There are those players on the beach tour who think that the sun always shines in Troon.
Yet again the sun blazed over the Scottish Beach Tours second visit to Troon this season. There was a smaller than expected turn out of players but this was more than made up for by the weather, an impromptu match between a group of Zambian boys and the junior girls from the girls tournament (see a report on this elsewhere on the site), the large crowds who stood and watched and the fine standard of play.
The senior men’s competition consisted of two pools of four with Colin Paterson and James Jenson dominating pool one and Jack McKeown and Konrad Krawczyk controlling pool two. The pairings of Barry Robertson and Daniel Najdrowski and Peter Crkon and Marian Kosara clinched the remaining semi final places.
The play offs for fifth to eighth place saw Graeme Houston and Ryan McLeod overcome the very young but fast improving Alaistair McDonald and Scott Caddick to ease in to the fifth and sixth place play off and they were joined there by Sam Paaka and Kenny Moretta who defeated Shaun Stirrat and and William Stannage.
Stannage and Stirrat were unable to play in there final match which allowed McDonald and Caddick to take seventh position. Houston and McLeod were narrow victors over Moretta and Paaka to finish fifth.
In the semi finals pool winners Krawczyk and McKeown and Paterson and Jenson continued on their winning ways leaving Crkon and Kosara and Robertson and Najdrowski to fight for third slot. The experience of Robertson and Najdrowski finally winning that battle.
A big holiday crowd watched an enthralling final which saw great blocking from McKeown , superb powerful hitting and strong defence from Krawczyk which in the end was just too good for the smart and brave defence and intelligent hitting of their opponents. McKeown and Krawczyk finally running out 21-18 21-18 victors.
The junior girls event was not part of the beach tour but it was hard fought with all but one game going to 3 sets. The competition was won by the pairing of Cat Nairn and Sarah Robertson ( Nairn was joined by Madi Little for the last match) . The abiding memory for the girls and all who watched the day though was the six aside game between a group of Zambian boys who were on a day out and who asked to play some volleyball and the junior girls. The girls did Scottish volleyball proud both as players and as ambassadors.
My thanks go to Elaine and Jenny Krawczyk, Gordon Cree, Ryan McLeod, Gillian Lyall and Graeme Houston who did their usual job in putting up and taking down posts and nets amongst many other tasks to make sure the day ran smoothly for all.