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The Heritage Show: Celebrating Ann Jarvis - England’s Most Capped Player and the New Hardship Fund in Her Name
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Think of the athlete who never stops showing up. That’s Anne Jarvis—England captain, Hall of Famer, and the nation’s most capped volleyball player—whose story blends grit, curiosity, and a fierce love for the team game. We trace her path from a sport-filled childhood to the senior squad at 18, where pressure drills, tough camps, and diverse coaching styles forged a competitor who prized precision as much as power. Anne explains how being coachable, filtering feedback, and learning to play smart compensated for not being the tallest on court, and why an elite hitter is only as good as the pass and set that come before it.
Travel shaped her game and worldview: a week-long Spring Cup that mixed high-level matches with cultural immersion, a packed Turkish arena so loud she had to watch the ref’s hand to serve, and a lost-baggage saga that ended with borrowed knee pads and a win-at-all-costs mindset. She shares favorite matchups, the thrill of facing Japan, and the joy of helping Ashcombe turn close calls into championships while mentoring juniors to read, pass, and serve under pressure.
At the heart of our conversation is access. Volleyball is a beautiful sport with real costs: hall time, travel, international commitments. That’s why we announce the Anne Jarvis Hardship Fund, a collaboration with Volleyball England and the Volleyball England Foundation to keep talent pathways open to committed athletes who need financial support. Anne’s vision is direct and hopeful: more matches for national teams, stronger club competition, and deeper investment in coaching education to raise standards across the country.
Join us for a rich look at performance, culture, and community from someone who lived it at the highest level. If you believe talent shouldn’t depend on money—and that smarter coaching and more competitive fixtures can change everything—hit play, subscribe, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.
Connecting Through Conversation
Hello, I'm Luke Wilchner, host of Lut Volleyball Gunny, and if you love volleyball as much as me, then you're in the right place. Hello and welcome to another episode of That Volleyball Guy in partnership with Volleyball England. My name's Luke Wilcher, the host of the show, and tonight we are joined by a very special guest for another episode of The Heritage Show. Now, just a reminder that The Heritage Show is all about showcasing and exposing the history of the sport through a collection of digital and physical essays. It's about giving those people that have done so much and a vital role in the sport a chance to share their stories and for the people currently in the sport to hear from them and find out more about all the things they've done. And I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy sitting down and spending an hour chatting to some of these amazing people, like you said, who have given so much for our sport over the years. If you're new to the podcast, why not go back then and listen to other heritage episodes where we've had the likes of Richard Callicott, Brian Stalker, Frida Bussey, Gordon Neal, and tonight's guest is another exceptional volleyball icon from the English volleyball scene, and I'm really, really excited for this conversation. Our guest tonight has also made such a huge impact on the sport that now Volleyball England have a new hardship fund that has been named after her, and we will be talking a lot more about that later in the episode. A really exciting announcement to make. Now, this person doesn't really need any introductions, but can you guess who my guest is tonight from just a few facts? So she was the England captain between 1976 and 1979. She's played over a hundred matches for the national team. In fact, she's the most internationally captained and internationally capped player with over with 176 caps, playing her final match for England in 1987. She's also a Volleyball England Hall of Famer, and I'm really pleased to welcome Anne Jarvis to the Heritage Show. Hello Anne.
SPEAKER_02:Hi Luke, how are you?
SPEAKER_06:I'm really well, and I'm really pleased to have you on the show. Um when I when we when I spoke with Charlie, the CEO of Volleyball England, we talked a lot at the stuff about who do we want to get on the show. Um and your name came up a lot, unsurprisingly, with that with that figure. 176 matches for the for the national team.
SPEAKER_02:Indeed, it's a lot, isn't it? I never set out to be a record keeper, I have to say. Um but I just loved playing the sport from the moment I first started. So I guess that's the that's the outcome. That and my good fortune of being uh fairly fit and not picking up too many injuries along the way.
SPEAKER_06:Well, we're gonna, I'm sure the people listening will want to know how you've done that and how you achieved you know such great things. Like I said, achieving 176 caps is just incredible, capping in for a long duration as well. So I'm really looking forward to to picking your brains, having a conversation like we do on this show, just two people who love volleyball talking about volleyball. So, and if you wouldn't mind, um I'd love to start with, like I do with all of our guests, about finding out a little bit more about how you got into the sport in the first place. I'm always intrigued.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Um, well, I suppose I grew up in quite a sporty family. My dad played football and cricket as a young man. Um, he then became a qualified football referee. My brother played lots of sports, my older brother played lots of sports, and in particular, he was a really good fencer. And he was, in fact, London School's Epe champion in his senior years. So I remember we used to play lots of sports in the garden, football, cricket, tennis. In fact, I always used to end up in goal, so perhaps that's where I learned to throw myself about and dive. Um, anyway, I played netball in my junior school. I played lots of different sports in my secondary school, netball, hockey, tennis, badminton. And then when I was in year 11, we had a new head of PE come to the school called Kate Bamford, and she was involved with the London Schools Volleyball Association, and she started a club at school. I personally just love volleyball from the start. It was a combination of mental and physical challenge that I so enjoyed. You kind of have to be present all the time if you're playing volleyball. You can't phase out, you can't have a few moments to yourself. And I actually enjoyed that intensity. Um, you had to try and read what was happening, have quick reactions, good physical skills. And two or three of us just used to go down to the PE block at lunchtime and after school most days just to practice our skills, just kind of like keepy uppy, trying to stop the ball hitting the floor. And then Kate Bamford, um, she started volleyball club at school, and she later encouraged us to go and join a club in Putney run by Mick Mike Warwick.
