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Bright spark Tony leads red hot team

Sue Carr
25/ 5/2005

THE heat was on Tony Morgan at the weekend.

After nine years of trying, the Glossop firefighter was finally picked to play in the national firefighters volleyball squad.

First up were some very tough opponents - teams from the army, navy, air force, police and prison service.

But after a red-hot performance, the firefighters finished in an impressive third place at the Crown Services Championship in Hull.

Tony said: "We were really pleased because the standard of competition was so high.

"The RAF play regularly as a team in one of the top divisions and, like the army and navy, players get flown in from all around the world. The police, fire and prison service are all from the UK.

"I'm pretty sure I've got a place in the team now as we performed really well and hopefully next year we should be even better."

The 32-year-old, whose talent was spotted during a tournament in Chesterfield, is used to strong competition after first playing in the World Firefighter Games.

Derbyshire firefighters came 10th out of 13 teams in the games held in Sheffield last year.

Tony added: "If you're over 6ft 5ins it's not as difficult to get on the UK squad, but as I'm only 6ft 1in it's quite a privilege to be asked to play."