RDA West & Central Scotland is looking for someone with passion, skills and experience to lead the regional team and support the 19 member groups of Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) in West & Central Scotland. Supported by a strong committee the Regional Chair plays a vital role in providing direction and development within the region.  the Chair is an ambassador for RDA UK and has the opportunity to contribute to the development of RDA UK as a national organisation through their membership of the Regional Chairs Committee.

At RDA our Vision is to enrich the lives of all disabled people through horses.  RDA is an inclusive and diverse organisation.  We welcome clients with physical and learning disabilities and there are no age restrictions.  Through our network of member groups, RDA is at work in every corner of the UK.  In 2023 RDA will be concentrating on building stronger foundations that will enable our groups to deliver more services to more participants.  Thereafter there will be exciting opportunities to lead West & Central Scotland Region in meeting ambitious growth targets before celebrating RDA 60^th anniversary in 2029.

Chair of RDA West & Central Scotland Region is a significant voluntary role.  RDA West & Central Scotland is seeking a self-motivated person with a strong commitment to the RDA vision.  Some knowledge of the charity sector and the equestrian world in Scotland would be an advantage bonus.  Request a full appointment brief by emailing regional secretary Mary Dunlop mail@dunlopmj.co.uk.

Western Isles Swimmer Marsaili Macauly made her debut swims at the Scottish Disability Sport National Championships in Grangemouth last week. Twelve year old Mairsili Macaulay from Benbecula took everything in her stride whilst competing in her first junior national swimming championship event.

This is the first time a swimmer from the Western Isles has competed in the national championships. Marsaili did the Western Isles proud by winning two gold and one bronze medal.

• Junior Female Class 8 25m Freestyle Gold Medallist
• Junior Female Class 10 25m Backstroke Gold Medallist
• Junior Female Class 10 25m Breastroke Bronze Medallist

Marsaili (pictured above) is looking forward to getting back in the pool to improve her stroke technique, endurance and ultimately her times.

Many thanks to Team Orkney Coach Helen Rothnie who supported Marsaili throughout the event.

If you or anyone you know is living with a disability and would like to get involved in swimming please contact Scottish Disability Sport, 0131 317 1130 or email admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com

“Today was my favourite day at school because everything was about me and what I could do.”

“Sportacular, Awesome and Great Fun.”

These are some of the quotes from participants who enjoyed attending an SDS parasport festival last year.

Parasport Festivals are designed to offer young people with physical disabilities, hearing loss and visual impairments within mainstream primary and secondary schools an opportunity to try a wide range of sports in inclusive, safe and fun sessions delivered by local qualified coaches.

The parasport experience offers more than physical activity and sport to young people. It can be life changing as they also meet other children with similar impairments and learn new skills which increase confidence, self-esteem.

After attending the festival, participants will receive support from SDS Regional Managers to attend clubs or sessions in activities of their choice.

Throughout the next six months there will be more parasport festival opportunities across Scotland for more children to experience. For some, the day is about sport and physical activity but for many it is a wider experience as they meet other children with similar impairments and experiences and establish new friendships

The Highland Parasport Festival kicks off the series this Saturday. Details of this and other festivals are listed in the table below.

Region	Date	Venue	Time	Register here
Highland	Saturday 12 November 2022	Dingwall Leisure Centre IV15 9LH	10.00am-3.30pm	Highland Parasport Festival
Grampian	Friday 25 November 2022	Aberdeen Sports Village AB24 5RU	10.00am-2.00pm	Grampian Parasport Festival
West of Scotland	Friday 2 March 2023	ON-X Linwood PA3 3RA	10.00am-2.00pm	Register interest with admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com / 0131 317 1130
Tayside	Wednesday 8 March 2023	Gardyne Campus, Dundee & Angus College DD5 1NY	10.00am-2.00pm	Register interest with admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com / 0131 317 1130
East of Scotland	24 March 2023	Forrester High School EH12 9AE	10.00am-2.00pm	Register interest with admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com / 0131 317 1130
Central Scotland	28 March 2028	Grangemouth Sports Complex FK3 9JB	10.00am-2.00pm	Register interest with admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com / 0131 317 1130

If you or anyone you know has a child with a physical disability, hearing loss and/or a visual impairment and would like your child to attend the festival please contact Scottish Disability Sport 0131 317 1130 or admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

Scottish player and three-time British Paralympic boccia player Scott McCowan has announced his retirement after 16 years in the sport.

McCowan, 31, made his Paralympic debut at London 2012 and went on to compete alongside younger brother Jamie at Rio 2016 and the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games, where he finished just outside the medals, coming in fourth in the BC3 category.

Boccia has always been a big family affair for the McCowans with Dad Gary travelling the world as Scott’s ramp assistant – and Mum Linda undertaking the same role for Jamie. Scott and Gary have been instrumental in developing boccia in Scotland over the years especially in the BC3 game.