SPEAKER_01:Um that kind of developed, I suppose, um, in 1971. I suppose I was selected for the London Schools match year, and then I was encouraged by my head of department to go to England School Girl Finals in Bristol. I didn't get selected first time. To be honest, that's not too surprising. Um I have to say, the three world girls were amazing on that book. If nothing else, they gave me something to aim for, I would say. Uh anyway, Ray said to me, you know, thanks for coming. You've done some really good things, but you need to go away and work on this and that and the other. And I'd like you to come back next year.
SPEAKER_02:So I I went back next year, um, and I got into the squad. And from there we had kind of two, I had two summers. First summer we went to um Holland with Ray, took a squad to Holland. We played lots of teams over there, and then I think after that, um Ken Harvey took over the school girls, and we went to West Germany with him the following year uh for another week. Uh, really good. And I also played my first England International under 18 Girls v Scotland in 1972. That was kind of the beginning stages, if you like, volleyball.
SPEAKER_06:And and it's so um it's so common. All the people I speak to on this show, you know, tend to have got into volleyball because of a teacher at school or someone who, you know, it's not if we're honest, it's not a mainstream sport in this country. Um it's not one of the big sports that they teach at school. I had a very, very similar experience to you, Anne, in terms of a teacher who was very good at volleyball in my school and got us into it. So you mentioned that you were playing netball, you played some other sports, very coming from a very sporty family. You you sort of alluded to this already, but what was it about volleyball? Um, were you were you naturally good at it, or did it take a lot of hard work? Tell me a bit more about the early sort of days.
SPEAKER_02:Um, I think I probably was quick, quick reactions, um, physically good at moving around, uh watching the ball, tracking it. I think if you play sport when you're quite young anyway, your kind of hand cut eye coordination develops quite well. And I think those things all helped. The skills are quite unique when you play volleyball. There's not many other sports that have skills like that. Um but they were a challenge. I mean, uh, I think I just persevered with them as much as anything else because I loved it so much. Yeah, and it was never enough to just keep the ball up when when things I think as I got older and uh club level and all kinds of things, it wasn't just enough for me to get the ball up. There was that real challenge. I want to put it on the setter's head, I want to make it as accurate as possible. So I suppose I was driven to try and be the best I possibly could be.
SPEAKER_06:And I love that mindset around, you know, didn't get in the first time, um, but used it as a as a fuel almost to get there the next time. And I think it's a really important aspect for young athletes in sport is you know, like you said, you mentioned the speedwell girls are really quick and really athletic and really good. That probably inspired you to try harder, push a bit more, and um and go back the following year. Would that be fair?
SPEAKER_02:I think that's absolutely fair. Um, you know, I could see that there was a vast difference between what they were doing and I was doing. Mind you, they'd probably been playing for three or four years, to be quite honest. Um, but yes, I I think you also have to be resilient. It doesn't matter what sport you're playing, you do get knocked back at times. And if you want something enough, you've got to kind of come back and be stronger mentally, physically, and actually work on what you need to improve in order to make that level, especially in team sports am, right?
SPEAKER_06:Because you know, and I'm sure you probably had seasons like this where you um well, maybe you didn't, we'll come on to that. But I definitely had seasons where you're sitting on the bench maybe a lot more than you wanted to. Um but actually, and the young athletes I coach now, I try and explain that that is also an opportunity that is part of your journey, that's part of the experience. You know, you will get knocked backs, you will, you know. I talk a lot about winning and losing, you learn more from a loss. You probably learn a lot more from not being picked that first time to push you on to want it more the next time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think that's a fair comment. But also, I think you have to understand if you're a volleyball player, that it isn't normally just uh the six people that are on court, you can make those substitutions. The substitution substitutes can actually make a massive difference to the game as it goes on. Not everybody has a perfect game all the time. So if you've got some strength in depth, you're actually going to be at great dis at a great advantage, to be honest. Um, and you know, if if you are not prepared to work hard in training to try and take over that spot on court that you want, you're going to be disillusioned. You've got to have that determination, that drive, but within a within a team context, you're not just working for yourself. I mean, volleyball to me is probably one of the most team sports you can possibly have because you can only have a great hitter if you've got a great passer and a great setter beforehand. Yeah, you can play other sports which are very much team sports, but you can be a basketball player, you can get the ball one end, you can dribble the other end, you can score. You can't do that in volleyball. You have to rely on your teammates, you have to work together.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, so true. Really, really true. Yeah, really, really insightful. And it's interesting that you talk all about your experiences at school and then you know getting into it. So let's talk more about um those earlier days as an English playing for England in the schools of the Andre teams, sort of um, so what did that look like in terms of training, camps? What what how how was that?
SPEAKER_02:Um, I think we only probably had a couple of um training sessions, weekends, whatever, before we actually played that much. And I would have been coming up to 18, I think, then I was at the end of my school career, if you like. Yeah, and I in fact joined the senior squad almost straight from being in the under-18 team. So that summer I literally was taken into the senior squad, and the first thing I did was we went to uh training camp and the summer holiday, and that was taken by Mick Hibbert, he was the coach at that point. Um, we turned up to um a college in Weymouth, which was where we were going to be staying while training was going on, and I didn't know very much. I we arrived, and all the senior players dived into the ground floor bedrooms. I thought, okay, you know, I have no problem with that. It's only two floors up, I'll go up the stairs, no big problem. And we started training the next day, and Mick Hibbert very much liked pressure drills. So you would be doing things like you were the only person on court, and he would spike and dump and chuck the ball around, and your job was to get to every ball before it hit the ground, basically. So you'd just have fallen on the floor one place, and you had to run nine meters across to try and pick up the next one that was coming. So it went on. Um, and you probably only worked for about minute, two minutes. It felt like two hours, I have to say. Um, but at the end of the day, you know, we'd all worked hard, no problem. We went out that had dinner that night, we went back to our rooms. I'd said that I would get Lucy up. She was her first time as well. I said, I'll come and knock on you the next morning because she didn't have an alarm clock. I woke up the next morning. I have never been so stiff in my entire life, and I thought I was fairly fit, to be honest. It took me five minutes of stretching my legs before I could walk next door to knock on her door. But you know, it was a method of training, and I think that's the one thing I can say that I've had some great coaches, they've all had quite different approaches in many ways, but they've all taught something, they've all highlighted something that's that's really, really important, and that was basically the start of my um senior international career.
