IT may not have the sands of the Copacabana but Kelty could be set to provide a Commonwealth Games star for Scotland – in beach volleyball!

Connor Boyle, who is now based in London, has targeted qualification for the 2022 event, which will be held in Birmingham, after he competed for his country at a European competition at the weekend.

The 26-year-old, a former member of Kinross Volleyball Club, was in action at the European SCA (Small Countries Association) European Beach Volleyball Finals, which took place at Perth's Darnhall Tennis Club on Saturday and Sunday.

Connor, who has been capped for Scotland at full six-a-side level, teamed-up with Mitchell Brown – another former Kinross player – to play in the competition, which features representatives from the likes of England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Monaco, Iceland and Cyprus.

The duo, paired together for the first time with a long-term of view of reaching qualification for the Commonwealth Games, started playing volleyball at the age of 12 with Kinross before moving on to play for City of Edinburgh Volleyball Club, after which Connor then progressed to play in the English National League.

They are now concentrating on the two-a-side game and, having only entered 48 hours prior to the entry deadline, they only had two days to work together before the finals began.

After fine performances in the pool matches, where they defeated the two Northern Irish pairs 2-0 and 2-1 respectively, Connor and Mitchell took on the top Northern Ireland pair in the last eight, winning through to the semi-finals by two sets to love.

That set up a clash with a formidable pair from Monaco, brothers Vincent and Pascal Ferry, who were the number two seeds.

Despite playing some good volleyball, the match proved a step too far as they saw their title hopes come to an end, before moving on to a third/fourth place play-off with England pair Mark Garcia-Kidd and Frederick Bialokoz.

The duo from south of the border have been training together for the past two seasons but both teams fought hard, entertaining the crowd with long, powerful rallies.

Garcia-Kidd and Bialokoz edged into a one set advantage and, after Connor and Mitchell couldn't sustain the blistering pace of the game, they lost a second and finished in a creditable fourth place overall.

The Ferry brothers went on to win the men's title, while Iceland edged Cyprus to win the women's tournament.