Robyn Love is among 12 players selected to represent GB at the 2018 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships which are scheduled for 16^th-26^th August in Hamburg, Germany.

The 27 year old, who represented GB at the 2016 Paralympics is the sole Scot selected for the Championships and will be hoping to make her mark in Germany.  Love, known for her fierce rebounding skills and consistent shooting will be an integral part of the GB side who will be hoping to continue their run of good form, after recently claiming victory at the Lyon Wheelchair Basketball Competition.

Love, originally from Ayr, is part of a squad which is an exciting blend of youth and experience with nine of the twelve selected players having represented Paralympics GB in Rio two years ago.  The former Lothian Phoenix star began her journey as a wheelchair basketball player only 5 years ago after making contact with current basketballscotland’s Disability Talent and Pathways Manager Tina Gordon who set her on the successful journey to the top of the sport.  The 3.5 point player currently plays for Oldham Owls and Angels of the North.

Great Britain have been drawn alongside reigning champions Canada as well as Spain, Brazil, Australia and Netherlands in Pool A with the top four teams from each pool qualifying for the quarter final stage.  The medal games will be played on Saturday 25^th August.

A list of the GB Woman’s Pool A fixtures can be found below –

• Thursday 16^th August – Brazil (10.15am)
• Friday 17^th August – Canada (1.00pm)
• Sunday 19^th August – Spain (9.00am)
• Monday 20^th August – Australia (7.15pm)
• Wednesday 22^nd August – Netherlands (5pm)

More information on the slection for the World Championships can be found at www.britishwheelchairbasketball.co.uk.

The Scottish National Cerebral Palsy Football team returned home from the International Trophy CP Football Ciutat de Barcelona organised by the Catalan Sports Federation of Cerebral Palsy (FECPC) with a very creditable third place finish after four days of competition.

Scotland were drawn in a tough qualifying group against Argentina, Denmark and CP United. The Scots got off to a flying start with a solid 6-3 victory of the CP United club side.

In their second fixture they faced a more difficult test against an Argentinian side currently ranked 5^th in the World. The Scots have been out of the international picture for the last two years and this lack of match experienced showed with a 6-1 victory to Argentina.

This put the pressure on the Scottish team for their final group match against Denmark. However, the Scots rallied and secured a deserved 5-0 win against the side ranked 18^th in the world.

This result meant Scotland were drawn to face the SW CP United in the 3^rd/4^th play-off match. The Scots had grown in confidence as the competition had progressed and this was demonstrated with a comfortable 9-0 win over the English club side.

This was an excellent return to the international scene for the Scottish National Cerebral Palsy Football team and we now hope to build on this success and see Scotland back competing at World and European Championships.

The following players were named in the squad to compete for Scotland in Barcelona;

Barry Halloran, Motherwell
Martin Hickman, Glasgow
Scott Martin, London
Lewis McIntyre, Kilbarchan
Jamie Mitchell, Livingston
Mark Robertson, Roslin
Robert Millar, Dunoon
Blair Glynn, Tranent
Stephen Young, Dunfermline
Ross Russell, Bishopbriggs
Blair McGregor, Glasgow
Dean Thornton, Glasgow
Ian Paton, Kilmarnock
Matthew Wynne, Eaglesham

The players were supported at the competition by Head Coach Greig Taylor, along with Assistant Coaches Graeme Robertson and Scott Christie.

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

If you are interested in getting involved with the Scottish National Cerebral Palsy Football team or providing much needed funding to help the team achieve their goal of World and European competition, please contact Gavin Macleod on 0131 317 1150 or at gavin.macleod@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

Britain’s best athletes cross the channel in July to take on some of the World’s best at the inaugural Inas Summer Games as part of the UK Sports Association (UKSA) Great Britain Team.  UKSA is proud to announce its athletics, cycling and swimming Teams, with further announcements in Tennis, in collaboration with the Tennis Foundation to follow.

British representation spans the 4 sports of athletics, cycling, tennis and swimming and includes previous internationals Declan Manning and Nathan Fleetwood as well as six others making their GB international debuts for UKSA.