SPEAKER_06:So you so we now know why you you did they wanted the ground floor bedrooms, they didn't have a climbing.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. They didn't have to worry about the stairs. There was an upside to this, I have to say, that when I uh started college in September, uh we had an induction week and it was kind of very fitness-oriented. I swear that I was the only person in that year group who was able to walk up and down the stairs normally because I'd already gone through that, my pain experience, and everybody else was kind of moaning going up and down the stairs because they ate so much.
SPEAKER_06:There's um there's two points that I want to pick, dive a little bit deeper on, if you wouldn't mind, on that. So the first one is as someone who was like just turned 18, going into the senior um the senior team, how was that for you as a young athlete? You know, and we're going to talk a lot later about this hardship fund, which is there to support young athletes. So, how was that for you as a young athlete stepping up into the senior team, being one of the youngest members of the squad?
SPEAKER_02:It was fairly daunting because uh there was nobody else within my age bracket, realistically. Um, I think Lucy, who'd come training with me, um to it was kind of like a trial as well as training, if you like. And I think we were the only two that were 18 years old, and everybody else was probably 23, 24, 25 a month. So it was quite a big step in many ways, and they'd all played lots of internationals. I have to say that very welcoming, very nice group of people, kind of looked out for you as well. But it was a bit um initially daunting. You had to kind of have the ability to just get on with it or want to get on with it.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. And a bit of uh about trying, you know, as an athlete and pressure, especially when you're young, trying hard to impress, but then trying too hard that you you get in your own head and you're not playing, you know. I often talk about volleyball, is you almost need to be able to play it unconsciously. If you start thinking about it too much, your brain gets in the way. The sport's too quick for thinking, isn't it? It's like you just need to react. And I suppose when you're a young athlete, you sort of want to impress and you want to sort of fit in with the team. But did that ever get in the way of your performance? Do you think? Were there times at early camps where you thought I could have done better?
SPEAKER_02:Or I'm sure there were lots of times I thought I could have done better. Um, and probably throughout the time that I played, I often thought I couldn't do that better. Um, I'm for rightly or wrong, I I certainly was always somebody who, when we were doing just even club training, if we'd been asked to do 10 of something and I did one badly, I'd always do the extra one because I'd want to make it up 10 good ones or whatever. Um that can be a blessing and a curse, but at the same time, you know, it's it's that desire to always want to be a bit better, a bit more consistent.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and that's high performance, isn't it? That's what makes the pe the difference between good and great. It's that ability to push yourself a little bit more, not rely on someone else to do it for you, and have that internal, you know, that internal drive, that intrinsic motivation, not extrinsic looking for someone else to do it, but some that internal fire as an athlete is what is what normally separates the good athletes from the great athletes.
SPEAKER_02:I think you also need to know um who to listen to. It's possible to get, you know, even when you're playing in club, you can get a lot of information, a lot of feedback from your teammates, but it's either knowing yourself or knowing that it's the coach you pay attention to. I think as I got more experienced, the coach was the most important person. Um one or two maybe club players I'd particularly listen to. But then beyond that, I actually had a fair idea what I was doing wrong myself. Yeah. But that comes with experience.
SPEAKER_06:And that and it sounds like it's that ability to be coachable, right? So you can have the world's best coach, but if the player isn't coachable and isn't open to listening and taking feedback, then you're always going to be up against it. But the second thing I wanted to ask you a little bit more on, then is you mentioned you said something which I thought love that comment was it's really important for you to be to take learnings from all different types of coaches that you had with different styles and different different methodologies. Um so again, for the younger listeners, for the people that are in maybe in the maybe people listening are in the England talent pathway, um get new to new to performing at that sort of level. Why do you think it is so important to be coached by different coaches?
SPEAKER_02:I think maybe they have strengths and weaknesses themselves. Um, I think sometimes um different personalities work better for you. You know, you can relate to somebody better or you can uh admire somebody's work much more. Um, and sometimes they come with different approaches to the game. I know I've played with coaches who's who wanted you as a team to play fast, quick attack. I've played with coaches who want you to play high boards and look for certain things. I've played with coaches that will um point out different things on backcourt or what to look for when you're when you're spiking or blocking or different techniques. So I think you can obviously it's hard to use all of those all the time, but I think as you have different coaches, you can kind of pick out what works for you. What works for me may not work for somebody else exactly the same.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not particularly tall. I've never been particularly tall. I'm five's seven. I never used to think I was particularly short until I went to a spring cup and I ended up in a lift with um six touch players who were all six were plus. I think I had a crick in my neck following that, to be honest. But um, you know, I was never going to be the kind of player that when I was spiking would be hitting a three-meter line. So I had to learn to be smarter.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I remember uh years ago watching uh one of the men's internationals, Nick Keeley, and he wasn't particularly the biggest male player in in the England team, but he was tremendous at wiping the ball off the block. Yeah, he won so many points by playing smart rather than playing power.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And you know, you pick up things along the way. So I'm not saying I was anything like him, but I tried very hard to also develop the ability to try and squeeze the ball down the line, to try and hit off the side of the block. Um, and you know, one coach will kind of focus you more on that kind of thing to get the best out of you. Another coach might ask you to be more aware and to look for the spaces on court or things like that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, you're right, and coaching's objective, isn't it? There's no I always say to my athletes, it's it's not my ways right and other coaches' ways wrong. We've all got different ideas of how the sport should be played, and therefore, the more coaches you have, the more different ways you've got of playing. You become a much better, and I think especially for young athletes, it's really important that they get a mixture of coaches, um, because they get to learn different styles, different techniques, different communication methods, and just yeah, just being that more adaptable athlete. So no, thank you. Thank you for sharing that.
