VOLLEYBALL
The Perth and District Volleyball League kicked off the new season with the Recreational League Cup competition at Bell’s Sports Centre last Sunday (September 29) night.
The nine teams were split into three sections of three teams with the top team in each section qualifying along with the best runner up.
Stuart Anderson’s league champions, Hitting Brics, started on court one against Karen Crockart’s Tay Pearls.
The champions proved too strong for Pearls, winning 21-12; 21-8.
Pearls then met league newcomers Finn Thomson’s Kinross High School and the youngsters were taught a volleyball lesson by their more experienced counterparts with Pearls winning 21-10; 21-11.
Champions Hitting Bricks also defeated the Kinross youngsters by two sets to love to qualify for the knockout stages.
Section two’s opening match pitched Dawid Kukla’s Motley Crew against Susan Scott’s PLUS Perth, with PLUS Perth winning through 21-14; 18-14. Crew then played Fiona Wilkie’s Kinross Mongrels with the Perth side winning 21-10; 21-17.
PLUS Perth also won against the Mongrels to qualify for the semi-finals.
Section three saw Strathallan take on Dunfermline Phoenix with the Fife side scoring victory 21-15; 21-15.
Oren Wilson of Strathallan had been injured earlier in the day playing for Perth and Kinross Juniors and the Strathallan team would probably have won with his influence.
The closest match of the evening then took place with Strathallan playing Rodney Thomson’s Kinross BB.
Strathallan won the first set 21-15 only for the BB to win the second set 21-12. The third set decider was poised at 5-4 in the BB side’s favour when full time was called.
Dunfermline also defeated Kinross BB to qualify as section leaders.
Hitting Bricks defeated Motley Crew 21-12; 21-11 and Plus Perth defeated Kinross BB by two sets to love in the other semi-final.
The opening set of the final saw PLUS Perth storm ahead 10-3 and they secured the first set victory with a 21-11 score. The second set was more evenly matched with the score progressing to 12 points each.
Play swung back and forth but time ran out for Crew with PLUS Perth leading 18-15 as the final whistle sounded.
The Premier League Cup takes place on October 27.
New teams are still welcome to join both Recreational and Premier Leagues which will commence in November. Interested parties should contact the league organisers through the PKDVA website.
At the Junior Boys’ Pre Season Tournament, the Perth and Kinross (PK) junior boys’ team linked up with St Andrews’ Madras College to field an under 18 team in the Allan Smith Memorial Tourrnament at Edinburgh College’s Telford Sports Centre.
It was an under-strength PK side which turned out with key players being unavailable on the day.
Things turned for the worse with team captain and most experienced player Oren Wilson injuring his ankle in the first set of the match against NUVOC.
This proved costly as the PK side lost out narrowly to their Edinburgh counterparts. PK boys then played last season’s winners, Aberdeen and the northern lads won through reasonably comfortably 2-0.
City of Edinburgh were up next and they also proved too strong for the PK boys.
In the final between Aberdeen and City of Edinburgh it was the Edinburgh side which won through to lift the trophy for the first time.
The third/fourth play off between PK and NUVOC was extremely close with NUVOC winning the first set 28-26 and PK winning the second set by the same scoreline.
The third set saw PK take a 7-1 lead but they let it slip and errors became more frequent with NUVOC eventually winning 15-12 to take the bronze medal position.