Bradders in Australia Men’s first team MVP for the 2010-11 season Adam Bradbury has gone from strength to strength in volleyball terms in his Australian adventure – playing for the Canberra Heat in the top flight of the Australian National Volleyball League. But as the photo to the right shows, his experience has not been without incident and Adam suffered a gruesome injury at the hands of one of the net antennae which caused him to need stitches in his eyelid! Adam has joined the reigning champions as Canberra won the league in 2011 and he appears to have immediately fitted in his hard hitting style. The Heat are currently sitting in 2nd place in the league and although Adam is wearing the number 20 shirt he is not that far down the pecking order and is clearly getting good court time as the photos below show. Canberra Heat’s home games are played at the Australian Institute of Sport so Adam is playing in a top class environment and must be learning a lot about his game and developing his skills further. Having got into Volleyball when at 6th form college at Fenton Adam has really made great strides with his volleyball so to be part of team that represents the Australian Capital Territory in the highest level competition in Australia is quite an Achievement for our Bradders! For more on the Heat and to track Adam’s progress go to www.canberraheat.com

EUROPEAN PRO VOLLEYBALL IN CRISIS AS THE RECESSION HITS THE SPORT IN 12-13... ARTICLE TAKEN FROM VOLLEYWOOD – FOLLOW THEM ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK FOR THE BEST INSIGHGT INTO THE WORLD OF ELITE VOLLEYBALL www.volleywood.net “The 2012/2013 season holds the record with the least number of foreign players. The Serie A in Italy, the top league in the country, has lost more than half of its starts in recent years. Italian players like Simona Gioli, Eleonora Lo Bianco, Antonella Del Core, Carolina Costagrande and Sara Anzanello have abandoned the Italian League to seek greener pasture in countries like Turkey and China. Czech Republic’s Havelkova and Havlickova, who played a great season with Yamamay last season, have left Italy to play in Russia and Azerbaijan. As for male athletes who played in Italia last season, Croatian Igor Omrcen (opposite star of Macerata) moved to Asia to play in the Japanese League where he was obviously offered a much higher salary. Volleyball players at the summer market experienced a large drop in purchases of foreign reinforcements European leagues. Famous Italian league lost as much as half of foreign stars. Italian club teams are having troubles with money. Consequently, only 75 foreign players are registered in the league this season compared to last year’s 145. Pro league in countries like Greece and Spain, who both hold the highest unemployment rate in the continent, are also facing major major major crisis. Only 7 foreign players from 53 last year are playing in Espanya this season. Premiere Leagues in Russia, Turkey and Poland are also facing crisis.” As the table on the right shows this decline has struck all of the major leagues and perhaps it is no surprise that countries facing the biggest financial challenges such as Greece and Spain have been hit most of all. So, what does this mean for us in England? Well for one thing it is really noticeable that our top GB players who had been playing in leagues such as Belgium and Holland have been less successful in attaining contracts this season – perhaps with Fewer spots available in the bigger leagues other players have displaced our guys and girls? Whatever the case, it proves that although Volleyball is big business on the continent it is not immune to the global challenges being faced at the moment.

