A feast of volleyball

Defending champions South Auckland men and Te Puke women head the 36 teams contesting the 38th New Zealand club volleyball championships being played in Wanganui this week.
The four-day tournament, which opened in the Springvale and Jubilee Stadiums yesterday, culminates with finals on Saturday afternoon.
International Bennett Schwalker is a gun player for South Auckland A which has won the men's title three of the past four years, Tauranga breaking the sequence in 2003 with a first NZ title.
Tauranga has five member of the national squad which is preparing for the 2007 Oceania championships in Samoa.
The Tauranga NZ reps are Damon Haenga, Mike Akkerman, Tame Malcolm, Tute Malcolm and Shaun Goldsbury.
Two other sides in contention for the men's title are North Harbour Raiders, under the care of national coach Jeff Jiang and captained by international Grant Bindon, and Auckland Rebels.
The rest of the men's Division One sides are Shirley and Pioneer (Christchurch), Scorpions A and B (Otago), Eagles Jurassics (Wellington), Massey (Manawatu) plus Auckland's Brothers and Playaz.
The three top ranking women's teams are Satara Te Puke Sports, titleholders in 1994-95-98-99-2000-2002-2003-2004, Tauranga and Massey.
The Men's B division comprises Rongotai and Western Suburbs (Wellington), Trojans and Sparta (Auckland), South Auckland B, Otago University Vikings and Hornby (Christchurch).
Sparta won the men's Div 1 title 14 times between the first nationals in 1968 and 1991.
Sparta was the complete dominant force in men's basketball until 1975, winning seven of the first eight NZ titles.
The key to Te Puke's remarkable success has been a solid core of players, including international Marnie Grant and experienced Tamara King, who have played together for quite a few years.
Ezibuy Massey includes five NZ University players recently returned from the world university games in Turkey ? Lucy Todd, Susan Blundell, Eloise Jillings, Rebecca Reidy and Emma Preston.
Blundell and Anna Scarlett, both NZ volleyball reps, are also prominent national beach-ball circuit players as is Lucy Todd.
Other teams in the women's top grade are NZIS Wellington (coached by national coach Shelley Addison), NZIS Christchurch and Hornby (Christchurch), Redbacks (Marlborough), Nelson Scorchers, Scorpions, plus Auckland's Trojans, Titans and AVC.
In the women's B grade, which will play a round-robin series twice, are Sparta, Rongotai, Vikings, Western Suburbs and Scorpions B.
The finals will be played in the Springvale Stadium on Saturday at 1.30pm (men's Div 2), 3.30 (women's Div 1) and 5.30 (men's Div 1).
Because of the high cost of facilities and accommodation in Wellington. and to enable all games to be played at the one venue, the Wellington association, which is hosting the 2005 championships, switched the tournament to Wanganui.