SPEAKER_02:And I think the other thing just about um young people is you've got to be able to take constructive criticism. Yeah, if you want to improve, you've got to not take it personally when somebody tells you you've done something wrong and you need to look at it and do it another way. And that's uh it's a life skill, really, but it's an important one if you want to make make progress.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Little saying I have is all feedback is a gift. You decide what to do with it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, fair enough.
SPEAKER_06:Like you decide what to do. You can either take it on board or you can check it in the bin, but the fact that you've got it is a is a gift in itself. So um, yeah, no, lovely. And I could talk to you for hours just about those sorts of conversations and coaching, because that's my bag. But I want to, you know, it'd be really unfair of me to have you on the show, and I only get an hour with you, so I think I've got to use my time wisely, Anne. Um, I want to talk more about your career then with 176, I'm saying again, 176 caps for England. So let's talk a little bit more about your England playing career. We've I've I've learned from speaking with you, you're an outside hitter, I believe. Is that right?
SPEAKER_02:I was an outside hitter, yeah. Um occasionally I might have been switched to position two, but um again, I'm not the biggest blocker, that's usually where the main attackers are coming. So most of the most of the time I played, I was an outside hitter.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:And so if we if we look at your um your England career then, so I think when was your first England match? I think you you mentioned this earlier. Do you recall your first England senior cap?
SPEAKER_02:I I recall what it was, it was about 1973. And um, I can remember that we went to Austria. We actually stayed in quite a big uh it was like a big old chateau, to be honest. It was quite impressive in many ways, and it was the only time I can actually ever remember that the the men and the women's team went to the same match venue. Uh most of the time they were completely separate. So um, yeah, we went to Austria, my very first match. Uh we lost 3-0, I hasten to add. In fact, there seems to be a little bit of a theme going on here that I think when I played my first, we lost, when I paid my 50th, we lost, when I paid my hundredth, we lost, and when we paid my 150th, we lost. But I have to put into perspective that we actually won quite a few matches as well, just never seemed on those those moments, if you like. Um, yeah, I mean I think uh I didn't play very much, you know, I was very much junior in the team, and uh it was it was very exciting to be honest, to do something like that and very proud to feel like you're representing your country.
SPEAKER_06:And I'm I'm looking and reading your your playing career. You've played in some I I'm intrigued to find where where's the sort of most peculiar or country that you visited to play to play volleyball? What's the sort of is there any quite strange or unique countries that you visited?
SPEAKER_02:Um, I think I mean we most of our visits were West European countries. Um and then we'd play internationals where we'd go away for a weekend and we'd play on Saturday and Sunday, you know, go Friday, play Saturday and Sunday, come back um Sunday evening. But then from 1975 onwards, we took part in something called the Spring Cup.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Spring Cup was a tournament of West European countries, and we went all over the place to be honest. Uh the difference with the Spring Cup is it was for a week.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And the really good fun thing about going for a week was that usually in the middle we got a day off, so there was always some sightseeing when you went. You can imagine that if you went on a weekend, you actually didn't really see much of where you were going. You saw the airport where you were staying, the training hall, the match hall, and the airport again as you went home. Whereas if you went for the week, um we'd go maybe a bit of sightseeing or a bit of wandering around on the middle day. And countries we went to for Spring Cup were Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Belgium, all over the place. But I suppose the two most interesting ones were um we went to Turkey. In fact, we went to Turkey three times. Now, Turkey these days is very much a tourist destination. Lots of people go to Turkey. We're talking about 1975, so it's a long, long time ago. And I had never been anywhere like Turkey, so I was absolutely mesmerized the whole time when we were walking around on our on our day out, if you like, um, to see all the sites and to see how people lived, and that was really fascinating. Um we had, in fact, three trips to Turkey, and the second one was probably one of the most interesting matches that we played. We went to Ankara, and when we were there, we turned up, and it just so happened that we had to pay the Turkish national team in one of our matches. So we went into the sports hall in the arena, and it was literally packed to the rafters. There was the court in the middle, and the bank seating just went almost right up to the ceiling.
SPEAKER_04:Do you know how many people there were?
SPEAKER_02:No idea, but it was raucous. They had an absolute um organized chant, if you like, a bit of clapping, and then Turkeya shouted out. And it was so noisy that you couldn't actually hear the referee's whistle. So if you went back to serve, you had to look at the referee to actually see that he'd blown his whistle or he'd indicate with his hand to say, yeah, serve, you're fine. Um the interesting thing was the entire crowd was full of men. There was no women to be seen, and the front row all the way round was either police or troops.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:So that was kind of an interesting extra to add to it. Um it was it was a good game, it was a very exciting game. We actually ended up losing 3-1. Uh, but the fourth set, we thought we'd won. So we'd won that point. It we all thought we'd won. Both teams went off court, and then the second official said there was a neck touch. So we all had to calm ourselves down, come back on court, and unfortunately. So yeah, a bit of a disappointment there. And the other place that sorry.
SPEAKER_06:No, go on, go on.
SPEAKER_02:I was gonna say, I think the other place that was really interesting. Um, one of the uh spring cups was in Israel.