Country 2011/2012 2012/2013 Change

France 242 217 -25

Italy 145 75 -70

Russia 47 38 -11

Poland 43 30 -13

Turkey 32 25 -7

Greece 44 14 -30

Spain 53 7 -46

Portugal 35 16 -19

Satellite Academy After a year in the planning the Newcastle-Under-Lyme College Volleyball Academy was finally launched in September. The project brings together the college, NSVC and Volleyball England together in partnership to provide local talented 16-18yr olds with the opportunity of a daily training regime. The Academy will run with 11 official members in Year 1, with a few selected players also invited to train on a weekly basis. Whilst initially the squad comprises of players from various 6th form establishments, it is hoped that in the future more athletes will be attracted to study at the college. Hopefully in year 2 the group will extend to near 20 members with possible separate sessions for both male and females. Newcastle Colleges Gordon Banks Sports Centre provides an excellent base for the Academy and can provide all the facilities and back-up that an elite athlete could wish for. College sessions will be coached by NSVC’s own Ant Viggars and assisted by Ross Cope from NULC. Matt Berrisford(ex NSVC junior) in the Sport Science Department will provide extensive fitness testing and help with diet/nutrition and sports psychology. He can also help design a personal gym program for the athlete to take advantage of their free gym membership. Strength and conditioning training takes place before college on Tuesdays led by Nathan Russo. Free sports therapy and rehabilitation(massage) can also be booked with Ant Bossum. Competition will be provided via the British College Championships in which NULC are the current boys and mixed champions. Whilst many year 10/11’s will this year be invited to visit a training session, anyone interested in being a future member of the Academy please feel free to discuss this with either: •Ant Viggars – anthonyviggars@nulc.ac.uk or at NSVC Friday training •Trevor Humphries (NULC Academy Manager) – trevor.humphreys@nulc.ac.uk The Current Academy Squad is: Elliott Francis Dan Arme Ross Thompson Jordan Adelburgh Cameron Rhodes Izaak Bourne Will Richardson Alistair Donaldson Harriet Roberts Sophie Key Kate Valentine

Guests Meg Viggars Hannah Kettle Rob Bellamy Richard James

Who’s Reading ‘Castle News? Through our reporting software we are now able to get hold of some detailed information on who is reading ‘Castle News – in terms of when it is read, what causes spikes in readership, how long people take to read it and where in the world they are when they do. Fascinating for a geek! So what we know from edition 71/72 released in September is that launch day and subsequent promotion on twitter and facebook caused big spikes in readership and that for this edition there were readers in Australia, Canada, the USA, Holland, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland (we also think we can work out who those people were!!). The average time spent reading this edition of ‘Castle News was 3.01 minutes, but in more detail the readers in the first week spent on average a lot longer... what does that tell us?... Well, it seems clear that there are a good number of repeat visitors who go back into ‘Castle News to look at something specific after having read it in full previously, and that a lot of readers take it in in chunks! All this info will help us to continue to refine the content and make it as appropriate as possible – but if there is anything you would like to read more about the please let us know!

England Junior go to Brazil in Nov/Dec The England Junior men are going to Brazil in November/December as part of an exchange programme which was initiated through the 2012 Sainsbury’s School Games in May this year, when Brazilian youngsters in Athletics, Judo and Swimming took part as guests in London. Volleyball and Swimming squads will be in Brazil from the 25th November to the 6th December as part of the delegation taking part in the Brazilian School Games which is effectively a multi-sport inter state championship. As one of the world’s leading Volleyball nations this will be a phenomenal experience for the boys and ‘Castle’s Leon Chambers and Teme Samuel have both been selected, sadly 16 year old Rich James has not on this occasion. For ‘Castle, if Men1 beat Sunderland City Predators in the Cup on November 3rd this means their cup round 3 match at Sheffield will need to be rearranged. Good luck to the lads, we look forward to hearing all about it!

U16 and U18 Cup draws confirmed October saw the release of the draws for the u16 and u18 national Cups, with ‘Castle entering 2 teams in the under 16 boys and the under 16 girls, 1 under 18 girls team and 2 under 18 boys teams. The under 16 boys get the action started as the B team travel to Redhill on the 24th November to take on the hosts plus Nuneaton and Tettenhall. Then its the under 16 girls on the 1st December where both the A and B teams are in action at Madeley against (again!) Redhill, Nuneaton and Tettenhall. The under 18 boys B enter the fray also in round 1 at Wigan Seahawks where they will also play against Manchester Marvels, and Middlesbrough. The under 16 boys A start their campaign in round 2 as the hosts on the 26th January. They could face their own B team on that day – depending on if and where they qualify they’ll go to either Madeley with the A team, or to Nottingham. The under 16 girls teams will move into a group hosted by Black Country (essentially the best players from Redhill and Tettenhall) whether they finish 1st or 2nd in their first round group. The under 18 girls who lost in last year’s final are the hosts in round and will be hoping to make it to the top 8s, and will take on the Black Country plus two teams from Black Country B, Salford, Wirral and Kettering. The under 18 boys A team also play as hosts in round 2 and will take on 2 teams from Wigan, Manchester, ‘Castle B and Middlesbrough, and the winner of the group containing Welbeck, Kettering, Black Country and Warwick Riga, Good luck to all of the teams!

