After a very early start to the day the 'Castle Men 1 took on newly promoted Middlesbrough on the opening day of the season. The travelling party of 11 players will form the core of the first team throughout the season and featured 6 teenagers resulting in an average age of 23 (Falko's 38 years boosting this average!). Sixteen year old Roo Scott and seventeen year olds Roman Neveykin and Rashad Ali all played significant roles in a 3-1 win where Chris Anderson took the MVP award.

Congratulations on a great start to the season lads!

Men 1 have confirmed a pre-season friendly away versus fellow NVL1 team Warwick Riga on Wednesday 9th September as their final preparation towards the new season which opens up away at Middlesbrough on the 12th September.

From now on 'Castle News can be downloaded from the News pages from www.nsvc.co.uk! 'Castle News will continue to carry the longer in depth news reports whilst the website will have snippets of news on a more regular basis.

Just to kick-off, feel free to download the July edition of 'Castle News

Whitefield also played host to the Volleyball England annual awards dinner, which this year was a fantastic hog roast and attracted around 150 guests into a large marquee on the site. ‘Castle were in the running for the club of the year award which was won last year for the 2nd time in 4 years... This year we finished in a very creditable 2nd place behind Richmond VC who have had a very successful year in terms of club development.

The club’s annual pilgrimage to Bath for the Whitefield tournament saw a new largest ever group make the trip with around 35 camping on the famous rugby ground pitch for the weekend. As ever this was a contingent of past and present members with the likes of Neil Masters (NVL1 Captain for 4 years), Jon Pennock, Si Ibbotson and Sam Bragg. This was the 35th edition of the event and the organisers reported that there were 135 teams and around 1500 players involved – it really is the summer outdoor event to be part of. ‘Castle made up three of the teams in the event:

For the third successive year young ‘Castle players travelled to the beaches of Dorset to play in the Sandbanks Beach Classic, one of the prime Beach Volleyball events of the domestic calendar. With junior competitions at u12, 14, u16 and u18 there was plenty of junior action going on, with ‘Castle reaching three finals... Not bad considering we are just about as far away from the beach as it is possible to be!

More in July's 'Castle News

The NSVC end season awards night in July was a rousing success with a great night had by all! The awards went to:
- Ladies MVP 08-09: Becky Chadwick
- Men1 MVP 08-09: Sam Allen
- Men2 MVP 08-09: Alex Francis

- Junior Girls club member 08-09: Rosie Mankee
- Junior Boys club member 08-09: Roo Scott

More in 'Castle News!

An unprecedented 12 ‘Castle players have been selected to play in September’s UK School Games in Cardiff from the 3rd-6th September! Congratulations to everyone!

They are:

England Central Girls – Ruth Gurgul, Lucy Preston

England Central Boys – Roo Scott, Roman Neveykin, James Goodwin, Will Roberts, Dann Williams

England North Boys – Alex Liebeck, Sam Tomkinson, Gareth Thomas, Sam Shenton, Chris Ashton

... plus a further 5 club members as coach/team manager/statto/ event management!

Sam Shenton, Alex Liebeck, Elliott Francis, Stewart Ross and Chris Ashton all attended the England Cadets High Peaks camp at the end of July – well done lads!

Club Chair Colin Roberts was recently awarded the Leadership Award by ISPAL , the professional body for sport, parks and leisure, ISPAL seeks to reward exceptional service to the industry and provide recognition for excellence. In the words of ISPAL: “The Leadership Award was presented to Colin Roberts of Newcastle Staffs Volleyball Club, who, due to their unprecedented successes over the last 3 seasons, have been named ‘club of the year’ twice in the last 3 years, by Volleyball England.