Supported by a dedicated team of coaching professionals, expectations are high as athletes continue to prepare to demonstrate their sporting prowess.

Tracey McCillen, Chief Executive, UK Sports Association comments: “We really have seen some excellent performances from the British Team already. We set competitive standards for the event and this has without a doubt shown that British athletes are ready to rise the challenges that this performance environment will throw at them.

“The Inas Summer Games will be challenging, but we have selected a Team of strong talented athletes who are ready to do the job. We have a dedicated group of coaches supporting the Team and I am delighted that one of those coaches is a former Paralympian who started his career as an Inas competitor. Congratulations to all athletes and coaches on their selection to the UKSA GB Team.”

The full Athletics, Cycling and Swimming Team members are:

Athletics:

Declan Manning (Bungay, Suffolk)
Nathan Fleetwood (Lanark, Lanarkshire)
Sam Fernando (Gateside, Fife)
Chris McMillan (Leicester, Leicestershire)
Charlotte Cox, (Cambridge, Cambridgeshire)
Jane Coia, Team Manager/Coach
Tommy Patterson, Deputy Team Manager/Coach
Kevin Manning, Coach

Cycling:

Ruairidh Brown (E. Kilbride, South Lanarkshire)
Kiera Byland (Bolton, Grt. Manchester)
Tom A Hara, Team Manager/Coach
Graeme Brown, Coach

Swimming:

Rachel Tweedie (New Mills, Derbyshire)
Jessica Tweedie, Team Manager/Coach
Dan Pepper, Coach

Tennis announcement to follow

The UK Sports Association (UKSA) is the only official Great Britain member of Inas, the International Federation for athletes with intellectual impairment, Down syndrome and autism.

Hosted by Fédération Française du Sport Adapté on behalf of Inas Europe, the Inas Summer Games will take place in Paris, France from 14 July to 22 July 2018.  With 9 sports in contention, it is expected that over 1000 participants will take part.

The Championships will incorporate the Inas European Championships in Athletics and Swimming and the Inas World Championships in Cycling and Tennis.

For the second year running, it was a blisteringly hot day at Hopetoun House for the RDA Qualifiers.  Teams from Garioch, Forth Driving, Argyll and Annandale & Eskdale produced some close competition.

West & Central qualifying success came for Alison Colvin (Forth Driving ) was 2^nd in the Open Qualifiers, driving Rosie, Linda Farquhar (Forth Driving) was 1^st  in the Intermediate Qualifiers, driving Rosie and Emma Hunter (Forth Driving) was 2^nd  in the Novice, driving Ozzy.  Unfortunately, only two Forth drivers are able to go down to Hartpury and as Alison has been twice before, this year will be the turn of Linda and Emma.

The Fliskmillan Trophy is for new comers to competition or for those that love to compete but are struggling to remember a dressage test or learn the cones/obstacle course.   Ellen Kennedy, Jamie Buckley, and Holly Cartwright, all from Argyll and Lizzie Jackson from Forth Driving , put in tremendous efforts for West & Central.  They all put aside their competition nerves and faced the dressage section.  Then it was back in again to focus on the very challenging obstacles and cones course.  We were thrilled to watch and I hope that they were all thrilled with their achievements.   The winner of the Fliskmillan Trophy was Lizzie Jackson from Forth Driving.

The RDA Challenge Trophy for the group achieving the Highest Cumulative Score in the RDA classes, was won by Annandale & Eskdale.  They were delighted to receive the trophy from Mrs. Sam Orde, RDA Chairman.  Sam had a lovely day meeting and chatting with everyone involved.   She was very impressed by the inclusion of the RDA in the larger competition, giving everyone a real sense of the preparation, excitement and atmosphere of this wonderful event, in such a wonderful setting.

The Scottish Para Lawn bowls team competed against England and Wales in the Home Nations Championships which took place at Clarence Park Bows Club in Weston-Super-Mare from the 8 – 10 June 2018.  The competition included singles, pairs, triples and four bowls formats with each match worth two points to the overall team score.