Scott has been a great role model for the sport as a player and will continue to be so as he embarks on his coaching journey. Scott is one of the four boccia sportscotland Coaching Futures Apprentices with Scottish Disability Sport and we are delighted to have Scott in the programme. Scott will also continue to be a key member of the Scottish Boccia Subgroup where his knowledge and experience will continue to grow and develop the sport.

McCowan said: “This was always going to be a difficult decision for me and my family after so many years in the sport. But I’m not stepping away entirely as I have decided to focus on coaching and I will hopefully be in Paris to cheer on my girlfriend, Claire Taggart, my brother Jamie and the rest of the squad.

“I would never have had this career without the unlimited support of my parents. They have gone through all the highs and lows that sport brings but I believe it’s time my Dad had a well-earned rest!”

Gavin Macleod, SDS CEO, said: “On behalf of SDS we would like to congratulate Scott on a fantastic career in boccia and we look forward to keeping him involved in Scotland through his coaching role and inspiring the next generation of world class players.”

Greg Baker – who joined Boccia UK this year as Performance Director – said: “I’ve only been involved in the programme for just over two months and in that time I have been able to observe how much insight, experience and knowledge Scott brings to the sport of boccia. He has had a fantastic career, one of which he should be very proud of, and we wish both him and his dad, Gary, a great retirement.”

SDS wish Scott and Gary McCowan all the best for their retirement.

Scottish Disability Sport is thrilled to be working in partnership with Four Pillars, an organisation that supports the LGBT+ community in Grampian to improve the overall health and wellbeing of service users. The organisation currently offers its own sport and physical activity opportunities, and recognised the potential to grow provision for the service users who also had a disability. 

An informal ‘referral’ programme has now been launched where service users from Four Pillars will be put in touch with SDS and local Branch, Grampian Disability Sport, for bespoke support in accessing inclusive and accessible sport and physical activity opportunities. 

Alison Shaw, Regional Manager for SDS in Grampian added “This is a great development. We want to make sure that as many people with disabilities in Grampian are able to benefit from sport and physical activity as possible, but we recognise that the LGBT+ community may face additional barriers in participating. We’re proud that the clubs and organisations we work with in Grampian are welcoming, safe and inclusive, and we thoroughly look forward to seeing the Four Pillars service users thriving in sport and physical activity”.

If you are from the LGBT+ community, live in Grampian & would like support in getting active or with your overall health, contact Four Pillars on mail@fourpillarsuk.org or 01224 211 963

British Curling won the 2022 SWCII after a great 4 days of wheelchair curling at the Peak, Stirling. They secured victory on the final day when they defeated Latvia to take the title for the first time. Italy, who were playing in the event for the first time, finished 2nd on count back after losing their head to head match with the eventual champions. Norway finished in 3rd place after yet another strong performance.

The 8 team event returned made a welcome return after a 2 year break with some outstanding curling on show over the four days. We look forward to welcoming some of the best wheelchair curlers in the world back to Stirling in 2023.

All details of our event including the draw are on our website: https://stirlingwheelchaircurling.weebly.com/

Stirling Wheelchair Curling Club hold wheelchair curling sessions weekly every Wednesday from 12.30pm to 2.30pm. Please contact Jacky McLaren if you would like to try out the sport jackymclaren@talktalk.net.

A team of Medical Engineering students at Swansea University have undertaken a project to design a multifunctional wheelchair which can be converted from a Paralympic basketball wheelchair to an electric wheelchair for everyday use.

To gather ideas for how to make their design as efficient and user-friendly as possible, they have created this short market research questionnaire and have reached out to Scottish Disability Sport for help distributing it.

Please note the survey was created with wheelchair users in mind, but anyone is welcome to respond.

Swansea University Market Research Survey

Scotland enjoyed a very successful trip to Swansea for the 2022 UK Championships over the weekend. The team consisting of Kayleigh Haggo (BC2), Lewis McConnell (BC2), Scott McCowan (BC3), Jamie McCowan (BC3), Stephen McGuire (BC4), Tyler McLelland (BC4), Scott McIntyre (BC4) and Paul McIntyre, secured 4 medals and 23 match wins between them.

BC2 Round Up – History For Haggo

Kayleigh Haggo continued her meteoric rise in boccia by adding a silver medal at the UK Championships to go with the gold medal picked up at the Scottish Open. Kayleigh started strongly in the group stage picking up 3-1 and 9-4 wins over Rachel Ross and James Clowes respectively. The final group game was against world number 2 Claire Taggart which ended in an 11-0 defeat however Kayleigh still done enough to qualify for the semi-finals. Reshad Seraj awaited in the semi- finals and Kayleigh produced a brilliant final end comeback to come from 4-1 down to win 5-4. Claire Taggart was once again the opponent in a historic match-up as this was the first all-female final – subsequently officiated by an all-female team including Scottish referee Sam Thomson. Taggart made a strong start taking 5 points in the first end however Kayleigh regained her composure to win 2 of the remaining 3 ends, eventually succumbing to a 6-2 loss.

