‘Castle News

Number 50 October 2010

50th

Edition of

‘Castle News!

Welcome from the Chair

Contents

3-6 – ‘Castle News Updates

7 - Big match night

8 – ‘Castle at the National Academy

9 – ‘Castle Ladies 2010-11

10-11 ‘Castle News... 50th Edition

12- Club Shop

13 – 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

50 is a significant number. It's Golden for marriage; it's half way to a century in cricket; and, of course, life begins at 50 for so many!

For 'Castle News, 50 represents the monthly efforts of Will Roberts, since September 2006, to report "The Life of 'Castle". And what a 50 months it's been, with the band of unpaid volunteers raising the bar, and exceeding expectations with a 'can do' approach.

Thanks to you all............and particularly to Will for his endurance with 'CASTLE NEWS. Long may this continue!!

Colin RobertsNSVC Chair

News Updates from ‘Castle!

‘Castle u18 girls Go Dutch and enter the Rabobank Jeugdtoernoori 2010

Following in the footsteps of the u18 boys trip to Italy to take place in the official European Club Cup for Junior Boys, the NSVC u18 girls have entered the Prestigious Apeldoorn tournament hosted by the famous Dutch Champions SV Dynamo.

The planned girls under 18’s trip to a major junior tournament in the Netherlands between Christmas and New Year arose out of a friendship between the Bellamy family and a Dutch family meeting up on a French campsite each year . Jen and Rob played volleyball at La Guyonniere with Wendy & Willeke Bon two Dutch girls. The girls came to stay with the Bellamy’s for a few days this summer and being keen players even trained with Jen and the u19 girls led by Coach Ant Viggars while they were here!

Back in the Netherlands they play for one of the most successful clubs in their Country: SV Dynamo based in Apeldoorn ,the men’s professional team are 12 fold and reigning champions of the Dutch A league.

This should be a trip to remember, and prepare the u18 girls well for the NationalChampionships this year

http://www.svdynamo.nl/jeugdtoernooi/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=549&Itemid=1876

Christmas Party Night Fundraiser Friday 17th DecemberBetley Village Hall

Disco, licensed bar and plenty of festive funWith the club. Tickets only £10 each – see Your squad coach or secretary to buy yoursTickets will be on sale at the Big Match Night on the 27th November

Make the most of the ‘Castle website!The ‘Castle website www.nsvc.co.uk continues to go from strength to strength with additional content and new for this season for many matches we will have match highlights to accompany the match reports written by the teams. These videos are embedded through the ‘Castle You Tube channel, which has now had over 1200 viewings of videos!!

The most viewed videos are:1 – LPV 2010 Highlights (208 views)2 – 30th Anniversary Highlights (189 views)3 – Goody spiking whilst lying down v

Wessex u16 final 2009 (167 views)

News Updates from ‘Castle!

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!

Fundraising News:Thanks to the form- filling skills of Richard Gurgul, Newcastle (Staffs) Volleyball Club will soon be in receipt of a £1000 cheque from the Staffordshire Police PASS group. This recognises the work that the club does to reduce anti-social behaviour and increase community cohesion.

Matthew Pitts efforts recognised by NSVCFor more years than most can recall in The club, Matthew Pitts has been an Absolutely vital volunteer. Whether it is giving up his time on NVL and Cup match days to be the scorer for our senior teams,and giving up literally a whole day to be a referee for our junior teams, the club could not operate in the way that it does with out Matthew, so a big thank you from us all!

Crewe Arms HotelThis season the men’s first team are training on match day morning’s for home matches, before going for team lunch at the Crewe Arms in Madeley Heath. The Crewe Arms will be given a match sponsorship in return for the great rates and hospitality that they are offering the club. If you fancy a drink or meal out why not try the Crewe Arms, and mention the club when you are in there.

News Updates from ‘Castle!

Young Volleyball Leaders at ‘Castle

Over the October half-term holidays a group of NSVC Juniors took part and completed Volleyball England’s Young Leaders Award. The course led by Community Coach Ant Viggars will enable the 12 participants to in the future help in the coaching of other juniors at both club training and holiday camp events. The Young Leaders will also hopefully be assisting in the running of various festivals hosted by NSVC including Premier League 4Sport, LPV and Newcastle School competitions.

