The King & Queen of the Beach event is a different format from the usual beach volleyball tournaments. Each player enters as an individual and plays against and with different players throught the day, amassing points for themselves. After each round the top players in each pool progress to the next round, the lower players play in playoff pools, so there is lots of beach volleyball on offer throughout the day.
Saturday 7th July was the date in the diary, but the weather had something to day about that as gales came in and the rain lashed down. The event was moved to the Sunday and the weather was great!
In the Women’s event, play began on centre court with some very tight matches and at the end of play it was found that Nicola McKenzie had lost out to Claire Penny by a single point to become the new Queen of the Beach 2012.
In the men’s event it was equally close, with some great pool matches. Konrad Krawczyk, qualified for the final however had to pull out for a second successive year with a pulled hamstring. So the finalists were Colin Paterson, Lenard Sobieracki, Rinars Teters and Callum Moir. The final match was as tight as the first and ended up with Colin and Lenard tied on points which meant a tiebreak – first to 3 points, 2 clear. Lenard, playing with Rinars, narrowly took it 4-2 to become the new King of the Beach 2012.
Many thanks to all who came to play and to those who turned up early and stayed late to help with equipment. Long live the King and Queen!
Colin Paterson