Scotland U15’s and 19’s produced their best combined result at British Wheelchair’s Basketball Lord Taverners National Junior Championships over the weekend of Saturday 4^th & Sunday 5^th August.  The Championships welcomes junior players representing their regions and countries with all matches played at the University Arena, Worcester over the course of two days.

Over the two age groups, there were twenty teams (9 under 15’s and 11 under 19’s) battling it out to become National Champions at this year’s tournament, with the more senior of the Scottish sides coming very close to claiming victory as they lost out in the Gold medal match to a strong North West side (24 v 16).  The Scots were in impressive form, losing out only once on route to the final (27 v 18 against North West) while recording 4 victories including a 22 v 17 victory against West Midlands at the semi-final stage.  This result highlights the excellent progress of the under 19 side as they improved on their sixth place finish in 2017.

The young Scots introduced some new players to the under 15 set up and they were also able to taste victory over the weekend, defeating the North West convincingly on Saturday evening (20 v 4).  However, the youngsters were unable to match the under 19 squad result and were narrowly beaten in Sunday’s Quarter Final match (22 v 18 against Yorkshire).  This meant they would face East Midlands on Sunday afternoon in the 5^th/6^th place play off, claiming a great 23 v 14 victory.  Head Coach Niall Ritchie was pleased with the result, highlighting that the Scottish programme continues to ‘move forward’.

Under 19 Squad List

Name (Classification)	Region
David Beattie (2)	West
James Beattie (5)	West
Josh Manson (3.5)	East
Rory Geddes (4)	Grampian
Tom McCaffrey (2)	West
Logan Kidd (4)	West
Rhys Collier (1)	Tayside
Cameron Watson (4.5)	West
Ben Leitch (4.5)	Tayside
Adam Donnachie (3.5)	West
Jen Scally	Head Coach
Tina Gordon	Assistant Head Coach

 

Under 15 Squad List

Name (Classification)	Region
Ben Flanigan (3)	West
Charlie Redmond (2)	East
Daniel McLoughlin (2.5)	West
Sarah McCaffrey (5)	West
Finlay Erskine	East
Shayne McVicar	Tayside
Owen Leitch	Tayside
Jason Gillies	East
Ronnie Cassels	West
Blair Marshall	Tayside
Niall Ritchie	Head Coach
Connor Smart	Assistant Head Coach

 

Scotland’s rejuvenated Cerebral Palsy football squad face their latest challenge against English based club side CP United. This match will take place at Stenhousemuir’s Ochilview Stadium on Sunday the 9^th September with a 15.45 kick off.

The two sides met recently at the International Trophy CP Football Ciutat de Barcelona where the Scots emerged as 6-3 winners and finished the tournament in a very creditable 3^rd place.

There will be no entry charge to this match but donations to support the running costs of the squad will be welcomed at the gate.

Our sincere thanks go to the Scottish FA, NorDan UK Ltd, The Blue Eyes Sports Foundation, Arnold Clark and Fresh Interior Solutions for their generous support of the Scottish National Cerebral Palsy Football team.

The Scotland Team have arrived safe and well in Sant Cugat, Spain, for the CPISRA World Games 2018.

After a very early start and a smooth operation at Edinburgh Airport with fantastic assistance from the staff and crew of Ryanair, all athletes, coaches, support staff and luggage arrived intact at El Prat Airport in Barcelona.

A quick 20-minute bus journey transported Team Scotland to their hotels in Sant Cugat.

Although the team is split between two hotels, all athletes, coaches and support staff settled in to the accommodation comfortably. Everyone familiarised themselves with the surroundings and explored a little of the lovely Spanish town.

Team management ventured to the swimming and athletics venue, and the swimming and athletics coaches attended classification meetings.

Athletes, swimmers and boccia players rested before training sessions begin on the 7th of August.

The team are looking forward to the week ahead, with the Opening Ceremony taking place this evening at La Guinardera.

Early this morning 18 athletes and their coaches left Edinburgh Airport for Sant Cugat, Spain to compete as Team Scotland in the CPISRA World Games.  The athletes consist of three boccia players, four swimmers and 11 athletes.

The first couple of days the team will be training (and heat acclimatisation) with some also going through classification, with the competition starting on Thursday.