Congratulations to all, and NSVC looks forward to your valuable contributions alongside present YL in the future running of the club.

The 12 new Young Leaders are:•Jenny Bellamy•Kirsty Hicks•Kate Valentine•Claire Hemmingway•Ruth Gurgul•Becky Machin•Marianne Drifhout•Hannah Kettle•Richard James•Rob Bellamy•Connor Grimes•Zak Hadgett

By Ant Viggars

Volleyball at PainsleyAt Painsley Catholic College in Cheadle the school/club link is going from strength to strength. With up to 40 people at training on Wednesday afternoon the hard work with the older students has paid off with them leading training sessions for the beginners.

The usual problems with net fixings and commitment to come to training at Newcastle/Madeley still persist but enthusiasm is the motivating factor. On Friday 22 October 2010 during a healthy lifestyle session with Year 7s Dawn Roberts took the opportunity to introduce the sport to 60 keen pupils.

On showing them the video of our Under 18s at this year's National Final one Year 7 commented " Miss - do they have special training shoes made with springs in them?" Oh lads how easily it is to impress young minds!!

By Dawn Roberts

City of Stoke-on-Trent 6th Form CollegeFor 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.”

News Updates from ‘Castle!

London 2012 Beach Volleyball venue:Horse Guards Parade

The Beach Volleyball venue for the 2012 London Olympic Games will be Horse Guards Parade, located close to both Downing Street and Buckingham Palace right at the heart of sightseeing central London. The above graphic of the arena comes courtesy of the BBC Sport website (for more, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11594375) and clearly shows how spectacular a stadium is to be created.

Building will take place over just a 6 week period, when the 15,000 seater arena (the same as Centre Court at Wimbledon) will be created in the Queen’s back garden straight after her Diamond Jubilee. Horse guards parade will host the 24 men’s and ladies teams, so a total of 96 of the best players from around the world, playing 108 matches in all across 14 days of the Olympic programme.

Team GB are hoping to field both men’s and ladies teams in the competitions at the world’s premier sporting event, with the potential for their to be two ladies team if Lucy Boulton and Denise Johns can keep up their excellent form from the end of this season when they finished a career high 13th in the main draw on the FIVB World Tour. Beach Volleyball has been part of the Olympic programme since the 1996 Atlanta Games, when Audrey Cooper and Mo Glover became the first (and currently the only) British players to compete in an Olympic Games.

2010-11 NSVC fixturesWith the 2010-11 fixtures announced and published, we’d like to encourage as many ‘Castle members as possible to get involved in supporting the senior teams as they all

aim for promotion to higher leagues next year.

From the off we have a big match night to promote:

27th NovemberThe really BIG match day!

Keele University

3pm - Ladies v UEA6pm - Men 1 v SGTV Solent

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!!

By James Goodwin

The decision to move to Loughborough undertaken by all the academy athletes has definitely been one of great success. For us young athletes moving away from our friends and family has been very difficult however the decision has rewarded us with a high quality full time training programme provided by Volleyball England. The quality of training has been of a fantastic standard working on a regular basis with the countries top coaches such as Keith Trenamand Craig Handford as well as Rogerio, who is a Brazilian coach that has worked in the National Junior programmes in Brazil, as well as a club legend winning 3 Brazilian national league titles as a professional senior.

Living together as a group has been particularly fun, as we have bonded well as a group. Sam Shenton quotes "Living together has really helped the team bond even further so than before!" Moving out was difficult saying goodbye to friends and family back home, particularly for players like Paige moving all the way from Bournemouth.

The training has benefited us massively and already people have noted improvements in all aspects of our game. In the mornings we have circuit type sessions designed for basic strength and conditioning to help prevent injury, these are Wednesday and Friday mornings. In the afternoon we have ball sessions these are on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

All sessions are conducted under a high intensity and we are seeing big benefitsin regular training. Roo Scott "I love having Trenam teach me to set."

Having so many of the academy athletes at Castle will hopefully really strengthen the ‘Castle junior squads and will consequently see another successful junior year for Castle!

