The UK School Games is a multi-sport event for school aged atheletes from all over the country to compete in one of the ten represented sports. This year the Games were held in the North East of England. Two of Kilmarnock’s Young Players, Mark Lawson and Calum Bryson were selected to represent the West of Scotland Volleyball team.

Calum in action!

We travelled down to Newcastle on Wednesday 1st September, which allowed us to settle into our accommodation before our hectic 3-day, 6 game schedule. We played Scotland East in our opening game and comfortably won 2-0. We only had one game on the Thursday as the Opening Ceremony was at night.

The next day saw us put up against the top English sides in the competition, England North and England South. We were first on court against England North on the Friday, and we started the game with a sluggishness about us, which England North took advantage of winning the first set 25-16. The team came out to the second set with more determination to win but we were eventually beaten 25-20. Mark Lawson had the middle sown up as both of the North middle hitter’s couldn't get past him but the team couldn’t handle the very fast setting and strong outside hitting from their Captain. The team came together; we discussed what went wrong in the game and prepared ourselves for our next challenge, England South.

Lawson blocking.

From the warm up, it was plain to see that England South had a lot of hitting power and this was clear in the first set as we couldn’t get into our full swing until nearer the end of the first set which was won by 2 points. The second set saw a complete lapse in concentration as we went down 6-2 at the start. After a very strong worded time out from Coach Ian Parker, we came out all guns blazing and playing some top class volleyball. We turned the 6-2 deficit into a 25-20 win, which put the confidence back into our game.

The Saturday saw The West Boys have 3 games from 10am - 11pm. Our first game was agains Northern Ireland, who’d had shown to be the unexpected favourites this year. The team were rather nervous going into the game but a very strong first set calmed the nerves as we cruised to a 17-25 set. This put us in a strong position for getting into the Final, however Northern Ireland were determined not to lose to us. The second set was tightly fought right up to defending Match point, and winning the set 27-25. The total shift in momentum was apparent as Northern Ireland took the next set 15-11. Coming so close to the Final, but not making it was destroying for the team but we had two more games to play to secure 3rd place.

Wales were our next opposition, and Ian Parker had set out the game plan that we would have to get the other team members who haven’t played yet some court time. This meant that the responsibility was put on the starting 6 to perform. This was clear as in the first set Calum Bryson was taken off as he had clearly done his job effectively. The set scores for this game were 25-14, 25-16.

Calum hitting middle.

Our last game was a repeat of last year’s final, England Central vs Scotland West, with both teams wanting to prove two different points. We were out for revenge, and we got it. Everyone in the team rose to their best as hits were going in, blocks were being made from both position 2 and 4. We sailed through the game without any real threat and won 16-25 and 17-25.

This was a great way for us to end our UKSG 2010 by beating the team that took victory from us last year. For many of the players this was a year of development, but for some it was their last. Young Mark Lawson will have another year in the UKSG programme and will be hoping to take captaincy and lead the team to a Scotland West Championship.