SPEAKER_04:Oh wow, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And that was fascinating to go there. Um, obviously not somewhere you'd be wanting to go currently, sadly, but um really interesting. Um we were there over the kind of Easter uh period, because it was always spring time. Um so that was another fascinating place to go, particularly when we could go around and see some of the some of the sites, find out a little bit more about um Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_06:And nice and nice experiences to have as athletes is you know, yes to play, but like you said, so many. I often say to my friendship group that, you know, I've you know, when I especially when I was coaching in the Super League, oh I'm going up to Durham this weekend for a match, you know, in Southampton. So it'd be like, oh, what a lovely part of the world, you get to see the city. No, sit in a mini-bus, play a game, get in the mini-bust, drive a bug away.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_06:So yeah, I completely hear you when you say it gives you the opportunity to see the world, um, understand and explore not just volleyball, but different cultures and absolutely, absolutely, and see how other people's lives are, and you know, compare them to your own.
SPEAKER_02:That's quite um a really fascinating thing to do.
SPEAKER_06:And now I need to ask you about the um the trip. I think it was, did you say to Sweden where the baggage they went on baggage strike?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we had a bit of a nightmare journey to to um one of the Scandinavian countries, can't remember which one it was now, to be honest. But we'd turned up at something like nine o'clock in the morning at Heathrow, and the baggage strike was actually at Heathrow. So firstly, we sat around for ages. Then they told us we'd have to go by via Schiphol in Holland. So instead of just flying straight to our destination, we ended up flying to Holland. Then we had to sit around in in Holland. Column for ages, and then we took a flight that finally got us into a fairly small airport, the one we were intending to go to in the first place. Um, but it was something like 12 midnight by then. So it literally taken us a whole day to get a relatively short journey. And when we arrived, there were just rows and rows and rows of bags. They'd all come off the conveyor belt, but they were just all lined up. So everybody had to go and find their own personal bag. And bearing in mind it was so late at night, I I'd walked up and down two or three times. No, none of my bags, nothing there. So the next day we're going to be training and playing. And I just said, look, let's let's just go. There's no point waiting. It's not here. There's nothing we can do about it. So I went back. Uh, we went to bed, got up the next morning. I had to go around and tout round everybody saying, Anyone got any knee pads? Anyone got any any shoes? Anyone got a shirt I can borrow? Can I borrow your your uh training top or whatever it was? So I looked a little bit like the poor person that had just you know gathered together whatever they could find to play. Not all of it fitting very well, but there you go, you can't be too proud in occasions like that. And uh luckily it did turn up by lunchtime, so um, I wasn't uh in desperate straits for too long, I think.
SPEAKER_06:But there's more about your mindset that nothing was gonna stop you, nothing was gonna get in your way, you're getting on that court regardless.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, absolutely. If you want to play, you've got to do the hard work.
SPEAKER_06:So um, Anne, I said at the start we're gonna talk about the hardship fund that's been um you using your name. Um, but I'd like to, you know, you've talked a lot about travel and going away for a week. How was all of that, you know, when you were playing for England, how was all that funded? Was that I'm intrigued. Was that self-funded? Was it through sponsorship? Tell us a little bit more about the sort of finance side of playing at the international level.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I think when I started playing, some of the first internationals, I have a vague recollection that we had to make a kind of nominal contribution. It wasn't a great deal, but we had to pay a little bit towards the trip. Um, and certainly when we went on the two schoolgirl trips, we had to pay for some of that. Now, you know, the bottom line is I'm I was very fortunate. My parents were very supportive, both in terms of encouragement, but also in terms of if something needed to be paid, you know, they'd pay for it until I was in a situation where I was able to work and pay for myself realistically. Um, now, you know, if the hardship fund had been around then, maybe it wouldn't be me sitting here now, it might be some other brilliant talent that you know got left behind at that point, to be honest. And that's really, I think, probably what the hardship fund will help. You mentioned earlier that you know you need a large pool of talent or potential that you can actually bring on, and it shouldn't be restricted by finances or any other kind of issue that young people have. If they have the talent, they should have the opportunity to actually move forward and achieve their dreams, I suppose.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, absolutely. And um we'll come back. I just want to ask you a few more questions about your playing days, and then we're going to talk more about hard the hardship fund, give a little bit more information about it, and like we say, discuss what it what it means for athletes. So um I could again I could talk to you for hours about your England playing career. Um, but I guess for me, is there a is there a favorite game as as a player? Have you got a uh a favorite game? And and did you win?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I we did win quite a lot of matches, um, but uh a favorite game.
SPEAKER_06:Or a favourite moment. Probably so many to choose from. You had 170.