Photos: Top – Roo Scott, Paige Nelmes and other National Academy players with Dame Kelly Holmes, bottom – the Gables – the halls where the players are living

‘Castle at the National Academy

"The academy is a one of a kind unique experience!”Stew Ross

"Being part of the academy experience has really helped me mature as a player and as a person.“Paige Nelmes

Following the retirement of a number of the club’s senior ladies players over the last couple of seasons, the 2010-11 season has seen the talented young players from the our junior ranks come through and they are really turning heads with excellent performances and results in NVL2 North, a league they hope to be promoted from this season.

Working with the squad are head coach Ant Viggars and new to the club, assistant Martin Mierzwa. Martin first got involved with volleyball whilst at school in Poland, and having moved to the UK in 2003 to go to Uni in Liverpool and coached college and local leaguevolleyball, Martin is now relishing the chance to be involved in national competition and he and Ant are enjoying working together.

The girls currently have a record of 5 wins and 1 defeat, which came when starting players Meg Viggars and new signing, 16 year old Paige Nelmes were away on England Women’s Development team duty. Of their progress this season, Ant Viggars says: “I am very pleased with the teams excellent start to the league campaign and feel confident that the girls can achieve a high league position this season, how high could ultimately depend on player availability.”

The current girls squad is almost exclusively made up of players that have come through the ‘Castle junior ranks, but one players that didn’t is the steadying influence of Helen Brittenwho greater experience is helping to guide the young players through their matches.

With the majority of the ladies home fixtures now scheduled to combine with men’s firstteam games, they are attracting what must be record crowds in the third tier of English Volleyball, and the response of the club to this has been fantastic. Men’s first team captainWill Roberts said, “It’s great that we share match days at Keele, it adds to the atmosphere & famous ‘Castle noise at matches, but also brings the whole club closer together.”

As the season goes on it is hoped that the ladies continue to progress and compete for thatpromotion we’d love to see to the next level in the league – if they got there it would be the highest achievement for the ladies side of the club.

‘Castle Ladies 2010-11

Paige Nelmes –feels she as settled in well in the team and loves playing infront of the noisy home support at Keele.

Lucy Preston – is loving the winning streak, but knows she must fight hard for court time this season.

‘Castle News... 50 editions!This month we celebrate the 50th edition of ‘Castle News, and with 14 pages it is a far cry from the first edition, a single side of A4 produced and completed on the 12th September 2006. The editor of ‘Castle News since it began is ‘Castle committee member Will Roberts, who explains why ‘Castle News was born, “The club had just celebrated its’ 25th Anniversary and we were really struggling to get our website sorted out – there were lots of problems with it and as the club was growing so fast at the time with so many new junior players coming on board we needed to do something to communicate better.”

The basic idea of ‘Castle News was to reflect on what had gone on in the club in recent months, and was not necessarily to be a monthly fixture in the diary but edition one had such an impact that the club quickly decided this needed to become a regular fixture. The first few editions just had a single page but it soon grew to two, then three, and once the first anniversary had been reached in September 2006, the e-newsletter became much more of a magazine with a dozen or so pages and that format has been retained on a monthly basis ever since.

‘Castle News is now simply posted online for anyone to read through the club website www.nsvc.co.uk but it was the case that the club’s database of email addresses was used – with the highest level of distribution going to 320 recipients. The club had no way of knowing how many of these recipients actually read each edition so the decision was made to use ‘reader’ software through the website. As the graph below shows for edition 49, published in early October – there have been a total of 74 readers of ‘Castle News, with the individual pages viewed almost 1000 times.

So, what’s your view – after 50 editions and over 4 years of ‘Castle News should there be a change of format? Should we...1. Stay monthly... we love our ‘Castle News2. Change to bi-monthly... more of a magazine and more pages3. Go Quarterly... Less work to worry about!!

‘Castle News... 50 editions!‘Castle’s first ever girls national title – the u14’s in 2008

‘Castle’s take 9 teams to the West Midlands u14 champs in February 2009

October 2009 – Men 2 host Men 1 in the 2nd

round of the National Cup!! April 2009 – the u16 boys win

the national title!

2010 – NSVC celebrates 30 years!

‘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