It was an ideal time to have an international fixture (following the Commonwealth Games) so that coaches could trial new players in this environment as the IBD World Championships in 2020 comes into focus.

Although finishing runners up wasn’t the result we were all looking for, the competition served a great purpose and was hugely beneficial.  There were some fine individual performances and the new players in the team performed well.

Standings

 

Scottish Para Lawn Bowls Squad

 Three Nations Results 2018

SDS would like to celebrate and recognise the dedicated and committed volunteers who work tirelessly to make Disability Sport in Scotland happen. To round off Volunteers Week, today we would like to turn the spotlight on Darren Thomson, a dedicated and self-effacing volunteer who has been involved with boccia for over 25 years, the last seven of which as an international referee.

Darren established a boccia club in Dundee 15 years ago and still coaches every week.  Last night he attended a coach development workshop and this weekend he will be found at sportscotland National Sports Training Centre Inverclyde, officiating at the UK Boccia Championships.  He is renowned for his calmness under pressure whilst officiating and as a result has been selected to referee at the BISFed 2018 World BOCCIA Championships in Liverpool from 12th-18th August.

Darren has given tirelessly of his time, effort and commitment at a local, regional, national and international level on ensure the continued development of boccia for all players whether as a coach or official.

If you would like to find out more about boccia, please contact admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com

Gordon Reid reaches fourth Roland Garros semi after beating defending champion Hewett

Gordon Reid booked his place in his fourth Roland Garros men’s singles semi-final on Thursday when the world No. 5 and 2016 finalist produced a confident performance to beat 2017 champion and world No. 1 Alfie Hewett 6-4, 6-4 in an enthralling all-Brit men’s singles quarter-final in Paris.

Reid will now play Shingo Kunieda of Japan in Friday’s semi-finals at the second Grand Slam of 2018.

With one break of serve and one hold of serve apiece Reid and Hewett were locked together after 15 minutes of play and they continued to exchange games until the very end of the opening set. A second break earned 2016 Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Reid the set after 49 minutes, with the Rio Paralympic champion having earned just two points more than Hewett over the course of the ten games.

Reid struck first in the second set to take a 4-2 lead , but as he served for the set at 5-3 Hewett saved three match points, the second with a backhand winner and the third with a well-placed forehand winner before the defending champion pulled a game back. However, Reid earned three more successive match points on Hewett’s serve in the next game and floated a backhand over the net that Hewett failed to reach to wrap up victory after an hour and 30 minutes.

“We were both a little bit nervous and maybe the quality wasn’t very high at the start. But once I settled into the match, I felt I returned pretty smartly and I started to cause him problems on my serve and that helped me dictate the rest of the point,” said Reid, who also reached the semi-finals in Paris in 2013 and 2014 before reaching the 2016 final.

“It’s tough to play each other because we know each other’s games so well. We put a lot of time in to understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses to help improve our doubles. That always makes it difficult, when you then have to play against each other in a singles court. But we are used to it and have done it enough times now.”

“It was a close match. I think it was quite even. It was a few points that really decided it. At the end of the day, Gordon played the bigger points better than I did.” said Hewett. “We’ve got the rest of today off, so rest and tomorrow we have our doubles, so we’ll so prepare the same we always prepare and really want to get that title this year.”

Reid will first play Kunieda for the first time since beating the world No. 3 in the final of the Japan Open Super Series three week ago.

“I love playing against Shingo every time I get an opportunity to get on the court with him because for me, he is the best player that has ever played the sport. Obviously, it’s going to be a really tough match, he is on great form at the moment, he is very confident. It’s going to be very difficult, but I think if I can produce my best tennis, I will have a chance,” said Reid.

Two-time Wimbledon champions and reigning US Open champions Hewett and Reid play Frederic Cattaneo of France and Stefan Olsson of Sweden on Friday in a bid to reach their second successive Roland Garros doubles final together.

“Alfie and I, we haven’t won this tournament together yet. I’ve had some success here in doubles in the past, but it would be great to have that all-British success,” added Reid.