Christ's U14 boys' and girls' teams were worthy winners in the Inter-Borough (Richmond and Kingston) Secondary Schools Volleyball Championships Finals, held at Tiffin Girls' School last Wednesday.

Preparations began back in January when 30 teams from 15 schools from Kingston and Richmond received 4 coaching sessions from Richmond Volleyball coaches and competed in borough finals.

The top four boys and girls teams from each borough final earned the right to compete in the ultimate Inter-Borough showdown.

In the boys group Christ A (Richmond champions), faced Chessington A (Kingston Champions), Southborough, Teddington, Christ B and Chessington B. Christ A secured their place in the final winning 4 matches.

The other finalist was Chessington A who finished on top of the group winning five matches but in the final it was Christ who showed more consistency and hitting power and won 25-18.

In the girls group Christ (Richmond champions) faced Coombe Girls A (Kingston Champions), Tiffin Girls, Teddington and Coombe B.

In the final Christ were favourites against Coombe A having won all their group matches and in a very close battle Christ can out on top 25-22.

Mike Skinner, Competitions Manager for Richmond and Kingston Schools Partnership commented: Richmond Volleyball delivered a very comprehensive programme involving 30 secondary schools (300 students) and achieved with great success the 1st u14 Inter-Borough volleyball tournament.

The interest of younger people involved and the standard of play has sufficiently increased. Everything about it has been good natured and very positive.

Richmond Volleyball schools coordinator said; Well done to all the teams! We have seen another fantastic programme with over 300 young people engage in the sport.

The interest by young people and teachers is rapidly growing demonstrating there is much scope for volleyball to continue to develop in these London boroughs.

The culmination of a lot of hard work from the coaches, teachers and venue hosts since January is to be recognised and we would like to thank them all. Richmond Volleyball is fully committed building on this success by being at the heart of developing this Olympic team sport and we now look forward to delivering the volleyball programme for year 10 and 11 in the winter term.

Boys (1st) Christ A (2nd) Chessington A (3rd) Christ B (4th) Southborough (5th) Teddington, (6th) Chessington B,

Girls (1st) Christ, (2nd) Coombe Girls A, (3rd) Tiffin Girls, (4th) Coombe B, (5th) Teddington

On the 14th of July 2009, the oldest barracks in the country – Hounslow Barracks, opened their doors to the Hounslow Borough secondary schools volleyball tournament for Y7-8.

Five teams took on court and battled through a real marathon of games for nearly two hours to claim the top spot.

A simple format of the tournament ensured that all teams played each other and every player had plenty of opportunity to show their best and improve along the way.

Solid performance from the Longford teams had them tied after the preliminary round and only points difference allowed to name the finalists.

The match between Longford A and Longford C was a worthy final with spectacular display of confident skills and true sporting spirit.

No team wanted to give up easily and score was kept tight to the end. It was a good team work in defence that gave Longford A an advantage to win the tournament.

On the other court Cranford A showed that they still have a lot of stamina and character to take on Longford B in the play off.

They got to the leading score in the middle of the set and were focused and determined, but the strong service from Longford B to the end of the match gave them all this necessary edge, the set (21:17) and the 3d place.

“This tournament was a great success and was a result of coordinated effort from Hounslow Sports Development team, Richmond Volleyball Junior Development team , all teachers and the hosts - Hounslow Barracks, commented Vera Kenyon, Richmond Volleyball.

"We would like to extend our thanks to everybody who helped this event to run smoothly and made it a memorable finale for many weeks of hard work that coaches and players put in during the term.”

Final Placing (1st) Longford A (2nd) Longford C (3rd) Longford B (4th) Cranford A (5th) Cranford B

The 3rd round of the 4v4 Grand Slam Volleyball Tournaments that goes on tour will take place at Fairfield Recreation Ground (Kingston) with over 100 players coming this Sunday, 2nd August and the final tournament will be held on Sun 16th Aug at Old Deer Park (Richmond).

New team registrations are welcome to challenge the top teams in either the Open or Mixed Divisions. Team entry is £15.00 per event. Registration is at 9.15am. 1st serve is at 10.00am. More info go to www.richmondvolleyball.co.uk