old passions

Those who have known me any length of time will know one of my early passions was volleyball. I see this sport as the ulitmate sport for all, we play indoors in the winter and outdoors in the summer, all ages and sexes can play on the same court if the competition isn't too serious.

I began playing on caravan rallies in the early 70's and went on to play at college and after when I first started teaching. I qualified as a referre in 1976 and subsequently reffed matched up to divison one, and lined or scored at over 40 international matches.

I kept playing in various forms until we opened our first shop, At that point I was 42 and playing against people half my age, that said more about the team I played in than me, my husband still plays this glorious game and last night I turned out to watch their first game of the season. As chairman of this newly formed club, I thought I should turn out in case I was needed to score etc.

I did my usual diplomacy bit greeting the away team and liasing with the refs, until the game started when I found myself on the bench shouting out advice!! hopefully I didn't upset our young stars too much. It was an untidy game but our team won and we went to the pub to "bond". more matches to come this season and I am not sure what my role will be but it has awaken my old feeling for this marvellous game which gave me a social life for years and found me my husband....another long story

Here is a picture of me from them old days taken in 1975. Elaine and I are on the front row far right. We were playing for Nottinghamshire in a final against North Lancs. The guy immediately behind us is called Paul. He lives in Essex but Elaine and I bump into him most spring bank holidays at the same event. We came second by the way, which I think was the way of things for many years.