Following the Welsh Colleges competition held in October 2009, the top Girls and Boys teams went through to represent Wales in the British College Championships in April.  The Girls team came from Llandrillo College in North Wales, whilst the Boys team came from St Davids College in Cardiff.

Girls team report

Teacher Mr Paul Lloyd from Llandrillo College coached the girls team up to the British Championships but the inexperienced team had a tough path ahead.  There were 3 pools and Llandrillo were drawn with the South West and South East team (who won last year and lost in the final this year to Stoke).  Llandrillo lost both games but gave a good performance dispite the obvious nerves and lack of confidence and experience.

Second round pool saw Llandrillo drawn against Scotland and the North West where they again lost both games but this time giving both teams a real run for their money.  Due to points difference Llandrillo finally ended the competition in 8th place.  (Written by Paul Murray - 5x60 Officer, Llandrillo College)

Boys team report

St.Davids Catholic college located on Ty Gwyn road in Penylan Cardiff represented Wales at the British colleges volleyball competition in Loughborough from the 16^th-18^th of April. Despite the teams lack of training the St.Davids college squad with two experienced players in the squad - Polish born Maciej Mlodzianowski and Welsh volleyball junior captain Aiden Lewis the team exceeded expectations. The team were placed in a reasonably strong pool with teams from the South West, South East and East of England.

Wales (St.Davids College) saw their first game against a very strong South West team that included an England cadet player in their ranks. Wales lost the game 2-0 but managed to push the South West team all the way through each set. They then played a college from the South East of England which they managed to win 2- 1. This was a great achievement for the college and they beat the previous record of winning more than one set. The final pool game saw them face a team from the East of England which they lost 2-0. After the pool stages, the Welsh team were put in to a league table with all of the teams regarding their outcome from the two pools. The Welsh team had to play in a play-off game to see whether they played in the 7^thand 8^th place or 9^thand 10^th play off game.

The team battled hard but eventually lost 2-0 to the East Midlands. This meant that they played in the 9^th and 10^th play off where they faced the team they had beaten in the pool stages the South East. Wales took the first set quite comfortably but then the tiredness and lack of match play kicked in and the inexperienced players found it difficult. The Welsh team eventually lost the match 2-1 and finished the tournament in last place (10^th) however this did not reflect the performance of the team over the weekend.

The St.Davids and Wales captain Aiden Lewis added 'the team performed exceptionally well over the weekend. Our objective was to win at least two sets and managing to win a game was a massive achievement. We did not have much preparation going in to the tournament and with some players playing in only their second competitive competition I think we can only take this weekend as a massive confidence boost and platform to build on for next year'.    (Written by Aiden Lewis, Captain)

 St.Davids College Squad