HALF-TERM INTER- SATELLITE ACTION 38 enthusiastic year 9/10s from Madeley and St John Fisher gathered at the NSVC/NULC Academy base, Newcastle College for a Halloween 4v4 tournament. As the competition was arranged only days before, as sports hall space became available, organiser Ant Viggars was highly delighted with the turn-out. The competition consisted of 9 teams with 4 from SJF and 5 from Madeley.

The group stages were timed matches and produced many close games, with several being decided on the last point. Despite the close competition though, the spirit and sportsmanship remained 1st class throughout. Special note must go to a team of girls from SJF, new to the game in September, who battled on gamely against much more experienced opponents.

The semi-final line-up provided 2 Madeley boys teams against 2 girl’s teams, one each from both SJF and Madeley. With the standard now raised with all teams believing they could win it was no surprise that the games were again close. The final turned out to be a repeat of an earlier group match with a strong Madeley boys side captained by Harry Dawson reversing the earlier result against Madeley ‘A’, girls despite a fine performance from the strong serving Olivia Burton. Other good performances came from the fast improving Lucy Matthews and St John Fishers Sim Kusakurowa.

Hopefully the success of this tournament will be repeated during future school holidays, as NSVC hopes to further build on its strong satellite links.

UNDER 16 BOYS TO GO DUTCH THIS CHRISTMAS On Boxing day the ‘Castle under 16 boys will fly to Holland to play in the prestigious

Apeldoorn tournament hosted by SV Dynamo. Over the years this tournament has attracted numerous high quality club teams from across Europe and for the last 2 years the ‘Castle under 187 girls have competed, famously reaching the semi-finals in 2010. The lads have been training 3 times per week since September and their participation in this event with be focussed upon 4 key factors in their development: - Inspiration - Team Spirit - Raised Aspirations - Challenge The squad is as follows – Rich James, Will Beacon, Rob Bellamy, Connor Grimes, Jonny Denfhy, Zakk Hadgett, Tom Carter, Matt Smith, Filip Kaminski, Peter Drijfhout and one guest – Ben Tomlinson from Nottingham Rockets. The team will supported by Rod Stockwell as coach, Charlie Carter as assistant coach, Libby Bellamy as team manager and a number of parents who are going as fans!

VOLLEYBALL ENGLAND EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING: MEMBERSHIP Volleyball England have released details of what is termed an extraordinary general meeting where significant changes to the membership structure of the sport in this country will be discussed and voted upon. There is some info on this below for you to read and take in, but for more info please just go to: http://www.volleyballengland.org/about_us/board_of_directors/egm After the highs of this summer’s Olympics and Paralympic Games, the focus is now on how we capitalise on the enthusiasm and interest in volleyball. It is time to take stock on how we can do more for our members and new participants coming in to the sport.

The way we serve our members and the current club affiliation system has a number of major shortcomings. We have very few details about our individual participants and cannot take into account their needs when developing and offering benefits and services. Principally, the system does not allow us to communicate with participants in the way we need.

Over the last 12 months we have been reviewing and consulting across the sport and believe the time is now right to change how we serve and administer membership. This issue has been ongoing for many years but it has become more important to address for the benefit of everyone.

We are writing to you to announce that we will be calling an EGM on the 10th November to change how we operate membership, in an effort to greatly improve services and to help with the development of the sport in all its forms. Volleyball England is putting forward a special resolution to its Articles of Association to enable the organisation to move to a system of Individual Registration from the beginning of the 2013/14 season.

In the new proposal, participants would register individually with Volleyball England and will be offered a wide package of membership benefits which we aim to increase and improve upon in the future. The new arrangements will be simpler to administer, offer greater flexibility to the individual, and ensure that we can offer a consistent, high class membership benefits package and service to all volleyball participants. A small fee will be required when registering.

At the same time, the new proposal would help to ensure that participants are aware of the various opportunities available to them including insurance, discounts, funding, event information, tickets, bespoke training sessions and access to conferences/seminars. It would also allow Volleyball England to fully support the activities that we believe are important for the future success of the sport post the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The new system will be of huge benefit to our members and our hope is that members will feel not only that they get something from being a volleyball participant, but also that they are actively supporting the development of volleyball for the future.

