Volleyball-istic

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Having not got any Olympic tickets from the first ballot I decided in the second ballot to just go for anything I could get; I just wanted to be able to say I went to the Olympics.  And thus it became so that Family Murphy got Men's Volleyball tickets at Earl's Court.  The only time I have encountered Volleyball was at school when we played it for one Games lesson.  I remember it for the simple fact the teacher asked my friend to throw him the ball; she promptly threw it vertically straight up in the air, and at her second attempt, threw it directly behind her.  That is my sum total of my Volleyball anecdotes.  So, clueless would be an accurate word to describe my knowledge of the game, and what to expect, when we rocked up at Earl's Court on a drizzly Sunday morning. 

Firstly I want to heap special praise on the Army, who not only jumped into the breach Olympic-security wise but who also provide a superbly welcoming greeting to the Games.  Every single person that we met on the security checks and in the (very short and efficient) queuing time was so lovely and so welcoming it definitely got the day off to a great start.  And my umbrella did not seem to pose the same security threat it did at Hyde Park. 

Earl's Court certainly won't be winning any prizes for the most attractive Olympic venue, but we had a good view so I could forgive walking round, in what felt very much like a circle, the glorified internal car park to get to our stand.  The MC/host/presenter (?) kept re-iterating that Earl's Court was the most family friendly and interactive of all the venues and he certainly kept us all amused while we waited with games and video clips to help us understand what we were about to see (Australia vs Argentina and USA vs Serbia).  I felt very much like I was at an American basketball game, complete with cheerleaders, video screens showing shots of the unsuspecting crowd and hi-fives at any given opportunity (even on lost points).  In the same vein, after ever single point that was scored there would be a blast of pop music and the cheerleaders would pop up from the side of the court to whip up the crowd, who, if they were anything like me, were still trying to work out why that team had scored a point.  As my mum put it "it's a good job the matches didn't both go to five sets or it would have killed those cheerleaders".  More to the point if I had heard the same 5 seconds of Tinie Tempah's Pass Out for 4 extra sets I might have killed those cheerleaders.  Only kidding, they did a great job, it's just I would have preferred a slightly broader range of music......

The atmosphere was great and it was a really fun event, I came away even more enthused about the Olympics, if that was possible.  Argentina beat Australia and USA beat Serbia, both in 3 sets but I can't really comment on the sport as I'm still not convinced I totally understood it.  Everytime I thought I'd got it I would be totally baffled as to why the team I thought had lost the point had actually won it.  Nevertheless I am a Volleyball convert.  Not in the sense that I will be taking it up (I think I might have to be a bit taller...) but in the sense that I came away thinking that it was a brilliantly exciting game, and as far as my untrained eye could work out USA looked pretty darn good at it.