TENDRING Volleyball Club are targeting a historic promotion - to put the gloss on their birthday celebrations.

The Frinton-based club are in their 25th year and hope to mark it by winning Sunday's promotion play-off against London Malory and joining the elite Super 8s division.

Their women's team already play at that level, having gained promotion last year, and now the club's men's team hope to join them.

Chairman and player Alex Porter, who was also one of the founders of the club, believes it would be a "once-in-a-lifetime" achievement.

"The prize for winning this game is enormous and it's what we've been striving for for years," he said.

"As a club, we were on cloud nine when the girls got promoted a couple of years ago and now we hope to join them.

"For both our men's and women's teams to play in the Super 8s would be amazing - a real once-in-a-lifetime achievement - and how fitting that it could happen in our 25th year.

"It would be a real fairytale and it's amazing to think how far the club has come in a relatively short amount of time.

"We only entered the National League ten years ago, having previously only played in junior tournaments and the Essex League.

"Since then we've worked our way up and we're only going to get stronger, due to our links with Essex University."

Tendring, who are officially celebrating their 25th anniversary at a special evening at Frinton Tennis Club on June 10, finished as National League division one runners-up, behind champions Solent.

They now face Malory, who finished second-from-bottom in the Super 8s, in the play-off game at the University of East London (1.30pm start).

It will be Tendring's second appearance in the Super 8s play-off, having previously lost out to London Lynx.

"Half our current squad were involved in that match, but we're older, wiser and more mature now," added Porter.

"We've improved and are now better equipped to go up.

"I believe it's really important to go into the game with a positive mindset.

"When we've done that in the past, other teams haven't been able to cope with us.

"Malory finished second from bottom for a reason, but then again they have been been in the Super 8s for 30 years.

"There's a lot of knowledge and experience within the club and they've got out of scrapes before.

"I'm certainly not expecting them to roll over, but feel confident about our chances."

Tendring have a full-strength squad and had 15 players - the most all season - at training on Monday night.