Edinburgh based Ruairi Logan can be very pleased with his British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships in Nottingham at the beginning of August.  The 15 year old retained his British Open boys singles title with a comfortable 4-0, 4-0 win against Northern Ireland’s Ross Gourley in the final and then added the mixed doubles crown alongside fellow Scot Ellie Robertson, recording another comprehensive 4-0, 4-0 victory.

It was a busy few days for the Broughton High School pupil as he also competed in the main draw for the first time, claiming a victory on his debut.  The former Lothian Disability Sport (LDS) Young Person of the Year, a recent recipient of the Jim Anderson OBE Bursary at the LDS 2017 Awards, recorded a first round victory against Pakistan’s Asif Abassi, winning the tie 6-3, 6-3.  This triumph then provided the young Scot with an opportunity to take on a fellow GB player Alfie Hewett – a player ranked number 4 in the tournament.  The experience shone through as current French Open and Wimbledon doubles Champion Hewett recorded a 6-0, 6-0 victory over the young Scot, as it became evident the pace, power and intensity required to succeed at the very top of the game.  However the young Englishman reserved praise for Logan, stating “Ruairi played some really good points and has a bright future ahead of him.”  Praise indeed from Hewett who would eventually lose in the final 6-4, 6-3 against Argentina’s number one seed Gustavo Fernandez. It is imperative to Ruari’s continual development that he is able to secure more match-time against this elite group of players and this experience will no doubt leave him wanting another crack at this level.

The week also saw Logan team up with French partner Guillaume Legendre in the main draw of the male doubles.  The duo received a bye and progressed immediately into the Quarter Finals where they were convincingly beaten by Joachim Gerard (Belgium) and Stefan Olsson (Sweden) 6-0, 6-0 who were then beaten by eventual winners Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer of France.

The logo for the 2018 BISFed World Boccia Championships was revealed on Sunday 13^th August at the medal ceremony for the 2017 United Kingdom Boccia Championships.

The UK Championships were held at Exhibition Centre Liverpool, the same venue that will be used for the World Champs the following year. Paralympic champion David Smith MBE retained his BC1 title while World Champion Stephen McGuire repeated his BC4 triumph of 2016. In the BC2 competition Tim Hayes claimed the title in his first appearance at a UK Champs. In the most dramatic final, Scott McCowan beat his brother Jamie after a tie-break to take the BC3 crown.

The World Championships will take place between the 12^th and 18^th of August 2018. Liverpool will play host to 192 athletes at the most prestigious boccia competition outside the Paralympic Games. Assistant Mayor of Liverpool Councillor Wendy Simon told the athletes at the medal ceremony how thrilled Liverpool was to be the home of the World Championships and that all participants would receive a very warm welcome to a sports mad city.

Tickets will go on sale later in the year and the local organising committee aim to stage a competition that will showcase a sport of intriguing tactics, incredible skill and nail biting tension to a new audience. The event is supported by UK Sport, Liverpool City Council and ACC Liverpool Group.

The logo was inspired by the rich cultural history of Liverpool and combines details of Boccia court markings into a striking montage.

Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) sent a team of eight players to the Exhibition Centre in Liverpool or the UK Boccia Championships from the 11 – 13 August 2017.  The same venue will be used for the BISFed World Championships in 2018.  The UK Championships are always a significant date on the calendar for our high performance players.   Sadly, one of our players, Innes Martin, had to withdraw for family reasons on the eve of the competition.

Scotland has a history of delivering medals at this event in recent years and with four player’s part of the UK Boccia high performance pathway there was room for optimism.   The 2017 event was no different, with Scots winning five medals across the across the BC3 and BC4 classification groups.

In the BC1 section, world number one David Smith retained his British title defeating Wales’ Ricky Stevenson in the final.  Scotland’s representative in this class was SDS Academy Athlete, Reegan Stevenson, but lost out 8-2 to Jabe Peake (ENG) in the bronze medal match.

In the BC2 section it was England’s Tim Hayes who claimed the Gold medal, defeating teammate Reshad Saraj in the final.  Veteran, Zoe Robinson won 10-1 to claim the bronze medal against Morgan Butterfield (WAL).  Scotland’s representative in the class was Calum Glasgow from Forth Valley.  Glasgow failed to qualify from the pool but did manage to beat Scott Cromie (NIR) on a tie break.  As a developing player this experience will stand him in good stead.

