News – Richmond Volleyball

Richmond Volleyball are UKBT Club Champions 2025!

Martin Rees on June 12, 2025 in Beach Volleyball | News

We are so proud of our amazing success at this year’s UKBT Club Championships that was held at Sandbanks beach on the weekend of 7th/8th June. We’ve only gone and won it!

Well done to all the players, coaches and volunteers involved – everyone contributed to this fantastic success.

Particular highlights were the dominant performances in the U18 women’s division, with the final being played between two Richmond teams, and Richmond’s Championship team performances, especially with the women winning the Championship Division.

The Richmond Women’s Championship division Team of Katie Keefe / Martha Bullen and Patrīcija Fiļa / Anna Kurek showed a dominant performance throughout the tournament, but faced tough opposition in the final against Fireball South West. The final was decided by a golden set where Keefe/Bullen came out on top over Fireball’s Tussis/Berstautaite to win 15-13 and take the gold medals for Richmond.

Another big contribution to the overall victory was the U18’s women’s division which was dominated by Richmond teams. The final was between the Richmond squads Charlotte Anderton & Jennifer Rates / Sno Dixon & Fien Verheyden versus Olivia Cross & Robyn Clifford / Reika Hashimoto & Lili Coen, with Anderton/Rates/Dixon/Verheyden just coming out on top to win the gold medals.

The Men’s Championship division Team of Lewis Bunton / Stuart Perry and George Ruddick / Tom Lycett also showed a great performance by winning all their matches in the pool stage, but faced a tough Quarterfinal against St Andrews Beach Volleyball Club and lost against them in the golden set. However Richmond Men’s matched last years result and finished a very respectable 7th.

Another notable contribution was made by the pair of Sami Moodie / Maksim Stepanov who just missed out on winning the gold in the Mixed Trophy Division against Carreos / Hargrave from Deep Dish Bournemouth, but won another amazing silver medal for Richmond.

Richmond won another medal and more points in the Men’s Trophy Division with a brilliant performance by Tom Taschowsky / Roman Girkiy who finished third.

There were no medals for Richmond in the Women’s Trophy Division, but in a strong field of teams we had very good performances and points contributions from Sami Moodie / Sabina Marvulli finishing 5th and Cleo Jongedijk / Elisa Jarmon finishing 9th.

In the U18 Boys divisions the Richmond squad of Lucas Voss & Leo Alcoe / Alex Cox & Monty Easton struggled with injuries but still contributed very valuable points by coming 4th.

Photo by @jwakelinvisuals

National Cup Success Again

Andy Hopper on May 1, 2025 in Juniors | News

Well done to all our junior teams who represented the club so proudly last weekend at the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering.

It was another successful season with a further three medals secured by our young athletes. The highlight was Francesca Secchi’s under 15 girls taking the gold medal against Wapping Wildcats in convincing fashion.

And the boys took home two silver medals from the under 15 and under 16 finals. It put us third in the medal table behind Leeds Gorse and Urmston.

These amazing results mean that Richmond have won at least one national championship for the last 11 seasons. We’ve won a fantastic 21 titles in that time, way more than any other club.

Thanks to all the players, coaches, parents and volunteers that have made this possible.

More photos can be found here https://flickr.com/photos/199352623@N07/page7

Annual General Meeting 2024

Andy Hopper on July 12, 2024 in News

Please note that Richmond Volleyball’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2024 will be held at 19:00 on Wednesday 24th July at The Bishop, 2 Bishop’s Hall off Thames Street, Kingston, KT1 1PY. This is a great opportunity to learn about the Club’s activities, celebrate our successes and have your say about the Club’s future. Club members must confirm their attendance by no later than 17:00 Monday 22nd July by emailing contact@richmondvolleyball.co.uk. If you are unable to attend, please nominate another Club member to be your proxy for voting. Please do this by emailing contact@richmondvolleyball.co.uk and include the email address of the member you wish to be your proxy. Please note we need to receive proxy nominations by 17:00 Monday 22nd July at the latest.

Great Performance by Richmond at the UKBT Club Championships 2024

Martin Rees on June 10, 2024 in Beach Volleyball | News

We’re very proud of all Richmond teams that took part in the UK Beach Tour Club Championships this weekend!

In the Championship Division our women’s team consisting of Katie Keefe & Martha Bullen, Cleo Jongedijk & Elisa Jarmon came within 2 points of the final, in the golden set of the semifinal against the eventual winners Deep Dish Bournemouth. After 2 days of tough competition the girls came 4th (out of 13).

The in the Men’s Championship Division, our team of consisting of Zak Maghur & Bailey Harsum, Ben Sanders & Romario Stambullio came a very respectable 7th (out of 13), being the only team in the competition with all players under 18. They came within a golden set of making it to the semifinal in a tough quarterfinal against eventual winners Fireball North Devon.

In the Men’s Trophy competition our young team of Rease Jarmon & Ben Sizoo came 17th (out of 20) and gained a lot of experience against strong adult competition.

In a strong Mixed Trophy competition we entered three teams at both ends of the spectrum with the junior team of Tyler Sourmarie & Tilly Hutton, and the senior teams Martin Rees & Arzu Davis and Mike Keefe & Sarah Keefe putting in a great effort to finish 19th, 18th and 23rd (out of 28) respectively.

Overall, taking into account all the competitions, the club made a great improvement over last years result coming a respectable 8th out of 15 clubs. Especially with the number of young players that took part, this bodes very well for next year!

Well done and thank you to all the teams that took part!

Success at the National Finals and Noah Goalen named VE Young Coach of the Year

Andy Hopper on April 22, 2024 in Juniors | News | Uncategorized

Peter Soczewka’s under 18 Boys secured an impressive victory with a mature all round performance against Newcastle Staffs. Romario Stambolliu was awarded the MVP award in the 3-0 victory but the entire squad played a part in the success, on Sunday, and in the previous rounds. And with the majority of the squad eligible for next season the future looks bright for Soczewka’s side.

At the same time, our under 15 Girls put up a valiant fight against Leeds Gorse. Richmond staged a dramatic late comeback in the fourth set but Leeds managed to hold on to take the 3-1 win.

Earlier in the day, Marjana Erminio’s under 18 Girls lost out to Boswells School in a high quality final.

And debut coach Jean Max Sourmarié, was disappointed to see his under 15 Boys side lose 3-0 in a close contest with Urmston Grammar but vowed to be back next year for revenge.

On Saturday our under 16 Girls got the weekend underway but unfortunately were unable to defeat Boswells in the final.

Club Chair Andy Hopper commented, “We’re all extremely proud of all our teams and to reach five finals is a great achievement in itself. All our athletes, coaches and managers represented the club with great pride and played all the matches with a fantastic spirit. Congrats to all involved and thanks to all the volunteers and parents for all their support.”

Congratulations to Noah Goalen who was awarded the Young Coach of the Year award at the Volleyball England Awards. Goalen led the under 16 Boys to the National Cup semi finals and mentored a number of our boys throughout our junior programme. George Ruddick was also runner up in the same category. Well done Noah and George!