CSSC Volleyball Invitational

The 9th CSSC Volleyball Invitational was held at Leeds University on May Bank Holiday weekend 5/6 May 2007.

The Invitational provides the competitive outlet for the Civil Service National Teams.

The following players were invited to represent CSSC:

 CSSC Men     
 M Parris                    DSTL                       Wessex NVL 2, ex GB A 
 M Johnstone             Companies House      Jets SNVL 1
 S Deans                   Scottish Prisons        NUVOC, SNVL 1 
 D Packard                 Prison Service           ex Liverpool City NVL 1
 A Stephen                ex BT                       Bon Accord, SNVL 1 
 S Brown                   BT                           Team Fife, SNVL 1
 D King                      Home Office              ex Malory NVL 1 & ex England
 M Griffin                   ex Prison Service       Bristol NVL 3 
 C Patterson              ex DERA                   ex Warwick NVL 1
 S Jackson                 Scottish Prisons        Kilmarnock SNVL 1, ex Scotland 

 CSSC Women     
 M Patterson               ex LSC                   ex Birmingham, Liverpool NVL1  
 C Mortimer                FCO                       ex Malory NVL1, ex England
 G Lyall                      ex SPS                   Troon SNVL 1, Scotland
 L Bunten                  SPS                        Troon SNVL 1, Scotland
 L Coburn                  HMRC                     Su Ragazzi SNVL 1, Scotland 
 T Hunt                     HMRC
 L Hales  HMRC  
 E Ledder                  Natural England   
 M Brooking              SOCA
 W Stubbs                HMPS                      Telford NVL 3
 A Guttmann             HMPS                      Plymouth NVL 3
 V Reid                     GRoS                      Cavalry Park, SNVL2
 C Gregory                HMPS                      Nottingham NVL 2 
                           

Civil Service had strong and experienced squads, but lost a number of players in the two weeks before the event due to injuries and three ladies (Lyall, Coburn and Bunten attending Scotland national training camp).

A representative team will always have the disadvantage of not playing or training together regularly compared to a club side, but they should balance that with ability and talent.

The Invitational saw teams from Ireland and England offer stiff opposition to the Civil Service squads - Aer Lingus men and Newbridge women are Irish Champions, Warwick strong NVL Division One teams, England Junior men and English Universities women always a threat.

The competition format is a round robin league, played over the weekend, with an incentivised scoring system - teams awarded one point for reaching 17 points in a set, another point for reaching 21 in the set, and two points for winning that set. Winning a match 2-0 gains four points, and winning 2-1 gains two point bonus. The idea is to encourage teams to maximise effort for every point, and it means that the overall result is often down to the last matches.

Warwick men set the benchmark and, despite only dropping one set, were pushed all the way in many matches. Many sets with only two point gaps showing how competitive the contests were.

Civil Service men were able compete in most matches but the continuity of club teams told as crucial errors were punished and enabled teams to take advantage.

Civil Service women were greatly depleted by Scotland absences, and an inexperienced squad found it tough going but improved over the weekend. English Universities women proved to be the more resilient of the big teams and edged out Warwick.

Mervyn Stanley, CSSC Management Board member, attended the second day and gave out prizes, accepting positive feedback from the teams and match officials.