Men’s Results

Team Gios 2-0 Castle Lions (25-10, 25-10)

NuLC 2-0 Staffs Uni (25-18, 25-23)

Castle Spitfires 2-0 Castle Go Spike! (25-14, 25-21)

Fenton 2-0 Keele Uni (25-19, 25-22)

P Team Sets

won

Sets

lost

Pts

won

Pts

lost

Pts

diff

League

pts

1 Team Gios 2 0 50 20 +30 2

2 Castle Spitfires 2 0 50 35 +15 2

3 Fenton 2 0 50 41 +9 2

4 NuLC 2 0 50 41 +9 2

5 Staffs Uni 0 2 41 50 -9 0

6 Keele Uni 0 2 41 50 -9 0

7 Castle Go Spike! 0 2 35 50 -15 0

8 Castle Lions 0 2 20 50 -30 0

Next fixtures: 9th November 19.30 – ‘Castle Lions v Staffs Uni 20.05 –‘Castle Spitfires v Fenton 20.45 – Team Gios v NuLC 20.45 – Keele Uni v ‘Castle Go Spike! 10th December 18.30 – ‘Castle Lions v ‘Castle Spitfires 19.05 – ‘Castle Spitfires v Team Gios 19.45 – ‘Castle Lions v Keele Uni 19.45 - ‘Castle Go Spike! v Staffs Uni 20.30 – Keele Uni v Staffs Uni 20.30 – Fenton v NuLC

The new North Staffordshire league got up and running in October with a busy night of volleyball at Madeley! With a total of 6 matches on the night there were over 80 players involved ranging from novice adults playing their first ever ‘proper’ matches, to developing junior players, to England Junior Internationals and senior players with decades of experience on the court.

The atmosphere at Madeley was buzzing as the first matches got underway, and first blood went to Team Gios in the men’s league as they beat the very young ‘Castle Spitfires team 2-0. At the same time Newcastle College took on and beat Staffs Uni in a good quality close encounter. After the ‘Castle Spitfire beat Go Spike the match of the day took place...

Women’s Results

Lady Gios 2-0 Castle u16 girls (25-16, 25-19)

Castle Dynamo 2-0 Castle Go Spike (25-7, 25-13)

P Team Sets

won

Sets

lost

Pts

won

Pts

lost

Pts

diff

League

pts

1 Castle Dynamo 2 0 50 20 +30 2

2 Lady Gios 2 0 50 35 +15 2

3 Keele University 0 0 0 0 0 0

4 Castle u16 girls 0 2 35 50 -15 0

5 Castle Go Spike! 0 2 20 50 -30 0

Next fixtures: 9th November 19.30 – ‘Castle u16 v ‘Castle Go Spike! 20.05 – Keele University v ‘Castle Dynamo 10th December 18.30 – ‘Castle Dynamo v ‘Castle u16s 19.05 – ‘Castle Go Spike v Keele University

... as Fenton (Old Boys) took on a Keele side featuring a number of guest players after a number of students pulled out. Fenton won the match 2-0 in a powerful game which saw a peak crowd of 30 stay on to take in the action.

The ladies league is smaller than the men’s in terms of its number of teams but it is no less competitive. Lady Gios and Castle Dynamo are the early pace setters but the ‘Castle under 16 girls looked like a team to watch who will improve throughout the season as they pushed Gios hard. The November and December fixtures are listed below – why not come down to watch and support the vibrant local volleyball scene. @NorthStaffsVb

London 2012: A Statisticians’ View (is a very good one) Rod Stockwell

PART 2: CONTINUED FROM THE JULY/AUGUST EDITION OF ‘CASTLE NEWS! The last match of the day, Brazil versus Turkey, was to throw up its own issues in concentration levels as one of the teams, Turkey, had 2 liberos, one a reception specialist, and the other a defence specialist, which they changed almost every point. The challenge for us was that we had to change them on the screen with the same frequency, just another thing to watch for along with time outs, substitutions and every contact of the ball on your side of the net!

