St Andrews Beach Championships

St Andrews Beach Volleyball Championships took place at West Sands on Saturday June 27.

Play commenced under sunny skies just as the Home of Golf was putting the finishing touches on the upcoming 2015 Open.

The men’s competition saw 15 division one teams and four division two teams duke it out on the same stretch of sand as Chariots of Fire was filmed on.
 
A talented, multinational range of players was eventually whittled down to the finalists. Graham Riddle and his long-term partner Barry McGuigan, both from Edinburgh, faced off against St Andrews’ Colin Paterson and Poland’s Lenard Sobieracki.

All four men are defenders and it showed – the final was dominated by long, crowd-pleasing rallies with all four men making some spectacular pick ups. It was the Edinburgh pair that made fewer errors, however, and produced an extra bit of power when it counted to take the match two sets to nil.

In the women’s contest, Scotland’s Catherine Smy and Lilian Lieber of Germany faced Agata Zaremba from Poland and Greek player Giota Vlaserou. Zaremba and Vlaserou defeated Smy and Lieber in the pool stages. When it came to the final, however, Smy and Lieber were the fresher pair and gained their revenge, coming away with a 2-0 victory.

A fun mixed tournament on Sunday rounded off a fine weekend of Scottish Beach Volleyball.

Full results:

Men Division 1

  1. Barry McGuigan & Graham Riddle  
  2. Colin Paterson & Lenard Sobieracki 
  3. Martyn Johnstone & Tomasz Laba
  4. Jamie McHardy & Fraser Strachan
  5. Danny Traylor & Connor Boyle  
  6. Andrea Camponeschi & Lyuben Branzalov  
  7. Lukasz Dylik & Krzysztof Ladny  
  8. Sean Hendry & Fraser Brown
  9. Adrian Budnik  & Georgi Tinchev
  10. Iain Cook & Seain Cook
  11. Jack McKeown & Paul Johnson
  12. Pawel Kiszka & Przemyslaw Bratkowski  
  13. Petr Kolomaznik & Peter Aitchison
  14. Mark Biesta & Ram Shrestha
  15. Tao-Ho Chang & Sven Giese

Men Division 2

  1. Mitchell Brown & Ben McHardy
  2. Ronan Harrison & Sean Harrison
  3. Ross Paterson & Ryan Lula
  4. Pawel Shkarlat & Andrzej Dylik
  5. Lewis McKnight & Ringo Lee

Women Division 1

  1. Lilian Lieber & Catherine Smy
  2. Agata Zaremba & Giota Vlaserou
  3. Joanne Morgan & Jennifer Thom
  4. Michelle Paterson & Hannah Berwian
  5. Nicola McKenzie & Emma Clarkson
  6. Melissa Yates & Alexandra Baldock
  7. Agnieszka Lukaszewicz & Monika Krysinska
  8. Maria Manolopoulou & Karina Banda