There is a mix of experience in the team with 10 members previously representing Scotland at the last World Games in Nottingham in 2015.  This was a very successful team in 2015 where lots of medals were achieved and numerous personal achievements accomplished.  There is great excitement surrounding the team and the fact that some have been previously is helping this vibe and is also keeping the new athletes’ nerves at bay.

Many of the athletes have family and friends travelling over to support which will be a great boost and comfort for them!

Good luck Team!

The BISFed 2018 World Boccia Championships will be streamed live as they take place at Exhibition Centre Liverpool from 12-18 August this year.

Audiences will be able to see their favourite Paralympic boccia stars in action through connected devices, TV, tablet and mobile on the BBC.

The main court will be live from Sunday 12 August from 09:00-19:00 BST to Saturday 18 August from 10:30-18:00 BST on the BBC Sport website, Sport app & connected TV.

Boccia UK Chair John Dowson says the decision is a huge boost to the sport: “It is fantastic news that the World Championships will be live streamed by the BBC. It is a huge opportunity for us to reach more people and showcase the sport of boccia. Hopefully it will inspire many watching on their TV or devices to play.”

Hopes are certainly riding high for the ten members of the British team ahead of the Championships. Leading the way are Paralympic gold medallist David Smith MBE and defending champion Stephen McGuire who has enjoyed a superb season.

BBC Sport has committed to providing technical and editorial support to sports to enable them to broadcast their events more widely and has offered to live stream all UK Sport-supported major events on its website and red button channels, where no competing commercial broadcaster is involved.

The new commitment comes after the BBC announced ambitious plans to reinvent free-to-air sports broadcasting, with its biggest increase of live sport coverage in a generation. Over a thousand extra hours of live sport could be available for audiences to watch online every year through BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer. The BBC is working closely with sports bodies across the UK with the aim of broadcasting coverage from more than 30 additional sports or sporting events every year.
The broadcasts will help to keep Olympic and Paralympic sports and their stars in the public eye between Games times, with more events such as World, European and National Championships likely to be shown.

The BISFed 2018 World Boccia Championships has been made possible thanks to UK Sport’s National Lottery funding through its Major Events Programme.

Tickets are on sale now and are available to buy online at: www.echoarena.com/worldboccia.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Bowls Scotland National Championships included disciplines that para bowlers compete in, and once again, we witnessed some highly competitive matches across the five physically disabled and visually impaired competitions.

Bowls is a hugely inclusive sport and Bowls Scotland have embraced the inclusion of para disciplines within their showpiece event that draws large crowds to Northfield every year.  The para bowls competitions always attract a lot of spectators and this year was no different.

This year’s competitions feature Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games bowlers Robert Barr, his director Sarah Jane Ewing, Garry Brown and Mike Nicoll, and several newcomers to the Championships, with all receiving the applause and support of the crowds on Green B on Friday.

[huge_it_gallery id=”8″]

Notably, John Fox of Spateston BC competed in the gents’ visually impaired B2/B3 competition but was also in the gents’ pairs in the main draw, where he and Alistair Pratt reached the third round.

The finals day on Saturday was delayed due to adverse weather but the fixtures did get underway around 1230, with the results as follows:

B7/8 Men
Garry Brown 21 v 18 Daniel Porter

B6 Men
Billy Allan 21 v 14 Mike Nicoll

B7/8 Ladies
Barbara McMillan (Best of 3 matches)

B2/B3 Men
Ian Graham 21 v 13 Sandy Mackintosh

B2/B3 Ladies
Melanie Inness 21 v 11 Mary Stevenson

With two weeks to go until the CPISRA World Games, Scottish Disability Sport is delighted to confirm the full team to represent Scotland.  The Games will take place in Sant Cugat, Spain from the 6 – 12 August 2018.

As a member of the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA) Scottish Disability Sport has a longstanding tradition of competing in the event having been most recently represented in Nottingham in 2015.

The event is seen as an ideal opportunity for aspiring world class athletes, with Cerebral Palsy, to compete in a high performance multi-sport event.  This type of experience and exposure is essential on the athlete journey, prior to selection for more high profile competitions, such as the Paralympic or Commonwealth Games.

Scotland will be represented by 18 athletes in the sports of athletics, boccia and swimming.

