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Summer Schedule and End of Season Wrap-Up for Maidstone Volleyball Club

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Kent County Volleyball Finals Day

Maidstone VC are proud to yet again be hosting the Kent County Volleyball Finals Day (this is the 4th in a row since Lewis took over as Chair of the KCVA).

Please feel free to come along and watch some great volleyball throughout the day, and stay to cheer on our very own Diamonds players collect the trophy and medals for winning the Women’s 1st League this season 🙂

Team Performances

This season saw the growth of all six teams across the club. New players joined Gems, Quartz, Emeralds, and Onyx. A couple of key players strengthened the first teams for Diamonds and Rocks.

Good progress was made throughout, ending the season much stronger than it started!

Diamonds performed the best, earning a place in the SEVA tournament via winning the KVCA Women’s Premier Division! This was an exceptional achievement by Coach Frank and the players. It often required players to play out of position. They won the league by a single set point. It was a narrow victory over a very competitive Tonbridge team, who also joined the SEVA tournament.

MVC AGM and End of Season Awards and Social Evening

This year’s AGM will be held at the Market House in Maidstone (upper room is booked out) from 5pm. We urge members to come along and share their views. Members should understand how the club is run. They can see if they can help with running any part of it. Members will also vote on some important matters.

Each year, our committee posts are retired and put back up for nomination and election. All members above 18 years old are eligible to nominate themselves for these posts:

Chair

Finance/Treasurer

Secretary/Operations

We also have non-portfolio specific committee roles and all members are eligible to apply for these roles.

There are lots of tasks that need doing throughout the season, and every little helps 🙂

After the AGM concludes, the venue will transform into the Awards Ceremony. We will hand out various awards for members’ efforts throughout the season. The below awards come with a name on the plaque, forever to be written into MVC history books:

Club Player of The Year (as voted for by all members)

Most Improved Player (Womens, Mens, Foundation and Junior – as voted for by coaches)

Volunteer of the Year (based on sessions / events helped at, annxiliiary items, as voted for by the Commitee)

Ray’s Unsung Hero Award – In memory of Ray, a special award is given to someone who may go under the radar. This person means a lot to the club and its members.

There will also be extra awards throughout the evening for team specific items.

Summer Schedule

The 2024/2025 Indoor season is approaching its end. Only 1 week of regular indoor training is left. After that, we will move to our summer schedule.

Tuesdays – 7:00pm-8:30pm – Women’s 1st and 2nd team training by invitation

Tuesdays – 8:30pm-9:00pm – Men’s 1st and 2nd team training by invitation

Wednesdays – 6:00pm until 7:30pm – Junior Training

Thursdays – 6:30pm – 8:00pm – Social Indoor Games sessions

We will also be having outdoors grass nets up, these will be advertised dependant on weather via Spond.

To join our club and receive invitations to these PAYG sessions, please complete the form https://club.spond.com/landing/signup/maidstonevolley

Payment

Due to the rise of hall hire fees, we have had to increase our fees slightly. However, we are trialling a Summer Pay Back Scheme.

This means that the price for each adult 1.5 hour session is £13 plus Spond payment fee. But each month, an admin will review attendance for the previous sessions, and work out the average attendance. If this average is above 8, players will receive credit to use at other sessions. If they are only summer players, the club will refund them the equivalent amount. This refund will be deposited back into their bank at the end of the season.

An example: if June average attendance is 12, each player who paid or used credit to attend will receive £4 credit per session. This credit is given for each session they attended. This would make the session actual cost only £9. It runs on a scale for 9,10,11 & 12 attending.

The Club believes this is the fairest way to charge players. It ensures the hire fees are covered. Additionally, it reduces the actual cost to members as low as possible.

Final Standings of 2024 Summer Volleyball Championship

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So, it took a while to get the results in, but here we have our final standings for the 2024 Maidstone Volleyball Club outdoor Summer Champs Grand Prix!

Dodging the weather with wind, sun & rain, we saw:

  • 7 events in total take place over the course of the summer.
  • 48 different players took part in the event.
  • 42 separate games took place
  • The lead changed hands multiple times and was decided on the last day
  • Callum & Rajnish held the joint top average score per event at 158 points
  • Archie, Jorden and Lewis had the highest participation
  • 1 model airplane & 1 dog had a cameo appearance
  • 3 quadzillion bugs entered towards the end…
  • 1 ankle was twisted, 1 parent was unexpectedly involved and no sunburns were reported…
  • Up to 4 courts were in use at once at many sessions.

Quite impressive stats for the inaugural event, which was only conceived at the beginning of July. Had it started when outdoors summer season first begun, we could have seen another 5 or 6 events take place! This really shows just how strong the love of volleyball is in the region right now.

