IBB Polonia London win silver in Championship of England

The finals of the season took place in the weekend of the 5th and 6th May. It was the closing event of the Super 8 being played in the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering. The players had two matches to play against Team Northumbria and lost the first encounter on Saturday 3:1 (22:25; 25:23; 25:22; 25:20), and on Sunday 3:0 (25:17: 25:18; 25:12). The players from the North fought tooth and nail won the gold medals. Piotr Graban’s charges managed to smile after the winning point as they were awarded the silver medals. The encounter was televised live by BBC Sport’s website; the media giant.

IBB Polonia London was unbeatable over the previous two seasons and went home as gold medal winners on both occasions. The desire to beat the best team in England was the inspiration for Team Northumbria, who have a number of top young English players in their ranks. Their performance was spectacular and played exceptionally well over both legs. On Saturday, the match was incredibly tightly contested, and on Sunday with teams gave everything they had on court, but sadly Graban’s players could not stem the flow from the other side of the net.

“Of course I am disappointed, because we have been so dominant over the last two years. I am displeased with the Saturday game, because we should have won that game. We had our chances, but simply didn’t take our opportunities that we were presented with. We gave 100%: we really did! This is a good lesson and motivation for the future. We want to win back the gold medals next season.” commented captain Bartosz Kisielewicz.

„Maybe we wanted to win too much. We had our chances on Saturday, but there were a series of mix ups with the score and the referees during the match knocked us out of our rhythm and we never regained our composure. Team Northumbria approached the game on Sunday with total concentration, and showed a level of volleyball that we simply couldn’t match: they deserved the win. Big congratulations to them! I would like to thank my team; coaching staff, support staff and of course the fans. They have been fantastic this season. I feel as though we have become World Champions together this season and believe the season has been a success. I am very proud of them all, because everyone worked so hard. We gave everything of ourselves.” commented Head Coach of IBB Polonia London, Piotr Graban.

„I am proud and am happy with the medal. I know we will win the gold medal next year. I want to congratulate the opponents today who became Champions of England.” added Club Chairman of IBB Polonia London Bartek Luszcz.

As always, the fans of IBB Polonia London were the loudest in the entire arena. They supported with all of their strength and urged their players to even greater action. This was the final effort of the season and there will be time now to draw breath and to make our own conclusions for the season. There is a lot of evidence of how much work has gone into building this team this season and of the changes taking place in our sport in England.

“We finished the season strongly, and consider it as a very successful one. We are right at the top of the pecking order in English volleyball and have been the top team in the country over the last few years as a total. We focussed a lot of attention in our development of the business side of our club and this has been an enormous success. We are the pioneers of the marketing of volleyball in England and one of our aims is to popularise volleyball in the UK. Our games were broadcast by the very best sports television channel, we sold many shares to investors in our Club, we gained many new sponsors, and this is evidence that on a day to day basis are getting closer to realising the ambitions that we set out at the start of the season.” added Chairman of IBB Polonia London, Bartek Luszcz.

IBB Polonia London is the five time Champion of England (1985-86, 2010-11, 2012-13, 2015-16, 2016-17).

pic. Volleyball England