BAILEY AND HAMLETT TAKES WOMENS CLASSIC TITLE

The 43RD year of the Weymouth Beach Classic took place this weekend on Weymouth Beach sponsored by ‘We Are Weymouth’ and Ultra Maritime and was another success with great volleyball being played,watched by large crowds from the mobile grandstand and from the Esplanade. The event is now firmly established as the top event out of over 300 UKBeach Tour events across the United Kingdom each summer.

The Womens title was won by Hailey Hamlett and Maia Darling , both players are currently based in London but Hailey is originally from the USA where she played professionally. This experience certainly showed as they became the first womens team in the history of the event to come through from the qualifier on Friday to take the title.

However, they didn’t have it all their own way in the final against the number 3 seeds Anna Rantala and Abigail Russell. In the first set each point was fiercely competed for and there were sets points both ways before  Hamlett and Darling came through after a disputed line call to take the set 24-22. The second set was tight again but this time Darling and Hamlett roared on by a packed stand built a slender lead early on and never looked like losing it as they ran out 21-15 winners to take the title.

The Mens event was also taken by first time winners, Nico Gleed and Peter Soczewka from Richmond. They came into the tournament as the number one seeds  but  were made to work hard from the start including a fantastically tight match in the Quarter final on Sunday morning against previous winners Piero Müller and Andrea Maggio.

In the final Gleed and Soczewka met England Under 20 Internationals and the youngest ever finalists in Weymouth, Lewis Bunton and Bailey Harsum. The match followed a similar pattern to the women’s final with a very close exciting first set which Gleed and Soczewka eventually took 22-20 and then possibly the pressure got to the young team in the second set and Gleed and Soczewka dominated winning 21-11 to take the title.

On Friday afternoon Weymouth’s top men and womens teams took place in the qualifying competition and both came close to making the main draw. Ryan Stout playing with 16 year-old Tali Rees-Tomkins reached the men’s semi- final and  15 year old Immy Hollands playing with Charlie Chambers showed that they will be a team to contend with in the women’s competition  in the future taking one win and pushing all their opponent’s hard including the eventual competition winners Darling and Hamlett who they lost to 15-9 , 15-8.

In total 64 teams took part in the competition from all over Great Britain and Europe and the feedback from the players was how much they enjoyed coming to Weymouth, not only for the well organised event but also staying in such a welcoming town.

All round the event was great success from the new Crowns event on Wednesday, the  Round Table Charity night on Thursday evening through to the finals on Sunday. UKBT joint CEO Andy Jones said   ‘I love coming to Weymouth for this event because every year the crowds come out in large numbers to support their favourite players and Weymouth Beach Volleyball Club have the best volunteer team in the country, they all know their roles and nothing is too much to ask them to do to make the event run successfully. Most of them have been here every day since setting up the site on Tuesday and they all now deserve a well earned rest!