Throughout the Grand Prix, we saw standout performances from many players, with everyone increasing their game. Almost all of these players are now continuing with the indoor season at MVC, adding the existing indoor players roster of talent and potential.

The format of the events, was have all players play with different people over timed games. There was no split between gender, ability or age. Often starting at 6v6 for 20 minutes, and as people arrived team split into smaller teams of 4 or 3.

At the end of each game, the teams scores were recorded. Players were then awarded these points to their tally. So if a player played 3 games, and scored 15, 26 and 23, they would have earned 64 points for them.

Teams were chosen at random, with a mixture of playing cards being used, and suggestions of random iterations of 1,2,3,4. Only the last event was structured, so that the leading players were on different teams.

After the results were in, it seems that consistency and regularity was the key. Combining a moderate average score per game, with a high attendance was the order of the day.

To ensure a high average score, it meant no matter who was on your team, the team had to perform.

Taking the bronze medal at the end of the summer for 3rd place was Archie with 847 points.

Just missing out on top spot on the last day but still getting a very good silver for 2nd place was Jorden with 872 points.

And our winner this season, was Lewis taking gold, with a total points of 914.

Next summer season promises to bring even better competition, and hopefully better prizes (our winners received a well deserved pat on the back this year…).

If any attendees have any photos of the events, please feel free to share with maidstonevolleyball@gmail.com.

Now onwards to the indoor season!

MVC Summer Champs 2024: Final Showdown Anticipation

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The 20th August saw the penultimate MVC Summer Champs event of 2024….. and another 18 players turning up to strut their volleyballing stuff on the fields of the historic Mote Park.

We saw early season leader Gareth return to form, outscoring leader board contenders Lewis and Archie. A strong net presence and back court passing saw Arnis grab the joint top spot for the event scoring 123 points. And a very spirited effort from Harper, who let no one stand in their way of also scoring the joint most points for the day!*

*Thankfully, no parental spectators were seriously hurt in the greyhound like efforts of ball chasing….

The weather looks be on the side of the brave this evening, as we see in the final event to crown our 2024 summer champs. With only 100 points between 1st and 4th position, everything is to play for, and none of the top 4 will be on the same team, so we are hoping to see theorectical fireworks.

But, Kudos today goes to Jorden, who has consistently remained among the top scorers at every event, showing that experience really does count for a lot when it comes to winning matches, through smart play, great team work, or just shear luck. He is now our a new leader, and surely is in pole position to take it over the line…

MVC Volleyball Event Recap: Thrilling Matches, Weather Challenges, and Leaderboard Updates

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For the first time in quite a few weeks, the rain looked threatening, but that did not deter this bunch of weather hardy players!

A tent was set up for valuables, two courts were erected, and players started getting ready.

Pre team selection, chatter was rife with who may be leading after this week, with the absence of the championship leader Gareth….

The first match, as always, was a 6 v 6 affair, with an even split down the leader board for players, it showed when the match finished a nail biting 23-24, those on team 2 getting a single point advantage over their fellow players.

The arrival of 3 players brought the return to 4 v 4, and we enlisted the all powerful random team selection machine, otherwise known as ‘The Chair’….

There was a notable performance from some of the shorter players, moving about and picking up more balls than normal, negating some of the taller players tactics.

And then…came…the….rain…!!! Thankfully it was only a light drizzle, so was still playable with a little caution and a keen eye on the surface.

Even with some players seemingly ignoring coaches advice to only bump set, confident in their water based setting skills…. this then brought about an onslaught of handling errors, most noticed in the 3rd match between team 1 and team 2, with a 13-28 victory!

The weather dried up for matches 4, 5 & 6, but the light reduced. We are not sure if this is due to the earlier setting of the sun, darker clouds looming overhead, or the apparent mass of gnats or mosquitos blocking out the sun in search of the juiciest skin….

There were some notable performances throughout the evening, with a special congratulations for Harper for gaining the highest score of the evening at 151, 7 points more than 2nd highest scorer – also thank you for keeping the scores in your game as well Harper 🙂

The average scores per match for this week were 19.83 at lowest, and 25.16 at highest.

Our most notable movers in the top of the table this week were Gareth, dropping from the lofty heights of 1st down to 5th after missing this event, and Kenny moving all the way up to 4th. She is now the leading female, but also in contention of taking the overall title, being only 89 points from the lead!

With Jorden managing to outscore Archie by 17 points this week, it has moved him up into 3rd, 2 points behind Archie in 2nd place.

Our new leader this week, for the 2nd time, and scoring the second highest amount for this week, is Lewis. An impressive 144 this week moves him into 1st place on 716 points, 44 points clear of the lead.

What will happen next week? Can Gareth reclaim his position at the top? Can Archie beat his old coach, can Jorden prove the value of experience? Or will Kenny or Harper come rattling through to contest the lead? Only time will tell!