A Spotlight on Essex Beach Volleyball Club

Could you introduce the club-where is it, when does it meet, and who does it cater for?

Essex Beach Volleyball Club is based in Brentwood, Essex. We host enough space for 3 courts and are the only caged beach facility in Essex. We think our sand is some of the deepest in the UK so if you are ready to feel the leg burn come on down! It’s open to players of all abilities.

When did Essex Beach Volleyball club start, and how has it grown?

Our club started when we made a bid for the sand from the 2012 Olympics, which was successful, we built our facility and it officially opened in 2014. We run the club as a social venue for players to come and try beach volleyball from the nearby indoor clubs, such as Brentwood / Chelmsford. 

In the early days we didn’t have many designated ‘beach’ players, however, the few we did have, such as Claudia Lambert and Leasa Williams would train in our venue and compete on the Volleyball England Beach Tour. 

We have now developed, with more national tour players, but the social side of our club continues to stay strong, with 3’s, 4’s and open sessions alongside our coached and advanced sessions.

What is the best thing about your club?

Young member refereeing a beach volleyball game at Essex Beach Volleyball

We like to think that the deep sand is our favourite thing, when our players go to other courts they notice how shallow other venues feel. 

We like to introduce indoor players to the sand, having schools and local leagues around. We are now seeing more indoor players enjoying and understanding the beach.  

Who or what is it that makes Essex Beach Volleyball run as well as it does?

We have a handful of committed coaches that always do their best to help players and make the sessions run smoothly. 

Our members are always asking questions and willing to try new things which makes the coaches job very rewarding.

Are there any Essex players that are ones to watch out on the tour?

Lewis Fenech (The Volleyball Addict) and Tom Ellis at Essex Beach Volleyball

Some faces you might have seen on the UKBT and all over social media are Tom Ellis and Lewis Fenech (The Volleyball Addict). Our boys made the move from indoors to the beach in 2019 and have been working extremely hard to climb the ladder. They have their sights set on becoming one of the top teams in England! 

Both the guys coach a number of sessions at our club and always encourage people to give beach a go.

We are very proud to have such a young membership base, our juniors hope to compete in the beach inter-regionals for their age groups in the coming years with some of the young guns joining our top players in a closed session to further advance our top team.

Does the club have any plans for the future?

In the coming years we hope to hold UKBT tournaments in Essex, we have friends in Clacton who play at the beach and in the future we hope to team up with them to host bigger and better events!

We see and visit lots of the beach volleyball hubs around the UK and want people to start to see and visit Essex as a place they will get good games and a great atmosphere.

If someone wanted to come and join Essex Beach Volleyball, how can they get in touch and find out more?

Social media is always good to get hold of us, we reply and will let you know about our different sessions and costs from there. We really do have a level for everyone, if you’ve never tried beach before, or if Issa Batrane wants to come and give Tom and Lewis a game they will be ready. 😉

Facebook page is here!

Anything else you would like to mention?

As a smaller club we look forward to meeting more and more players and hopefully Essex beach will be as big as Fireball one day!

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