Bell’s Coaching Hall hosted the first local volleyball league fixtures for 2 seasons on Sunday evening. This season’s Covid condensed Recreational League will run over two Sunday evenings with two sections of five seeded teams, based on their league cup performances.
Unfortunately Mary Cook’s Aberfeldy team was hit by Covid so they couldn’t play their fixtures.
Jayne Cafferty’s Nae Fear opened on court one against Lyndsey Bennet’s Kinross High School side. Nae Fear’s experience told in the end although the Kinross youngsters put up a spirited performance in the first set before eventually going down 16-25; 9-25.
Kevin Ramsay’s Motley Crew took on St John’s Academy side Primal and again, it was experience with told with the Crew cruising home 25-16; 25-13.
Kinross High then faced the second St John’s Academy side “St Juan” with the Academy side beating the High School side 25-16; 25-14.
Barbara Moffat’s Tay Pearls opened their account against Primal and the first set was going Primal’s way, leading 21-16 but a spirited fightback from Pearls saw them storm back to win 25-22. The second set saw Pearls dominate play to run out winners 25-9.
Sean Pearce’s young Team Fife then played St Juan and what an exciting encounter this turned out to be. The Fife side won the first set 25-14 but their opponents fought back to level the match with a 25-21 second set win. The third set decider saw the Fife side poised to win at 13-12 but a run of three consecutive points to win the match 15-13.
Brian Hutton’s cup finalists PLUS Perth opened their league title challenge against Michael Donaldson’s Kinross Cosmos. The first set was evenly contested until mid-way through with the Perth side leading 14-13 but the Kinross side started making more errors with PLUS Perth eventually running out winners 25-16; 25-15.
The PLUS Perth match against Tay Pearls looked to be going against the Pearls with their opponents taking the first set 25-18 but the second set was a different affair and Pearls were unlucky to lose out by the narrowest of margins 24-26.
The final match of the evening between Motley Crew and Kinross Cosmos was also quite close with the Kinross side edging the first set 25-23 before going on to take the second set a bit more comfortably 25-18.
The final round of Recreational League fixtures and play-off to decide the league championship will take place at Perth College on Sunday 27th March to conclude this shortened league season.
This coming Sunday sees the Premier League teams meet at Bell’s Coaching Hall for a one night special league competition with the seven teams playing each other all on the one night to decide this season’s championship. With 21 games due to be played, each game will be settled with one set to 25 points or 22 minutes, whichever is the sooner.
The Fife sides have won both the cup competitions and will be looking to add the league title to their trophy cabinet but the local sides will also be up for the contest so it won’t be easy.