THE 33rd RAF Careers Weymouth Beach Classic starts this evening, with more than 10 courts set for action on Weymouth Beach.

The key contests will be focused on the centre court, with free seating for up to 500 spectators.

The Classic has become a festival of beach volleyball with various competitions at all levels of the sport.

The main event of the Classic is the ITSU England Tour competition, which starts on Saturday (9am) and there will be early round action on all the courts throughout the day. The competition then continues throughout Saturday until 7pm.

Play then starts again on Sunday at 9.30am with the quarter-finals, followed by the semi-finals and then the women’s final at 3pm and the men’s final straight afterwards.

In all, 56 teams will be competing in the main event comprising of the very best men and women beach volleyball players from across Great Britain, as well as teams from across Europe.

One team to look out for will be Mel Coutts and Lynn Beattie. They currently represent Scotland on the European Tour and are beginning the task of attempting to qualify for the Commonwealth Games in Australia, in 2018.

Jess Grimson, who will be attempting the same feat for England, will not be playing with her normal partner Vicky Palmer, who is injured, but instead will join up with Lizzie Smith from Bournemouth. Another exciting pairing to watch in the women’s event will be tveteran duo Mo Glover and Denise Austin.

Glover represented her country in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and, between them, the pair have won the Weymouth Classic on 15 occasions.

The men’s event looks set to be wide open.

One of the 2015 winners, New Zealander Kirk Pitman, teams up with 2014 winner, American Taylor Wilson.

Another strong pair will be the other 2014 winner, Mark Garcia-Kidd, and his new partner Andrew Clayton, who have just returned from representing Great Britain at the World University Games.

Other competitions begin on court tonight with the Battens Charity event for local businesses, which will see hundreds of people playing volleyball for the first time.

Tomorrow, there will be an event aimed at the development of up-and-coming players from South West England.

There will be a number of teams taking part in this tournament who have competed in the Weymouth ‘Go Spike’ League throughout the summer.

This competition starts at 2pm, with the final expected at 8pm.

One of the event’s directors, Pete Bennett, said: “Thanks to RAF Careers for their continued support and the weekend should see some of the highest quality competition ever seen on Weymouth beach.”