Beach Weekly Reports The Malthouse Beach Court Opening: Saturday, Nov 27^th 2010. VERY successful day. After a brief speech thanking the Council, Canterbury Trust and his Marlborough Volleyball Club Committee for their financial input, Roy Titheridge ( Chairman of the Beach Volleyball steering committee) handed over to VNZ President Allan Brodie.  Brodie outlined a bit of history not only of VNZ and Beach Volleyball in NZ but the long saga of events leading up to this day.  He included comment that Malthouse Beach could well be on the revamped National Tour after original tour promoters SMC had their contract cancelled and the Tour is now back under the direct control of VNZ.    ( In my opinion, the best thing that could have happened as SMC have been stalling for months after failing to secure a Naming rights sponsor and been making big money off the events over the past 5 -6 years.  Money that could have been used to develop the game. ) After cutting the traditional RED RIBBON, Mr Brodie handed the first ball to be served by Ted Mason, owner of Ye Olde Malthouse, winner of the naming rights lottery.  Mason showed great composure in front of a crowd of about 100, mainly younger regular volleyballers and “aced” his serve into the back corner. AS the Westmeat’s BBQ began to sizzle with FREE sausages,  Players in the Nautilus Estates of Marlborough King and Queen of the Beach drew lots for the partner order.  On the mens  Fairweathers Court, 8 year National rep Greg Lindsay-Brown drew Warrick Wright a tall, athletic U23 Rower he has been coaching for the past year.  Wright’s intimidating blocking combined with GMoney’s (nickname) speed and anticipation in the backcourt proved too much for Invitation Player Ben “sticky” Glue of Christchurch and Alfie Walter, another of Greg’s protégés  from Woodbourne. The 21 – 12 scoreline was a not good indication of the closeness of the contest after both sides made numerous unforced errors in the first 10 points or so.  Once they  “found their sand legs”   ( it takes time to adjust from indoor “spring” off a wooden floor to the “boggy” nature of the sand), The match was spectacular for long energy sapping rallies.  Wright and Sticky jousted at the net, while Walter showed he has learned plenty off “the Master” with a dynamic defensive display.  Lindsay-Brown and Wright co-lead the competition going into the 2^nd round where they palyed against each other with different partners. Round 2 saw the Height of Wright and Glue against the speed and defense of GMoney and Walter and SPEED won the day.  Ultimately, their lack of ball control cost the Twin Towers on crucial points as the Dynamic Duo squeaked home 21 – 17.  That put GMoney in the box seat for the 3^rd and final round where he played with Sticky against the least experienced pairing of Wright and Walter.  Inevitably power and guile triumphed over youthful enthusiasm 21 - 10 and Greg Lindsay-Brown was “crowned” King of the Beach for the inaugural event, collecting Trophy, T-shirt and Sponsors product prizes. Final scores Greg Lindsay-Brown 63, Ben Glue 50, Warrick Wright 48, Alfie Walter 43. On Subway Court the bikini clad women battled out an epic , overtime and something of an upset, first round win to Micah Lindsay-Brown and Jade Stamp ( the youngest of 3 Christchurch “imports” ).  With the scores tied at 20 -20,  you must win by 2 clear points and it took a few mammoth, scrambling rallies to clinch it 23 – 21.  The “upset” tag comes from the fact that Michelle Kenny ( former stand-out Middle hitter for MGC and current NZ women’s indoor player) and partner Marie-Claire Brehaut ( also a current NZ rep) have been regular partners on the beach for the past 2 years, , finishing in the top 8 New Zealand teams and winning the 2009 title of the Tasman Open Beach Volleyball Championships.  All 3 chch players were sponsored to the event by MVC and Michelle’s mum!! Round 2 had Michelle and Jade struggling against the athletic pairing of Marie-Claire and Micah.  The two MC’s clicked immediately and ran out easy winners 21 – 8 in quick time. This set up an outside chance for Marie-Claire to challenge Micah for the title.  She would have to gel with 21 year old Jade ( formerly of NZ’s powerful Otumoetai College in Tauranga) against the experienced duo of Michelle and 20 time International rep Micah Lindsay-Brown.  The youngsters gave it a good crack, but Micah’s superb conditioning ( she and Grag have been training all winter at MGC ) shone through to clinch a 21 – 14 victory and her first Queen of the Beach Title. Final scores Micah Lindsay-Brown 63, M-C Brehaut 56, Michelle Kenny 50, Jade Stamp 45. So, all in al, a pretty successful day for the Lindsay- Brown household: Trophies, T-shirts, enough Nautilus Wine to sink a ship, well a kayak at least, and bragging rights to the Title of King AND Queen of their HOME beach. By this tme (2;30) the crowd had doubled and many of them took part in an adult serving competition for bottles of “product” by aiming at a t-shirt ( less than ¼  m² in 64 m² of court )  10 bottles were won before Cara Waipo of SMOG netball hit the T-shirt target for a second time, winning it and halting the competition.  The sausages were still going FREE. At 2.45 the Clash of the Codes  4 aside celebrity matches began with SMOGNetball women taking a default win over Rugby ( some say they were not prepared to defend their “turf” at Lansdowne others thought them “ just chicken” ) AS it was, they may have been wise to “no show” as the SMOG women Cara Waipo, Steffie Jones, Kate Parsons and Melissa Brady. Trounced the stand-in team from Touch ( also defenders of a patch of Lansdowne park ) 2 sets to nil.  To be fair, the young Touch boys had little experience and constantly questioned the rules and 3 of SMOG’s players had played for MGC at nationals in their senior year. On Fairweathers court, biceps bulged and the smack-talking through the net started as Basketball took on Rowing.  It was hard to tell the sides apart as van Velthooven sisters Sophie and Claudia have represented Marlborough at both ( as well as Volleyball) but this time Basketball claimed them and the 2 – 0 win.  Leo Waipo and Chris Andrew were the  other basketball reps.  Basketball went on to win against SMOG in the final. MGC and MBC seniors INDOOR teams squared up on Subway court for a 6 aside contest and the boys cast off their lack of a full team ( only 5 fronted ) and their shirts in an attempt to intimidate the girls !!!   It seemed to have worked as the lads adapted more quickly to the change of surface and won the first set 21 -13.  The second set went pretty much the same way as MGC  stuck to an orthodox indoors style defence against the advice of their coach.  Shannon Power was the most animated of the girls and Luka Velabit showed touches of class for the boys.   He backed that up with a win in the Under 18 serving competition for cans of drink, claiming the T-shirt by hitting it twice in quick time.   MBC= 2  -  MGC= 0 The Courts remained open to the public for another 2 hours and groups of Young people took the opportunity to play 4 aside games. The next events on the calendar (for beach) are Leagues running on Tuesday Nights 6 – 8pm for mixed 4 aside teams (almost full up) and Saturday 12;30 onwards for Mens and womens competitive pairs.  The most popular one I suspect will be Social 6 aside games for families, church groups, work-mates etc. on Sunday afternoons.  Entries to  Alvyn Meiklejohn,  Administration Officer,  Marlborough Volleyball Club Inc. Ph/Fax (03) 5781264/0211417583     alvyn@marlboroughvolleyball.org.nz       www.marlboroughvolleyball.org.nz The next TOURNAMENT is set for Saturday 22^nd January, but with the National Tour in a state of flux we could be invited to host an event before then. I’m away with MGC Juniors in Dunedin next week.  Roy>  0273255788