Beach Volleyball

[TheDon]

Am I the only one who is just loving this?

Some great rallies and skills along with the great atmosphere there. Wish I'd got tickets for this, also actually looks like something that would be enjoyable to play.

Looking into turning the back garden into a court at the moment...

[matimbers]

TheDon it was brilliant, I can not recommend it highly enough and I don't just mean because of the women (the Czech girls were beautiful though!). In fact, the woman's volleyball was a little bit slow and more tactical, the men was all out action.

I was lucky yesterday in that the first game was an excellent one, Switzerland v Russia. They were very evenly matched and the first set lasted just under an hour, with some great play from both sides. The thing that amazed me was the interaction with the crowds. Us Brits being Brits, we are quite reserved and didn't really get the fact that the players when playing like the crowd to make noise, do the old slow clapping etc but the players especially the Swiss Meher were getting everyone jumping around and cheering, great atmosphere! The live commentary was good as well with the bloke who does all the TV voice-overs on E4, X Factor etc doing to shout out and a DJ looking suspiciously like Cally playing music in-between points and all that.

The second men game involved the US v Poland. I hadn't realised how many American were there, absolutely full of them and they really got behind the American's, who one of the favourites. I started cheering on the Polish team much to my surrounding fans annoyance and there was a good deal of banter from the Americans who didn't like the fact that they lost in an upset of sorts.

I will try and post a few pics in a bit to show what it is like as the surroundings of House Guards Parade made it even better.

[matimbers]

Here you go..

Shows the back of stadium

http://i49.tinypic.com/70hrpj.jpg

There is a bloke up there each day painting the scene!

http://i50.tinypic.com/35l82mp.jpg

The stadium at night
http://i47.tinypic.com/2l2k7.jpg

A picture of a lady signalling serve direction;)
http://i46.tinypic.com/2ajxu2a.jpg

[Defunct]

Went tonight and echo everything said, it's fantastic fun to watch and be a part of. If you look at Matimber's 3rd photo we were sat not far down under the Brazil flag. Great view, great action and a cracking atmosphere.

[TheDon]

Unbelievably jealous of the both of you

[wfcmoog]

Impressive looking set up.

[cyaninternetdog]

Unbelievably jealous of the both of you

Agreed, stories of trips to the Olympics and photos should be banned.

[North North Watford]

It's a seriously underrated sport.

Sure, a lot of the talk is about bikinis, Benny Hill theme tunes and finger signals behind bums, but there is so much skill involved.