Not only was there all this focus needed, but the end of the match, for the second night on the trot, didn’t arrive until 1.00 a.m. and fatigue was beginning to set in. Luckily my team were on reserve duties the next day, so while 2 of them enjoyed a day off, I went to the Launderette in the morning, and covered the last 3 matches of the day (able to watch and enjoy them from just behind the team bench), in case of illness or a no show. For the 3rd night on the trot, though, I didn’t get back to my room until 1.00 a.m. and this time had to be in for the first match the following day! Oh well, sleep is over rated anyway!!

Day 3 of the competition saw an early start, breakfast at 7.00 a.m. to get the 7.30 a.m. bus to Earls Court, to be there at least an hour before the official match start. As always, we were sat at our table 31 minutes before the match start with bottles filled with Powerade to provide the much needed sugar rush as tiredness crept in! China and Turkey were to provide the entertainment in the first match, so with 2 liberos on one side, there was, again, no time to relax, or to think about the lack of sleep. After a match off to rest and relax, recuperate and get something to eat, the Dominican Republic took on Russia, my first chance to see the tall Russian Ladies side, Ekaterina Gamova coming in at 2.02 metres (6 foot 8 inches in old money). After getting something to eat and returning to the hotel, I settled down to watch the GB ladies take on Algeria, getting so involved with the match that I switched to using my laptop when the BBC coverage stopped! Not a pretty or convincing win, but a necessary and well fought one! Go on GB ladies!

I’d experienced the noise created by the Polish fans as a reserve on day 2, so I had an idea of what to expect for my first match on day 4, but the volume had been turned up when they played Bulgaria, and I could only think that they would continue to get louder as the week went on, especially when they played GB men. This was my first men’s match, and the speed and power was spectacular, with Bulgaria’s opposite hitter, Sokolov, proving too powerful for Poland despite their stoic, ‘Castle like defense, that saw one of their players destroy the hording in front of me chasing a ball down!! This was the worst shift, as you had to arrive by 10.30 a.m. for match 2, scheduled to start at 11.30 a.m., and then a break of at least 5 hours before having to return by 7.00 p.m., for match 5, starting at 8.00 p.m. Match 5 was GB versus Australia, and a good performance was necessary and anticipated after the ladies victory the day before, but unfortunately this didn’t happen and Australia ran out comfortable winners.

This summer I was invited by the British Paralympic Association to work as a member of staff on their Paraylmpic Inspiration Programme. This programme was designed to help aspiring Paralympians understand the unique environment of a Paralympic Games, so that they can prepare themselves for the experience that they may face in Sochi, Rio and beyond. My role would be to work with a group of athletes and coaches to help them in this learning experience and to guide them through the Paralympics GB training camp pre-Games and then into a Games-time experience. 80 athletes, coaches and sports staff took part in the programme. Athletes from three winter sports and 20 summer sports, including Para-triathlon and Para-canoeing both of whom will be competing in Rio for the first time, took part in the Programme. After a day of team building for the programme staff in London where we got our bearings and took in the surroundings enough to properly prepare to help our group make the most of the experience we set off to Bath University. It was here that the whole of the British Paralympic Team was preparing to compete in the Games. Sadly, I missed the Sitting Volleyball team as they departed for London on the Friday to give themselves plenty of time to orientate to the Village and their training venues. That said, even if they had been there I would not have been able to spend time with them as I would have been considered a distraction to their preparations – this was a key learning for the athletes on our programme.

Penny Briscoe, Director of Performance at the BPA, explained the rationale behind the programme as follows: “The Games are absolutely unique: the difference between a World Championships and a Paralympic Games is even more marked in a disabled context than it is in a non-disabled context. This programme is absolutely essential to enable us to keep ahead of the chasing pack...”

“…this programme is all about: ensuring that athletes understand what it takes to be a Paralympian and are able to thrive in the environment where they will all want to produce a personal best performance. It is critical that the Games environment does not come as a surprise or a distraction to British athletes when we get to Sochi or to Rio.”