Scotland’s strength is unquestionably in the BC3 classification and with Rio 2016 Paralympians Scott McCowan, Jamie McCowan and Patrick Wilson fighting it out for the British title – it is anyone’s guess!  Furthermore, there is considerable depth in the BC3 class across the UK which always makes for an exciting competition.  The tie of the group stages was between the McCowan brothers, with Scott losing out 3-4 to his younger sibling.  As it turned out, all three Scots made it to the Semi-Final.  Jamie McCowan beat Jess Hunter (ENG) 5-0, whilst brother, Scott, came up against teammate Patrick Wilson, and triumphed 9-1.  Patrick defeated Jess Hunter 5-0 in the bronze playoff match but the final was an all family affair.  Scott avenged the earlier group defeat to the hands of his younger brother, showing all his experience to win under pressure.  The match finished 2-2 and went to tiebreak.  A Scotland 1-2-3 in the BC3 classification indicates the strength we have in this country.

In the BC4 section we had three representatives, with the youngest being Ross Munro, who has made tremendous progress in this class.  The West of Scotland youngster recovered well from a 0-13 defeat to England’s Louis Saunders in his first game to narrowly lose out 2-4 to Paralympian Evie Edwards and 3-4 to the experienced Harry Thomson (ENG).  Although the young Scott failed to qualify from the group his performances were extremely encouraging against tough opposition.  The famous Boccia Brothers were at it again in the BC4 section, as both reached the semi-final.  They had actually faced one another in the group stages, with reigning World Champion, Stephen, coming out on top.  In the first semi, Peter came up against England’s emerging talent, Louis Saunders.  The match finished in a 4-1 defeat in a very close contest.  Stephen squared up against England’s Harry Thompson and emerged victorious after a close 5-2 contest.  Peter eventually won the bronze following a tie-break with Harry Thompson.  A result that was particularly pleasing for all involved in Scottish Boccia – it was great to see Peter amongst the medals again at the event.  Stephen came up against the Louis Saunders and broke him down to win 10-3 on the day and claim another BC4 British title.

The final medal results for the 2017 UK Championships were as follows:

BC1 Class
Gold: David Smith (Eng)
Silver: Ricky Stevenson (Eng)
Bronze: Jabe Peake (Eng)

BC2 Class
Gold: Tim Hayes (Eng)
Silver: Reshad Saraj (Eng)
Bronze: Zoe Robinson (Eng)

BC3 Class
Scottish medal sweep!
Gold: Scott McCowan
Silver: Jamie McCowan
Bronze: Patrick Wilson

BC4 Class
Gold: Stephen McGuire (Sco)
Silver: Louis Saunders (Eng)
Bronze: Peter McGuire (Sco)

SDS would like to congratulate all the players, coaches and support staff on an extremely successful UK Championship and our thanks go to all at UK Boccia and Boccia England for hosting and organising this event.

Wheelchair curling is offering a talent identification and talent transfer opportunity for potential Paralympians.  If you are currently performing in a sport, have the mindset, commitment and ambition to be the best you can with the ultimate aim of being a Paralympian, then we would like to support you to get there. Scottish wheelchair curlers have enjoyed many international successes (Paralympic Silver & Bronze, 6 x medallists at World Championships) and you could be a part of future successes.  Save the date in your diary and give us a call or drop us an email to register your interest in attending.

Date:                     Saturday 9^th September, 2017

Venue:                 The National Performance Curling Centre, Stirling Sports Village, Stirling FK7 7JU

Time:                     12.00 noon – 4.00 pm

Age:                       16 years  – 40 years

Royal Caledonian Curling Club, sportscotland Institute of Sport, British Curling, Scottish Disability Sport and sportscotland are working together to provide this unique opportunity to new curlers and current performers in disability sport who meet the eligibility criteria for the sport.

If you, or any one you know has substantial demonstrable impairments in leg/gait function and would like to know if you are eligible to compete as a wheelchair curler please call either of the numbers below to have an informal chat and register your interest. The application form can be downloaded here.

Scottish Disability Sport
T: 0131 317 1130
E: admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com

sportscotland Institute of Sport
Sheila Swan
T: 07917 183 414
E: sheila.swan@sisport.com

Pictured: Aileen Neilson and Tom Killin, Paralypians