SPEAKER_02:It's hard to actually select anything. I mean, clearly, uh, you know, there were always if you won a game, there was a great sense of pride and achievement that you'd won that. Um, we had some interesting ones. So not sure if you'd count as favorite in one respect. They used to have um well, I'm sure they have something by a different name now, but they had two Hitashi Cups, which were in the UK. And um the first one was fascinating. I mean, I we didn't play in that at all, but um, I was asked to be like the liaison for the United States team. Oh wow at that time they were really riding high. And interestingly enough, uh, they had this is slightly digress digressing. I apologize for this, but uh they had a player called Rita Crockett, who was about my height. I was absolutely mesmerized watching her. Yeah, she had a 42-inch standing jump, which is immense. She still has knees that work, but apart from that, she was unbelievable. She could hit the ball as hard as any of her taller colleagues, to be honest. Um, and then the following year they had another Hitashi Cup, and this time we kind of got included into the mix. We were like the warm-up game before the main game, and uh I can't remember all of them, but one of the teams was Japan, one of the teams was um Germany, and I forget who the other one was now, and we actually played Japan. Well, to be fair, we played Japan's second six, but they were almost as good as their first six, to be honest. It was a fairly short game, but it was such a fun thing to to challenge yourself to try and play against people who are that elite, to be honest. Yeah, um, my other interesting game, which isn't uh an international, but um, I used to play for Hillingdon and then I moved to Ashcom.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And uh the very first match I played for Ashcom, I hadn't actually even trained with them at that point. I didn't know a number of the players because they were also in the international squad and I'd played tournaments and things with them. And I turned up and Frida had organized a warm-up match for the Peru national team against Ashcom. Wow, the Peru national team were pretty good as well. And I turned up and I'm asking questions like, What system are we playing? Where do you want me to play? I mean, talk about not being prepared, but again, it was a really fun opportunity to play against very much elite players, to be honest.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, sounds it sounds amazing, and uh you should write a book if you haven't already, but you should write a book of these stories. I'd I'd buy it. Um but um so if I've got this right, I believe you you played your final match for England in 1987-ish, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Um I think it was something like that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, but you then went on to play, like you just mentioned then you went on to play for Ashcombe. Um so tell us about sort of we've talked about your England playing days, but maybe talk uh talk to us about your playing days after retiring from the national team, and then you know, when did you and and also when did you hang up your shoes? So we'll go from from that's quite a big period of time, but tell us a little bit more about that.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, um, as for date for hanging up shoes, I honestly don't know to be honest. Um when I think I'd played for Hillingdon for a number of years, and we'd had some great times playing for Hillingd. We'd won the league a number of times, we'd won the cup a number of times in succession, we'd played in European club championships at that time, and then when Hillingdon kind of stopped playing and I went to Ashcombe, I think I had one very big uh wish, if you like, going to Ashcombe. And that was they'd always been close or there or thereabouts winning the league, near the top, doing quite well. And I think I was driven to see if I could contribute. Don't get me wrong, I didn't think that I was going to be the big difference to them, but try and contribute to them winning a cup, winning a league, particularly winning the league, because the club and Frieda so deserved to make it to that point at some point. So I think it was one of the things that I really felt a sense of achievement when we actually then did win the league. And I think it was 2000. In fact, I think that year we won the league and the cup, which was absolutely fantastic, to be honest. Um, I carried on playing with them, and then probably a few years, I don't know, maybe uh the mid-nouhties, something like that. I think um a number of the players decided that life had gone on and it was time for them to kind of stop playing. And there were a lot more juniors in the club at that point coming through because Frida always manages to keep that rollover going, which is quite amazing to be honest. Um, and I decided I was gonna play on a little bit longer. So I'm afraid I was pretty much way past my best by then, shall we say, perhaps past my sell by date, I'm not quite sure. But um, we actually I played with many of the juniors because it was a good way to kind of help create a bit better structure on court, yeah, some encouragement, try and give some uh settled passing if things were getting bad, or put in a few decent serves that just kept us ticking over. And I suppose in the hope that maybe that would help some of them to gain more knowledge and understanding, maybe more confidence in in what they were doing. And then eventually I decided that uh my my jump was uh probably a negative jump by that point. So I decided that it was probably time to hang up my my knee pads and training shoes.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah, but it's so great that you were able to give something back to, like you say, the juniors. It's like I think there are lots of players out there up and down the country who have had similar experiences of playing as a junior, but playing with maybe some more experienced players, maybe not as someone, maybe not playing and sharing a court with someone who had played for their national team 176 times, but um definitely playing with those more experienced players. And I think, yeah, you know, if it wasn't for people like you and and doing things like that, maybe some of the junior talent that we've had wouldn't have come through. So, and especially Ashcom volleyball club, they've produced a lot of very, very talented um young athletes over the over the course of time. So no, so you've never amazing, I think, of Ashcom.
SPEAKER_02:You know, Frida's created so many good players, but also a huge number of international players that have actually gone on and represented junior and senior level.
SPEAKER_06:So um two final voluble questions. So um sort of type it can be club level, it can be England level, um, but who was the best player that you played, shared a court with? I'm putting you in a tricky position now, aren't I?
SPEAKER_02:It is it is really difficult. Um I think the most talented player I think I ever played with would be Chris Hazel, who played for Hillingdon. She had such an amount of talent that I reckon she could have played for a continental team, without a shadow of a doubt. Um massive hit, big block, really good pass. She started really young. I think she started with uh Ken Harvey. I think he coached that lot that came through from Hillingdon. And she was really quite amazing and played in the national team for quite a lot of time. Um but I think another player I'd mention. Um Debbie Frost is probably one of the most dependable players and probably one of the most versatile players. I think I've seen her play every position on court, including Setter when it was necessary. Um but she was amazing. Perhaps the most successful I've ever played with would be Audrey Cooper, yeah, in terms of how many championships, cups she's won, um, beach volleyball, being an Olympian, all those kind of things. Amazing. And she was a really uh good friend and very nice uh person, great player. Um interestingly, I I played beach volleyball not very often, but I played in one of the one of the very early beach tournaments down on the south coast. I can't remember it's Bournemouth or Weymouth or somewhere like that, with Audrey. Oh wow and everybody knew who we were, and everybody thought this is a really smart thing tactic to use. We will serve on Audrey so that Anne doesn't get to hit, and Audrey has to hit. It was such a flawed uh plan because Audrey was much better at jumping off the sand from than me, and actually, she was a really good all-round player, so they would serve on Audrey. I'd just toddle forward, put the ball up. It's usually really good pass, put the ball in the air somewhere, she'd come in and smack it or dump it and win the point. So we actually won the tournament. That's my one claim to fame on beach volleyball, I think. And then I realized it's probably not the game for me. I much prefer indoor work.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I think it's interesting because I think there was a time, and I could go there was a time in um where a lot of players crossed over, but I think more recently there's definitely more of a divide between not dividers in a part, but there's definitely beach players and indoor players. Very few, very few players now do both very well. You're either a really good beach player or really um good indoor player, but there are there are subtle differences to it, definitely.
