The Scottish boccia squad made an excellent start to 2023 coming away with 2 silver medals from the UK Challenger in Antrim, Northern Ireland. Making the short journey across the Irish Sea were Scottish National squad players, Lewis McConnell, Kayleigh Haggo, Ross MacNeil and Fiona Muirhead supported by coaches Peter McGuire and Jenny Netherey. The Scots made a strong start to Day 1 with all 4 players winning their opening matches. Ross led the way with a dominant 8-1 victory over Michaela Hollywood and his teammates followed suit as Lewis defeated Sian Jones 9-4, Kayleigh picked up an 11-0 victory over Rachel Ross and Fiona Muirhead opened with a 6-0 victory against young English prospect Harrison Smith.
The second round of matches brought more success for Ross as he beat Gareth Stafford 8-0, but Kayleigh was unfortunate losing a nail biting match in a tiebreak to Scott Cromie. Fiona was more fortunate in a hard-fought encounter with Penny Froude as she picked up a 4-3 win.
Day 1 came to a close with Scottish players featuring on the livestreamed courts. Kayleigh bounced back to form with an impressive 7-2 win against James Clowes while Lewis put up a battling performance against Dylan Nelson eventually losing 8-3. As day 2 began, all 4 Scottish players still in with a chance of a gold medal. Lewis ensured this was still the case after his playoff match as he won a very tight encounter 3-1 against Caroline Robinson and thus secured his place in the semi-finals. Fiona remained undefeated in the BC4 competition as she picked up a 6-1 win over Jayne Milligan. Ross was unfortunate in his BC3 semi-final losing out 7-0 to Daniel Elliott, a score that didn’t highlight just how tight the majority of the ends were. Kayleigh also came up short in her semi-final, going down 5-1 to Irelands Padraic Moran. Lewis did find success in his semi-final however, as he gained his revenge on Dylan Nelson with a brilliant 4-1 win. The final round of matches meant all 4 Scots still had a chance of a medal. Fiona was first up but was defeated by an inspired Sophie Newnham 7-2, meaning Fiona came away with BC4 silver. Kayleigh had a tough bronze medal match and couldn’t quite make the shots she was looking for as she was beaten 9-0 by Dylan Nelson. Ross put up a brilliant battling display despite being reduced to 5 balls in the call room and took Michaela Hollywood all the way to the last few shots before eventually missing out on bronze 6-3. Lewis had an incredible back and forth match in the BC1/2 final against Padraic Moran. Trailing 4-1 heading into the final end, Lewis regrouped and produced 4 brilliant shots, that meant a measure would decide the destination of the gold medal. Unfortunately, it was not
to be for Lewis as he was millimetres from getting the 3rd ball he needed to take the match to a tiebreak. 4-3 to Padraic meant Lewis came away with a fantastic silver medal.
Coach Peter McGuire had the following to say on the weekend:
“In the year of our Lord 2023, boccia players of Scotland, fearless and outnumbered, charged the courts of Antrim. They Fought like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen and done their nation proud!” Congratulations to all the players and medal winners over the weekend and thanks to DSNI and Boccia UK for putting on a fantastic competition.
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