Wootton Bassett Volleyball Club

Chairman's Report 2007

At the end of this season we can pause to reflect on our achievements:

Veterans :-  We fielded our first Veterans team at the S.W. Vets championship in September; narrowly loosing in the final.  (Most of the A Team qualify to play!!!!)

‘A’  Team :- Pre - season Tournament Winners, Premier Division Runners Up; Dave Kinder Cup Winners ;End of Season Tournament Winners.

‘B’ Team  :- The team dropped down to Division 2 this season securing that 1^st win ; going on to be runners up in the league and coming runners up to Devizes in the End of Season Tournament. The team has been bolstered by the ladies this year who have made up an essential core of the team after the loss of several players at the start of the season.

Ladies Team :-It has been possible to field a successful ladies team for the first time in many years; Winning the Ladies League  and Cup, and reaching the semi-finals at the Ladies End Of Season Tournament

Wiltshire Mavericks :-The club have again provided coaching for the Mavericks men and contributed players to both the mens and ladies teams. Four men and two ladies also played for the Wiltshire Mavericks @ the SW Volleyball Championships in Plymouth this year.

Wiltshire Tournaments:-The club have sucessfuly organised all the Tournaments in  Wiltshire this season and the club has managed these openly and fairly and at times not without controversy (e.g. The Westbury net hanging/collapse incident in the Cup )

Socially the club have had several events this year

The Christmas meal/band/disco @ The Thistle Hotel in Swindon

The club BBQ -Thanks to Januscz and Irena again for their hospitality!

Challenge Swindon:-  This year the club successfully ran the first Beach Volleyball Tournament at Coate Water on behalf of  Swindon Borough. The legacy of this event is that we now have a good beach volleyball court and use of an outdoor net. Plus a raised club profile and possible platform to recruit more members to the club. –Oh yes! We have the promise of £500 towards club funds!!!!!

I’ll close with the final thought that the club is in reasonable health, but we should think about how we can continue to develop and improve the club over the coming seasons. Perhaps we need to consider how we can grow the club as we seem to have a cyclic membership --- We start off the season with high numbers which gradually dwindle throughout the year. Are we limited by the court space we have at The Lime Kiln to provide opportunities to train and develop our new and improving players? --- Our training at the moment has to focus on the established players to maintain the standards we continue to maintain as a club with the rest of the players fitting in to this. However is the B team, (which is the feeder team to the A Team) suffering because the number of players we see at the start of each season are not staying with the club. Why is this? Are we are not catering adequately for their needs? – How can we better cater to keep and develop new players and maintain the standards we set at the club?

What are our options for the future? How do we want to carry on as a club? Do we want to stay as we are or progress and develop?

Irwin Aiken