SPEAKER_02:But just to carry on, I mean, I I think it's really hard to choose good players because the time that I played spanned quite a long period. And when you take people out of context, you can't really compare people that were playing when I first played to people that are playing now in some ways. You know, I could say Jan Bing and Joan Quigley from when I first started playing were really good players at that time. Um Frida, Donna Sedgwick, really good setters, Sylve George. I could say Wendy Gates from up north, really good, Julie Smith. I you know, I could give you loads of different players in their own little slots, if you like, as my own playing career. And that doesn't even cater for the players now who are more advanced. Um, you know, I wouldn't get in a junior squad if I turned up playing like I played when I first started. The junior players are much better. You know, they are there are more coaches. Coaching is a really critical part to making things um improve all the time, uh, even at base level.
SPEAKER_06:It's an evolution, isn't it? The sport has evolved. Um I think that tactics, the game itself has evolved, the rules are constantly changing. Um new rules, even this season, and that we're all still getting used to regarding rotations and screening at the net. You know, there's lots, there's always changes, but I think that's change is good in sport. It keeps it live, it keeps it interesting, and there's new tactics now because of those changes. So, yeah, couldn't agree with you more. But I I would like to move on to then talking about this huge announcement I've made at the start of the show around a new hardship fund that Volleyball England is releasing this week. So it is in your name, the An Jarvis Um Hardship Fund. So, for those listening at home, just tell you a little bit more information about this fund. It's uh a joint venture between Volleyball England and the Volleyball England Foundation, and it's really about supporting Volleyball England's commitment to fostering talent, increasing diversity, and promoting equal access to the sport. There is an eligibility criteria. You can find more information about the eligibility criteria on the Volleyball England website in the coming week. But in in essence, the the the the athlete, the young athlete must be participating in a talent pathway program by Volleyball England. They must demonstrate a financial need, and again, there's more information about that on the website, and they must be a committed athlete and show commitment to the program that they are part of. Um from November time, whereas beach players can apply around the April-May time, uh, and they can find out more about the application process, like I say, on the website, including the application form. But and I want to sort of just ask you, how do you feel having this uh hardship fund named after you? And tell me tell me how it felt to sort of be contacted and asked uh about this.
SPEAKER_02:Good question. Um it is an honour in that sense. Um, I don't know, I was quite taken by surprise to be honest. I didn't necessarily expect it. Um you know, it's a while since I've actually played volleyball. I do understand that uh from a point of view of uh statistics, I have a certain position, at least currently, until maybe some of this new crop come through and take that over. Um but it's very generous, I think, of the association to actually put my name to it. And as I say, I feel honoured that they've actually offered me that opportunity. And it's an important thing. I I think I mentioned before how important it is to give an equal chance to young talent to actually come through, because that's the way forward for the association. You need to be able to uh collect a bigger pool of talent, you need to make it easier for young people to engage in the sport and to follow through in it. Um, and they shouldn't be in a position where they can't afford to, they want to and they can't afford to.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it's really about making sure it doesn't become elitist and about a sport that only certain people can afford to play. I mean, let's not hide the fact that volleyball is an expensive sport to play with, you know, fees and hall hire constantly on the increase. Um transport costs to get to games and flights, especially for those young athletes representing the national team in competitions like Nesva. Um, you know, there are they are asked to contribute and there is there is money associated to it. So I think this is a great thing to help those young, talented athletes like you said. So we're choosing the best, not the those that can just afford it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, very important, I think. Very important.
SPEAKER_06:And like you said, what do you what do you hope the the fund will achieve? I know we sort of mentioned it anyway, but what are you hoping that this this new fund will achieve?
SPEAKER_02:I'm hoping that it will, as I said, create a a bigger pool of talent to draw from for national teams. Um, because if you have that talent, you've got good coaches starting to come through. You know, there are more coaches than there ever used to be. That can make a difference if you can put on training camps, people that would find it hard normally to get involved in that can actually get to those training camps, have the benefit of the coaching that's there, have the opportunity to train with other good young players, um, and maybe also some of the older players get involved in that to actually be a standard for them to work to. I'm hoping that that will raise the standard of volleyball overall. It's very hard, isn't it? Because whatever progress you make as a nation, others other countries are still making progress as well. So definitely, you know, there needs to be a way to try and catch that gap a bit, close that gap a bit. Um and if this contributes to that, then it's going to be more than worthwhile, I think.
SPEAKER_06:Absolutely. No, I loved your comment about you know making sure it's you know, and like you said, maybe on reflection, you wouldn't be sat here if this hardship fund existed when you were playing, because maybe there were other people that just would didn't have the opportunity at the time that you were playing to be able to play. You mentioned you were lucky to have parents who were able to support financially and and and other ways. So um, yeah, no, I I I think it's an absolutely fantastic uh announcement that Volleyball England have made this week. And I and I hope, and I'm really looking forward to seeing, you know, some athletes come through and give them the chance that maybe they wouldn't have got previously.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, I've often thought, you know, when I started playing when I when I first went to junior trials, there were better players than me. There's no doubt there were better players than me. But some would have stopped because they lost the interest in doing it. But I'm sure there's some that would stop because it was difficult for them to do it. And I think, you know, I'm I've never been the superstar of a team. I'm more than happy to admit that. I was kind of the person that um I suppose I got as much pleasure from making a a really precise pass onto the the setter's head that the the spiker could then smash the ball onto the floor. Those kind of aspects. I was a good server, I was a good backcourt player, I was a good um passer, and I was an okay hitter, if you like. Um, but there were better players than me there as well, you know. Um, and of course, life takes over sometimes, and for various reasons, people don't um want to continue at times. But if you can at least take that one factor out of the equation, yeah, that's an important thing.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, opening up, like you said, uh fostering that talent no matter. So, yeah, no, thank you. And um, yeah, from all of the the volleyball England community and for everybody playing the sport, thank you for everything you've done. And you know, over the years, you still are the most capped international player, so hold on to that.
