Following a successful Scottish Championship and Scottish training camp in May, 7 Scottish athletes headed to Oxstalls Park in Gloucester for the UK Challenger held between the 17th and 19th June. This competition gave our players the chance to compete against other top players from the home nations as well as some players from the UK World Class Programme, to put on a weekend of brilliant boccia performances.
BC4 Round Up
A category that Scotland has always enjoyed success in, this weekend was to be no different. Tyler McLelland, Ross Munro and Paul McIntyre were our representatives in the 5-person strong round robin group.
On day 1 Ross got off to a flying start, producing some brilliant shots in an 11-0 victory over Paul, meanwhile Tyler was unfortunate losing a tight match to eventual event winner Penny Froude 6-3. Tyler would bounce back in the next round with a very composed performance in a 4-2 victory over Northern Irishman Paul McLister. Paul McIntyre produced a much-improved performance but narrowly lost out to Penny 4-1. The final round of games on Saturday produced the comeback of the competition. Paul got off to a slow start against namesake Paul McLister, finding himself 4-0 after 2 ends. However, following a solid third end the score sat at 4-2. The game went down to the very last ball where Scottish Paul was scoring 1 but needed 2 to force a tie-break. Following a sensational shot and a lengthy amount of time measuring by the referee and head referee, Paul was awarded 3 to take a stunning 5-4 victory. Ross was next to suffer a tough loss to a dominant Penny, in a 5-2 defeat.
Sunday started with one of the games of the tournament between Tyler and Ross, both fighting for second place. The watching crowd were not disappointed with a simply outrageous level of performance in a back-and-forth encounter that could of went either way. Again, it came down to the final ball with Ross narrowly missing out as Tyler took a 4-1 victory. A performance that both players could be proud of. The BC4 category came to a close with another excellent set of matches as Ross produced a wonderful 6 ball final end in a 8-1 victory and Paul McIntyre almost produced another incredible comeback from 5-0 down after 3 ends but just lost out to Tyler 5-3.
Congratulations to Tyler on earning the silver medal and Ross for picking up the bronze medal. It is wonderful to see 2 of our young talents performing so well on the UK stage.
BC3 Round Up
Scott McCowan and Patrick Wilson from the UK World Class Player Programme were the Scottish representatives in the BC3 category. In a strong field there was no shortage of brilliant matches. Day 1 seen Patrick and Scott get off to blistering starts as they picked up 12-0 and 6-1 victories respectively. Their great form continued into the second round of matches as Scott came away with the win, 7-2 and Patrick collected a 5-2 victory. In the penultimate game of the group stage Scott pulled out another comfortable 5-0 win, meanwhile Patrick was unlucky to just lose out 4-3 in a tie-break end, in a match that produced some brilliant boccia.
Sunday commenced with the final round of group games in the BC3 category and Scott topped his group with a 5-1 victory over Matt Berry from England. Patrick also sealed top sport in his group with an impressive 9-0 win.
The semi-finals were both clashes between Scotland and England as Scott took on Raf Young, while Patrick faced Matt Berry. Unfortunately, it was not to be for either of the Scottish players as Scott narrowly lost out 4-2, and Patrick fell to a 6-1 defeat to the eventual tournament winner. Patrick took the battle of the Scots in the bronze medal match, despite a late fightback from Scott, with the match finishing 5-3.
Congratulations on the bronze medal Patrick.
BC1/2 Round Up
The experienced Lewis McConnell and BC2 Scottish Champion Kayleigh Haggo were the Scottish representatives in this category. Both players faced very difficult group stage matches but were determined to pull off good performances. Lewis started with the daunting challenge of facing world number 1 David Smith, not to be fazed he played some very aggressive shots and perhaps did not deserve to lose out 7-0. Kayleigh also started with a tough match against UK squad player Will Hipwell and fell to a 12-0 loss. Kayleigh bounced back in the next round with a brilliant 6-2 victory, producing some excellent shots along the way. Lewis was again face with a tough match against Reshad Saraj, and his performance once again did not get the result it deserved as Reshad played some wonderful shots at key times to take a 7-2 victory. Saturday concluded with Kayleigh suffering an 8-0 defeat to an opponent who demonstrated his 13 years extra experience at the crucial moments.
Following Saturdays matches the Scottish players missed out on the medal opportunities but were given play off matches. Lewis pulled together the positives from his previous matches with an excellent 4-0 win to conclude his weekend. Meanwhile Kayleigh lost a close match in the last couple of balls in a 4-1 defeat.
Both players faced very tough matches but came out of the weekend with many positives moving forward.
We would like to thank Coaching Futures Coach Jamie McCowan for his help with all the players over the weekend as his knowledge and advice was crucial to their successful performances. We look forward to seeing how Jamie progresses with his coaching in the near future.
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