Gary Fraser, Team Manager, said: “We have been working closely with our partner SGB’s to select a team of athletes that are on an upward trajectory within their sport and can use this event as a spring board for future success.  Preparations are going well and we have a great team of support staff and coaches”

 

Meet the Team and click here for team profiles

 

Midway through the Inas European Summer Games, the Great Britain Team has secured its place firmly on the medal table. Strong performances across all four sports have to date produced 4 Golds and 2 Bronze medals with very real prospects of more to come.

Whilst the story continues to unfold in Paris, today, day 4 of competition, we review some of the successes so far.

Athletics

The five strong British competitors faced an equally strong international field but got their campaign underway straight away.

Making his international debut, Sam Fernando held his nerve in a tough endurance race taking a well-deserved bronze medal (33’59” 76) in the 10,000m with his team mate, Chris McMillan securing 5th place (35’45″64) in his first international for GB.

Declan Manning whilst missing out on a podium finish, produced another PB and secured 4th place in the shot.

Monday also saw Charlotte Cox make her Inas debut registering solid performances in the long jump, shot and 100m, Cox securing her the Gold medal in the Triathlon with 918 points.

Keen to earn that coveted podium place, Declan Manning pushed hard and took the bronze medal (34m 63) in the discus securing his first medal of the Championships.  Sam Fernando, not content with just one medal, knocked an incredible 6 seconds off his PB claiming the Gold medal in the men’s Steeplechase in a performance of 10’04″64.  Nathan Fleetwood progressed to the final of the 200m, and will continue his bid for glory later in the week.

Cycling

Storming to victory, on Monday, Kiera Byland swiftly placed Great Britain on the medal table taking Gold in the cycling time trial (10:30,20).  Motivated by success she was keen to repeat performances on day 2 in the ladies road race.

Byland was heavily marked in the race, especially by the Russian riders. With just a lap and half to go she executed her breakaway plan perfectly and split the other riders getting a 10 second gap by the end of that lap.  A superbly accomplished ride and combining her confidence in the last lap Byland claimed her second Gold medal of the Championships in a time of 53:32.

Clear from the outset was that the men’s race had the strongest field for many years.  Ruairidh Brown, focussed on his plan and stuck to it.  Secured in a small bunch of eight riders, Ruairidh held his own with the other medal contenders.  In the last 9 kilometres, the race winning attack was made with riders from Belgium and Ecuador escaping the small bunch.

Keeping his nerve, Brown continued with the plan but the super-fast sprint of the leaders proved too much, with him finishing in seventh place, 1m 40secs behind the winner, but improving his performance and placing on the last World Championships.

Swimming

Rachel Tweedie whilst missing out on the podium so far, has progressed to finals in all her races and secured a PB in the 50m freestyle.

Missing out on a podium place, Tweedie placed 4th in the 200IM in 3:09.96.

Tennis

The Great Britain Tennis Team have certainly lived up to their reputation storming through the competition and scuring positions in the later stages.

The world no.1 pairing of Fabrice Higgins and Dominic Iannotti took a comfortable win against the Czech Republic’s Josef Hus and Jakub Jerhot in the men’s doubles, winning 6-0.

Dominic Iannotti and partner Anna McBride stormed through to the semi-finals and will face top seeded Kelly Wren and Archie Graham from Australia for a place in the final. McBride also secured her place in the ladies singles semi-final.

Meanwhile, Turnbull and Mellow missed out on a place in the men’s doubles main draw but will play their next match in the doubles consolation event.

The Inas European Summer Games includes the Inas World Championships in Tennis and Cycling. Competition continues today (Thursday, day 4) Follow the results.

The GB Tennis entry to the Inas Championships is enabled through a collaboration between the GB Inas member, UK Sports Association and the National Governing Body, the Tennis Foundation

More information on the Inas Summer Games in Paris can be found on the event website.

If you haven’t been following the BocciaBucket progress before now, this is all the encouragement you need!

The BocciaBucket Challenge was brought about to raise awareness of the sport of boccia in the lead-up to the BISFed World Championships being held in Liverpool this August. The campaign is a variation on boccia, designed to provide an insight into certain aspects of the game in a fun and inclusive way. Anyone can play boccia, and we want everyone to know it.

