The 51st De Haan Volleyball Tournament attracted over 80 teams to the popular Belgian seaside town last weekend, with the summer sun a permanent feature of the festive atmosphere, where three teams from Perth & Kinross, along with one team from Glasgow, represented Scotland.
Each team had arranged their own transport, which saw travel by air, land and sea to reach De Haan.
Since first competing in 2005, Kinross Volleyball Club has been a regular entry and more recently, Perth Volleyball Club has been represented, but this is the first year that four Scottish teams competed.
Kinross Volleyball Club has a special relationship with Belgium, the Overpelt Club competing annually in Perth’s Scottish Open Volleyball Tournament, and the two clubs get together at De Haan to enter a composite team in the men’s outdoor competition.
The other two Perth & Kinross teams compete in the mixed recreational competition, and this year they were joined by a team from Glasgow Mets.
Getting players from different teams to compete together is always a challenge, and the Saturday fixtures proved challenging for the Scots’ teams, struggling to find any rhythm to their play in the hot summer sun.
Sunday’s fixtures proved more successful for the four teams, recording victories and draws (the De Haan competition has teams playing only a maximum of two sets).
All in all, the De Haan tournament provided an ideal “pre-season” warm-up for local volleyballers who are looking forward to the new league season starting in September, with the Premier and Recreational Cup competitions taking place at Perth College UHI.
Any new local teams interested in competing this season should message via local volleyball social media sites to express their interest.
