Volleyball: Unbeaten Mel hopes to win again at Porty

Published on Friday 19 June 2009 10:04

TEAM Edinburgh's Mel Coutts hopes to keep up her unbeaten record on Scottish sands when she plays in the Portobello Open Beach Volleyball Championships this weekend.

It is the third leg of the Scottish Tour and Coutts has already won the Grampian Open, with Gillian Lyall, and the Troon Open, with Eilidh Smith.

The two-day event has attracted the best beach players in the country and City of Edinburgh pair Barry McGuigan and Gavin Watt will be in the running for the men's title.

Meanwhile, the heat will be on the GB men's and women's indoor teams in Amasya, Turkey, this weekend as the European League cranks up a gear.

The GB men are looking to build on last weekend's superb double triumph over Croatia at Meadowbank, which kept them in the frame for the Final Four.

This weekend's double-header with Turkey will go a long way to mapping out their summer but coach Harry Brokking insists the Final Four has not come into his thoughts.

"We have to think only about our next point and, once that's gone, then we just think about the next point," he said, "We can't look too far ahead."

Turkish captain Blent Kandemir stressed that the GB team would not be treated lightly. He said: "It is a wrong assumption to say they are quite a weak team as their effort against Spain was highly noteworthy."

European champions Spain lead the group with GB and Turkey currently joint second.