The English beach volleyball pair of Victoria Palmer and Jessica Grimson made history on Thursday when they won their countries’ first-ever women’s beach volleyball matches at the Commonwealth Games. The quadrennial event for current and former members of the British Empire added beach volleyball this year for the first time in its almost 90-year history, and among the day 1 matches was Palmer and Grimson facing off against Rheeza Grand and Abby Blackman of Trinidad & Tobago.
The English pair swept the day’s proceedings 21-16, 21-12, led by a 14-dig defensive effort from Grimson that helped overcome an aggressive service game by the Trinidadian pair.
In honor of the event, the FIVB/Swatch Beach Major Series released a video filmed at the Fort Lauderdale Major with team members of Commonwealth Nations sending a message to the 93-year old Queen Elizabeth, who among other titles is the Head of the Commonwealth of Nations and therefore the figurehead of the Commonwealth Games. That includes the English pair pitching the Queen on why she should come play beach volleyball.
There has been some fears that upon the death of the Queen, the Commonwealth of Nations (and therefore the Commonwealth Games) might dissolve. She is approximately the same age as the loose international organization that bonds these nations together in a pseudo-royal-family. For now, though, she’s still involved in the event. While she didn’t make the trip to Australia this year, she placed her message to the Commonwealth Games inside of the Queen’s Baton and kicked off the baton relay to the Gold Coast. The message was then read aloud by her son Prince Charles at the opening ceremonies on Wednesday.
Watch video of those two occasions below.
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