University sport is where Sportmeets’ roots are. Over the last five years at Glasgow Uni we’ve played actively volleyball, football and squash, tried kayaks and lawn bowls, gone hiking, climbing and running, and even attended exercise and salsa classes (I am not sure about Miro, but I did!), so there’s quite a bit of personal experience in what we do now. We know that there’s much to improve in how students go about finding others to play a squash game with or participate in a university squash ladder. We also know that the captain of the volleyball club still has to send out at least 5 email reminders till they get everyone to confirm their attendance for the Sunday match and that there are over 50 contacts on the mailing list although there were never more than 15 people at the training session. This and much more is what we set out to improve with the Sportmeets project. And there’s no better place to tell the right people about it than the annual conference of the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS).

This year’s conference will be held at the Keele University in Staffordshire between 13th and 16th July. The theme of the conference is about finding innovative ways of delivering sports at the universities, to which Sportmeets certainly has a lot to say. With over 100 UK universities represented by their sports union presidents, directors of sport, and sport development officers, it will be an exciting event and we’re looking forward to see more and more students and universities discovering the benefits of Sportmeets soon!

The last weekend in May was an exciting one for Sportmeets with two interesting sporting events at which we attended, too! So let me tell you what it was like at the big volleyball event in Scotland.

The Perth tournament was great as it’s always been: excellent organization, lots of teams from all over the place, a lot of sun and even more rain, crazy team names and costumes, but also some really good volleyball action and loads of fun on and off the courts.

It was good to see some friends and teams from previous years coming back, too. Especially teams with names like the ‘Italian Leather Sofas’ or the ‘Juicy Lucy’s’ are quite easy to remember! And the guys playing in an assortment of superhero costumes were probably the highlight of this year…perhaps along with the Spartans, half-naked and complete with spears and helmets.

My team, the Skillful foreigners, was a bit more conventional as to the name and the attire, but then, we like to take volleyball a bit more seriously and a costume of, say, Spiderman does not exactly add to one’s performance (although I have to admit that it keeps mud away when diving for the ball).

There were some pretty decent teams in the men’s division 1, indeed, and the ocassional downpour or wind gusts made it a whole different experience than your standard indoor match. On the whole we can be satisfied. We only lost against one team – twice. Disguised as a bunch of middle-aged Czechs on a weekend trip to Scotland, these guys went on to become unbeaten winners of the tournament. Congrats to team Pribram CZ! And for us it was once again the 2nd place and a nice bottle of whisky – a very Scottish prize!

Of course, Perth tournament was a great place to meet people that play sports and talk to them about Sportmeets. I was excited to tell people about it and also curious about what the opinions of so many volleyball players would be. So, with my camping hat on and a sign up sheet in hand, I introduced Sportmeets to over 30 teams from across Scotland – this is as much grassroots as awareness-raising can possibly be! And, for those who missed the pleasure to chat with me, we had several shiny Sportmeets posters hanging in some of the most frequented places (like the Aberdeen Angus steak & burger stand!). A big thanks to the SOVT committee for their help with this.

Overall, I am really happy that our idea of a website to help anyone find the right people to sport with and  manage sports groups without the hassle has received a big thumb-up from all the teams I spoke with. We are therefore looking forward to welcoming some new volleyball teams among the Sportmeets community.

And as for Perth, I’m sure I’ll be back next year again! And I hope my team will be one of many that got organized for the weekend on Sportmeets.

We’ll be all over the place for the upcoming weekend spreading the word about Sportmeets.

Volleyball Up North

You’ll be able to find us in beatiful Scottish city of Perth attending the Scottish Open Volleyball Tournament from 29th to 30th May. The SOVT is the largest volleyball tournament in the UK with over 100 teams attending each year and is currently in its 26th year.

Peter’s no newcomer to the tournament and together with his team – The Skillful Foreigners - will attempt to repeat the last year’s success of winning the consolation prize in the mixed-teams category – a nice bottle of Famous Grouse Scotch whiskey!

And of course, with so many volleyball groups and teams attending not only from UK but all over the world, we are excited to spread the word about how Sportmeets can help each one of the teams to get organised, meet and play volleyball hassle-free! So if you’re at the SOVT this weekend, watch out for the guy in a blue ITALIA volleyball T-shirt passionately explaining what exactly a crowd is!

Dragon Boats Down South

Further down south and to the east, Sportmeets is also sponsoring The Red Devils Dragon Boat – one of 19 to tackle on the rugged waters of Vltava for the Dragon Boat Charity Challenge organised by the Prague Rotary Club.

The event starts at 10:00 on Saturday May 29th. The spectator area is shown below:

Stay tuned for the photos & get updates through our Facebook page.

Good luck to all and have fun sporting!