Paralympic

Inspiration Four days later and I was back on route down to London. It was the lovely 5.27am train that got me there the morning after the opening ceremony – now it was Games Time. First thing was to chuck my stuff into the glamorous student accommodation before getting down to work – in the morning this was to run a workshop with the athletes to help orientate themselves to the mentality of competing the biggest event of their careers – how would they feel... what would be different... how would they cope with it all? We were then off to the part of the programme that I had personally been most looking forward to as we departed for the Paralympic Village. In the same site as the Olympic Village this place was like heaven for me – I’d always wanted to be an Olympian so I must admit that at times my professional face dropped and I was like a kid in a sweet shop. We were hosted by the management of the team and it was great to see plenty of familiar faces – either through my own links at work or in sport, or from the TV! We saw pretty much everything in the Village and for the aspiring athletes it was truly inspirational... of course the centrepiece was the evening meal we had in the dining hall – a truly huge place full of elite sportspeople and the most amazing food choices!

After an anti-doping session back at based we went to bed to rest for day 2. If day 1 was not enough, on day 2 we spent our time at sports, so for me that was ½ day at the Olympic Park focussing on Goalball, and ½ day at Excel with Judo and Powerlifitng. One big highlight was being unable pot see Sitting Volleyball as it was a sell out!! Our job was to look at and highlight the finite detail in that sporting environment and again help the athletes prepare. Day 3 was classroom based with a fantastic session on preparing for competition, before getting the train back north!

‘Castle Teams in the NVL The ‘Castle NVL teams have had a mixed start to their seasons with varying degrees of success but yet again of the teams are bursting with a lot of young talent, the majority of which has come through our own talent development pipeline and gives the club a real home town family feel even at performance level. The ladies are currently 2nd in the NVL table and after 2 agonising 3-2 defeats in their opening two games (including having been 2-0 up against Loughborough Dolphins at home) have raced to a series of consecutive wins. With a significant number of their matches coming before Christmas and key players currently in great form things bode well for the ladies to be thinking about a top half of the table finish under coach Ant Viggars.

Men 2 have also had a strong start and have bagged some excellent wins over the likes of Brentwood and Leicester who have featured in NVL1 in recent seasons. The team is now starting to settle with the likes of .....

2012-13 Season ... Sam Stevenson and Aykut Nafioglu proving critical to the team, and younger players Elliott Francis, James Chadwick and Cameron Rhodes big features in the team. Men2 will be looking to take wins in each of their remaining matches before Christmas and if they do so they will be on the fringes of the play-off zone moving into 2013 and will be pleased to be looking upwards rather than down.

For men1 their return to the top flight after two years away has been a tough one. Losing 8 players from the promotion team has not helped, but a lot of young talent has come in and the team has impressed the home fans in their matches so far with their grit and determination. With another crop of teenagers in the side one things that’s for sure is that they’ll be a much stronger side come the end of the season and could take crucial wins to keep themselves in the Super 8s.

Please note that the fixtures below are the NVL match dates only and don’t include the senior National Cups (which the women have not entered this season) or any of the Junior Competitions). Please make sure that the dates all go into the diary asap!

Date Men 1 Women 1 Men 2 06/11/2012 Lboro Dolphins (A) (Tues 7pm) 17/11/2012 London Lynx (H) South Hants (H) Loughborough Students (H) 18/11/2012 Team South Wales (H) 24/11/2012 London Polonia (A) South Hants (A) Leeds (A) 25/11/2012 Reading Aces (A) 08/12/2012 Malory Eagles (H) South Birmingham (H) 09/12/2012 Tameside (H) 12/01/2013 Coventry & Warwick Riga (A) Brentwood Estonians (A) 19/01/2013 SGTV Solent (H) Cambridge (H) 26/01/2013 Sheffield (A) Leicester (A) 16/02/2013 Team Northumbria (H) Devon (H) Wigan Seahawks (H) 02/03/2013 Bristol (A) 03/03/2013 London Lynx (A) Team South Wales (A) 09/03/2013 London Polonia (H) Northampton (H) Northumbria Mboro Academy (H) 23/03/2013 Play-Off Quarter Finals Loughborough Students (A) 24/03/2013 Play-Off Quarter Finals Leeds (H) 06/04/2013 Play-Off Semi Finals Reading Aces (H) 13/04/2013 South Birmingham (A) 27/04/2013 Relegation play-off 7th place

NVL Play-offs 28/04/2013 Relegation play-off 7th place 04/05/2013 Play-off Finals 05/05/2013 Play-off Finals