SPEAKER_02:Well, the truth is I think I played for so long just because I love the sport so much, and I love loads of sports, but I don't think I've ever found one that I've enjoyed so much, and uh the the amazing friends that I've made to it is a really big factor as well.
SPEAKER_06:I was about to ask you that. I have two final questions for every guest on uh the heritage show. So I'm gonna go with the first one, which is what has so, as you were saying, what has volleyball given you over the long career that you've had? What has volleyball given you?
SPEAKER_02:Um I suppose a great sense of pride in what I've achieved. You know, it'd be silly not to acknowledge that. Um but also I've made so many friends. I mean, I have friends that are in Australia, I have friends that are around the country, and we may not see each other all the time, but there's a kind of shared bond when you go through training sessions and playing and winning and losing and everything else. That you know, you meet somebody that you've not seen for quite a while, and it's almost like it's just yesterday in some respects. And I love that kind of social also, good social uh time with your friends, your your teammates, uh, good friendships, all those kind of things.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, so true. It gives you it's not just the sport, it's the people, right? And this is what this podcast is all about is allowing our amazing volleyball community in this country to connect with each other, hear some stories, you know, find out more about the amazing work that's going up and down the country. So now I completely echo what you said. I've got some of my well, all of my best friends, if I'm being honest, are from the sport. Um so yeah, no, completely agree. And then finally, um, if you had a magic wand and money was no option, what would you do now to improve the sport of volleyball detail?
SPEAKER_02:Um, what would I do now to improve? I think um magic wand. More matches, more regular matches for um the national teams. You need to play against good opposition to be able to do really well, to know what you're aiming for and to raise your game and play. Um, and I think there's still more necessary for you know competition at top level of clubs. It needs to be more intense with all those players, um, with all the teams, that every time you go for a match, it's a high quality match. I think that's been a lot better, but I think you could that still needs to be developed a bit more, and perhaps that means you know, more work for the coaches, more support for the coaches, I mean, in order to get a higher class. So it all comes back to one thing, doesn't it? If you can send your coaches to more coaching educational thing, yeah, and maybe abroad to work with some of the players there, the some of the coaches there, come back with ideas. Everything's moving forward, but to move it forward faster, maybe you've got to actually, fingers crossed, with the money, help them to get better. They can then help the players to get better. The funding for the heritage can actually help there to be more players, hopefully. Um, the national teams getting more games will make a bigger difference to them. You know, one of the one of the reasons I suppose that I, or one of the things that helped me to create a lot more matches was there was a period of time, I think, when virtually we had a training weekend one weekend, and the next weekend uh we had well off, we just had National League or whatever. The following weekend we had uh international weekend, then two weeks later we had another training weekend, then two weeks after that, another international weekend. And being able to play regularly and at a higher level kind of made such a difference at that time. So, you know, that that would be part of the magic wand, I suppose, in many respects.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, so true as well. I've often thought about our sport, and until recently, it's a it's quite a hidden sport because you know, sports like football, rugby, hockey, tennis, you go for a walk around your local park and you you can see it. You can you know, I take my dog for a walk and I get to watch a Sunder League football match and things like that. But volleyball is often played in sports halls or school sports um halls that aren't maybe accessible to the public. People that don't know the sport don't see it. But I think what volleyball England are doing really well now is making it more um accessible and out there for via the use of social media, you know, using social media to to to showcase the sport and things like the live stream and live streaming the matches are only gonna help professionalize the sport and take it to the next um level. But if if money was no object and you heard it there, and would invest in the coaches, I'm gonna take and as a coach myself, I I agree with you.
SPEAKER_02:Um it's good, it's good. Uh you know, the without a doubt, things are moving in the right way, and there is an evolution going on, and there's a lot of good stuff that's going on that's making uh improvements, if you like, in progress, I should say, not improvements. Um, but it's a case of keeping that going and advertising as much as possible and just getting more people involved, um, and kind of persuading more schools, I think, to actually get involved in that as well, creating that kind of um opportunity.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and a reminder that this is what the heritage um project's all about is you know, to go forward, you have to look backwards sometimes, you know, and learn from people that have been there, done it, what their experiences have taught us. And if, you know, that's why I asked this question about if you had a magic wand, because I generally think the answers are all there, we've just got to unlock them. So Anne Jarvis, thank you ever so much for your time. I can't believe we've been speaking an hour. Um, but just a reminder then that uh Volleyball England has launched a new hardship fund called the Anne Jarvis Hardshit Fund. You can find out more information about the fund on the Volleyball England website, and there'll be more communications about that over the coming week or so. Um, but Anne, from me um to you, thank you. Thank you for everything you've done for the sport over the years, and thank you for for agreeing to come on the show and share some of your stories.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you very much, Luke.
SPEAKER_06:I I mean I wish I had another hour because I'm genuinely fascinated by a lot of these stories and write a book.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe you'll write it for me.
SPEAKER_06:But thank you so much. So, guys, remember whatever you're doing, keep uh keep playing, keep keep supporting, and most importantly, keep that volleyball spirit alive. I'm Luke Wilcher, the host of That Volleyball Guy. Thank you for listening.