In further BC2 action Lewis McConnell had a strong weekend picking up a win over GB player Will Hipwell 6-4 and securing a 7-0 win over Sian Jones. Tight losses to Reshad Seraj and Jason Rolph ultimately ended Lewis’ competition at the group stage.

BC3 Round Up – Battle of the brothers

Scott and Jamie McCowan twice faced off against each other in a successful weekend for them both.  In their opening encounter in the group stage Scott took the bragging rights with a 4-3 victory before easing through his remaining group games to qualify for the semi-finals. Jamie recovered from his defeat against Scott to win his remaining group games against Gareth Stafford, Cecilia Turk and Rafael Young to join his brother in the last 4. In semi-finals, both brothers had very close encounters that were delicately poised right until the end however Jamie overcame Will Arnott 3-2 while Scott defeated Sally Kidson 4-2. In a brilliant final it was Jamie who avenged his earlier loss and picked up the gold medal with a 5-2 win.

BC4 Round Up -Bronze for McGuire

Two all Scottish match-ups started off the competition in this section and they both displayed the best of Scottish boccia with excellent moments in both. Tyler McLelland overcame Scott McIntyre 6-3 while Stephen McGuire started off his weekend with a 7-1 victory against Paul McIntyre. Tyler and Scott found themselves in a tough group with eventual finalists Louis Saunders and Sophie Newman. Despite some good ends and brilliant shot making, they both came up short in the end meaning they both exited at the group stage. Paul McIntyre recovered from his opening loss to beat Harrison Smith 13-0 but then suffered an agonising 5-4 loss with final shots of the 4^th end against Penny Froude. A 13-0 win against Tomas Martin was not enough to see Paul through to the last 4. Stephen enjoyed a successful group stage, progressing to the last 4 undefeated however in the semi-final an absolutely enthralling match saw him go down 3-2 to Sophie Newman. Stephen recovered in the bronze medal match with a 5-0 victory over Penny Froude to cap a brilliant weekend for the Scottish team.

Congratulations to all the athletes that took part over the weekend, and special thanks to the volunteers and officials as well as the staff from Boccia UK and Disability Sport Wales for hosting a brilliant event.

Photos courtesy of Claire Morrison

Eight teams will take part in the Stirling Wheelchair Curling International which returns to the Peak, Stirling from 18th to 21st October.

The line up consists of teams from British Curling, England and Stirling along with overseas entries from 3 times winners Norway, Estonia, Italy, Latvia and Switzerland. Many teams will feature new line ups as they begin their new Paralympic cycle with teams looking to build towards the next World Wheelchair Curling Championships which are to be held in Vancouver, Canada in March 2023.

Harry Brodie of the organising committee said: “This is our first chance to stage the competition since the global pandemic forced us to cancel the events in 2020 and 2021 and it will be great to have this competition back on the ice. There is an excellent curling facility at the Peak and we hope that all the teams enjoy their experience here and in the City of Stirling.”

Game times are 10.00am and 2.30pm from Tuesday 18th to Thursday 20th October with the final round robin games scheduled for 9.30am on Friday 21th October. Spectators are welcome and entry is free so please come along and watch some world class wheelchair curling.

All details of the event including the draw are on the Stirling Wheelchair Curling Club website and social media:

Facebook: Stirling Wheelchair Curling Club

Twitter: Stirling Wheelchair Curling

Stirling Wheelchair Curling Club hold wheelchair curling sessions every Wednesday from 12.30pm to 2.30pm at the Peak. Please contact Jacky McLaren if you would like to try out the sport: jackymclaren@talktalk.net

Pictured: Jostein Stordahl, Norway, 3 times winner

Our partners Scottish ClubSport are recruiting for new Ordinary and Independent Directors to join their Board of Directors.

• Ordinary Directors = any committee member, affiliated club, individual, local partner that is affiliated or connected to the Sports Council/ClubSport network (we have capacity for up to TWO Directors to come from any Partner/Associate Member of Scottish ClubSport)
• Independent Directors = any of the above people connected to a Sports Council/ClubSport network but must act in an individual capacity OR someone who is not connected to a Sports Council/ClubSport network but has the essential skills/experience/knowledge that can support the organisation.

These adverts can also be found at https://www.scottishclubsport.co.uk/vacancies

Independent Director Vacancies 2022

SCS Director Advert 2022

SCS Director Application Form – October 2022