Margate Masters Beach Volleyball

Margate Masters is an established part of the Volleyball England Beach Tour (VEBT), a series of events attracting the top players from around the country and some from oversees. The event is hosted on Margate Main Sands with an impressive venue built each year.

The high quality venue has recently been included in the Pre-Games Training Camp brochure for London 2012 Olympics. This will hopefully encourage travelling international teams to come to Thanet to train prior to the main event to be held in Horseguards Parade, London.

Thanet District Council work closely with Volleyball England to put on the event providing a high level spectator event for local residents and using it to encourage local people of all ages to come and have a go. The event has grown from strength to strength in the last three years and aims to provide the best Beach Volleyball event for spectators, officials and players alike by including;

8 international standard courts
Free spectator grandstand seating to experience the action
Game commentary and music to create a vibrant atmosphere
Exclusive player areas to provide the perfect preparation for matches
Community sessions/competitions to give everyone the chance to have a go
Schools competitions
And much more

2010 Event

This year’s Margate Masters beach volleyball event has been described as a “huge success”, with Volleyball England declaring that they want to come back in 2011.

The free event, which is organised by Thanet District Council’s Sport Matters team, ran from Friday (9 July) to Sunday (11 July). Some of the UK’s top beach volleyball players took to the courts on Margate Main Sands, with almost 4,500 spectators turning out to watch the action over the weekend.

In the women’s competition, British number two seeds Denise Austen and Mel Coutts, took the title on their first visit to Margate. In the finals, they beat Gabriela Medricka from the Czech Republic and Eva Czinegeova from Slovakia, who had won Margate Masters for the last three years running.

The men’s event saw number one seeds Davide Grandolfo from Italy and Berislav Bobus from Croatia winning the title. The runners-up were number three seeds Richard Payne from South Africa and Rob Flay from Great Britain. It was the second time Richard had been runner-up at the event in the last four years.

See all of the results at www.volleyballengland.org/Beach/VEBT/ and watch this space for all of the latest photos and videos.