Our communication team headed out to Scotstoun this week to watch several members of the Glasgow Warriors Rugby Club having a go. Boccia professional and World No 1 Stephen McGuire was on hand at the scene to give the lads a quick tutorial and some expert advice before they took on the challenge themselves. After an initial period of warming up, they started to get the hang of it and gave Stephen a real game!

You can watch the challenge here:

We would like to thank the Glasgow Warriors for fitting this in to their very busy training schedule to help raise awareness of boccia in Scotland and the forthcoming BISFed World Championships. A special thanks to Ryan Wilson, Adam Ashe, Alex Dunbar and Huw Jones for doing the challenge.

We look forward to seeing if Edinburgh Rugby answer the nomination and are excited to see what they come up with!

If you haven’t uploaded your own video yet or nominated anyone, get involved!

You can follow the campaign through our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

#BocciaBucket #GetInvolved

Want to know more about boccia? Watch this short video: https://www.bisfed2018worldboccia.com/news/2018/6/24/brand-new-boccia-animation

or contact Scottish Disability Sport by telephone at 0131 317 1130 or email at admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

Great Britain’s Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid thrilled a near-capacity crowd on Court Three on Saturday to become the first three-time champions of the Wimbledon men’s doubles wheelchair tennis title after a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Belgium’s Joachim Gerard and Stefan Olsson of Sweden.

Second seeds Hewett and Reid could do little wrong in the first set, stringing together six games in a row to take the opener in just 25 minutes as Hewett fired a forehand winner on set point.

The defending champions earnt the first break of the second set for a 3-1 lead as Olsson sent a forehand long over the Brits’ baseline. However, their record of successive service holds came to an end in the very next game and Gerard and Olsson went on to level the set at 3-3.

The seventh game had everything for the appreciative crowd, with Olsson tipping out his tennis chair mid-rally before regaining his equilibrium and he and Gerard won the point and then the game to lead for the first time.

However, Hewett and Reid regrouped to move to within a game of another SW19 title and Olsson missed a volley at the net to bring up Championship point. With Gerard serving to stay in the match, Reid sent a looping forehand return back at him, the shot catching the line to secure the trophy for the Brits.

Speaking after the match, a delighted Reid emphasised how important it had been for the British duo to impose themselves from the start, saying “They’ve got a dangerous game.  They’re both big servers.  They like to get forward, put us under pressure, and rush us.  It was important to come out firing, try to stay on top of the points early.  I felt we did that really well in the first set.”

The win gives Hewett and Reid a hat-trick of Wimbledon doubles titles and sees the pair remain unbeaten as a partnership at Wimbledon.  It’s also their fourth Grand Slam title together after they also won the 2017 US Open crown.

Asked how this win measures up against their other titles, Hewett said: “I think they’re all special.  Every year to come back and win it, it’s tougher each year. People kind of expect you just to win it. We know that’s not the case. There’re a lot of strong guys out there.  Yesterday’s match and even today’s match kind of proved how strong the field is.

Hewett and Reid’s success to date has played a key role inspiring more disabled people than ever before to pick up a racket and play tennis across the Tennis Foundation’s network of venues, something they are both well aware of and keen to drive further.  The final was broadcast live by the BBC, and speaking to presenter Clare Balding on court after receiving the trophy, Reid talked about their desire to act as an inspiration for others, saying “It’s a really exciting time for the sport and a really exciting time to a part of it.  When we get the opportunity to showcase it to a wider audience it means we hopefully can inspire young kids who have a disability or aren’t active to pick up a sport, that’s why it means so much to us”.

The new three-time Wimbledon champions, along with the rest of the world’s best wheelchair tennis players, now travel up to Nottingham for next week’s British Open ‘Super Series’ event, and Hewett says the pair will head there full of confidence, saying: “Moments like yesterday and moments like today really build us as a team.  We’ll go into next week, you know, with that confidence, just try and enjoy it, to be honest. There’s a lot of pressure, a little bit of a stressful situation the last couple of days. Next week is a chance to get back on the court and just enjoy it.”

With the profile of the sport continuing to grow, a record crowd is expected at Nottingham Tennis Centre next week.  Tickets for the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships are being made available free of charge via , with the event running from 17 – 22 July.

www.tennisfoundation.org.uk/BritishOpen

All photos copyright Getty Images for the Tennis Foundation