Late decision pays off for volleyball international

Connor set off from his home in Fife on a 1100-mile round trip for his first beach volleyball games of the new summer season, and his first competitive event of the year.

The competition was a UKBT 4 Star event held at Side Out, Worthing and saw competitors come together for a day of high-level beach volleyball.

The local player teamed with Wales’s Noam Devey and the duo started their journey in the pool play against a London based team who they found it tough to overcome.

With the pair not having played together, there was a lot of communication needing to be established between them in order to make the game as competitive as possible.

They lost the first set by six points before the second, and ultimately the game, went the same way.

Next up was a team from Bournemouth who were considered the pool favourites but again they came up short.

Finishing bottom of the pool with two defeats, the team moved to series of single-elimination knock-out games which would still give them a chance to progress, although they knew they couldn’t afford any more slip ups..

Things were a lot more positive in the knockout games, winning their first to book a spot in the quarter finals.

Their opponents were again a London based team who they managed to overcome to record their second victory of the day and move forward to the semis.

Facing them would be the same Bournemouth team who had defeated them earlier in the day.

Starting strong but up against tough opposition, it was the Bournemouth boys who scraped through in the first set.

Set two started with tough points being won and lost.

Boyle’s side couldn’t quite hold on to a 19-17 lead and lost the second set by two points.

They finished the event third and were rightly proud of their achievement given how late they chose to enter.

Boyle then had to quickly return home, all 505 miles of it, before starting his work again on Monday.