Expanded NEVZA Beach Volleyball Championships Get Underway in Bridlington

Bridlington is hosting the prestigious NEVZA Beach Championships 2025 this weekend, marking a significant milestone as it welcomes the Senior competition for the first time.

Matches will take place on Bridlington’s South Beach between Friday 27th June and Sunday 29th June for the Senior event, followed by the Youth sections from Tuesday 1st July to Thursday 3rd July. This expansion comes after the successful staging of the NEVZA Youth Beach Championships in 2024.

A Stepping Stone for the Region

The international volleyball competition is anticipated to be a stepping stone for the resort, potentially leading to larger events being staged in the future. Piotr Makowski, co-founder of Bridlington's Skyball Beach Volleyball Club, believes that Bridlington could host larger events in the future.

"It's an incredible opportunity for us to host this on our sands. And also it's incredible opportunity for players to compete in Bridlington.

For us as volleyball, England and Skyball, they are massive international events where our athletes can be exposed to the best zonal athletes from other countries such as Finland, Denmark, or Norway.

But from the organizational point of view, it's great to have this event back in Bridlington. It just proves that we did incredible job last year and the feedback was, uh, this place is truly special with the, caravan park being nearby and the food. We just, uh, knew we're gonna host this back."

The expansion of the event in Yorkshire follows a successful staging of the NEVZA Youth Beach Championships 2024, where all matches were live streamed on the Volleyball England YouTube Channel.

Prior to that, England had last hosted a NEVZA event in 2018 when the NEVZA U17 and U19 Championships (indoor) were contested at the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering.  

It will once again be hosted in partnership with Skyball Beach Volleyball Club and East Riding of Yorkshire Council, whose input helped ensure the first edition of the event ran smoothly.

Rob Payne, Volleyball England’s Strategic Manager, expressed the organisation's delight, noting that

“With last summer’s NEVZA event being so well received by member nations, we’re delighted to be given the honour of hosting an even bigger Championships, including Seniors in 2025,”.

He added that

“Having players of contrasting ages involved across the full week will add an extra dimension to the tournament and will help to showcase beach volleyball at its best to the people of Yorkshire and beyond”.

Opportunities for Home-Grown Talent

The championships offer exceptional opportunities for local players, especially those from Skyball Beach Volleyball Club. Pete Makowski, co-founder of Skyball and a Lead Coach, says the event is amazing for the beach volleyball community in the local area area.

"It, it's incredible opportunity that we have in terms of a local talent participating in international event, and then from my point of view as coach, the, there's gonna be a big push on Federation to make sure that we've got this, but also, it's incredible opportunity for us as East Riding Sky Ball to support the federation in delivery of this event.

We really hope that this event will just be again, a success and we can come back, in the following years and, and one day hopefully we would like to host in Bridlington a Pro Award tour events."

Pete adds:

“We have worked hard on this beach for the last 15 years - and been bringing junior players through for at least the last eight years - so seeing some of those young players representing England here in Bridlington is a dream come true. It shows the amount of work and resilience we have put into the beach programme here in Yorkshire”.

Among the local players set to represent England are Dylan Parsons and Krystina Ngatcha, who train at Bridlington's South Beach and hope to leverage their local knowledge.

Dylan Parsons noted that “It will be a good help to have played here quite a bit before,” and that his experience playing in Bridlington for three or four years “definitely helps”.

Krystina Ngatcha added,

“I’m really happy to be representing Yorkshire and we’ve been preparing in the same way as we always do for our events – training hard”.

Other Skyball players participating include Emmanuel Oretoye, Daniella Tchandeu, Lauren Thorn, Maks Makowski, and Joshua Cosgrove, with the latter two competing in both Senior and Youth events.

England will face opposition from nations such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Scotland (women’s section), and Norway, Finland, and Northern Ireland (men’s section).

Boosting Tourism and Inspiring the Community

The event is hosted in partnership with East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Skyball Beach Volleyball Club, whose collaboration was crucial for the smooth running of the previous year's event. Councillor Nick Coultish, portfolio holder for culture, leisure and tourism at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, stated,

“We are thrilled to welcome such a high profile, international event to East Yorkshire to showcase some of Europe’s elite junior volleyball players. Bringing this event to Bridlington will hopefully help to inspire a new generation of players and supporters, both in the local area and beyond, as well as providing a huge tourism boost to our local businesses”.

How to Watch

Spectators are warmly welcomed to attend both the Senior and Youth tournaments. Admission is free, and no advanced ticket is needed to watch the action. Rob Payne encourages local people to come down and experience the "fun and fast-paced version of the sport". For those unable to attend in person, the action from both Senior and Youth events will be live-streamed on the Volleyball England YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@VballEngland