Tag: UK

Action photo of Kayleigh Brown throwing a blue boccia ball

Two Scottish Champions Crowned and a Silver Medal at the UK Boccia Championships 

By William Moncrieff, Communications Coordinator 

Sunday the 17th of November saw the UK Boccia Championships conclude. The final day of the tournament had some fantastic boccia on display, with 39 players representing Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland battling it out for medals.  

The seven strong Scottish squad featured in the BC2, BC3 and BC4 tournaments. Here is how they got on, on Sunday.  

Paul McIntyre (Forth Valley) took on Penny Froude in the BC4 playoff. After a closely fought match Penny came out victorious, defeating Paul 3 -2. Paul returned later on in the day in the 5th/6th place play off against fellow Scot, Tyler McLelland. It was an extremely close match, going to a tiebreak. Paul went on to win the tie break seeing him finish in 5th place overall (4-4) 

Tyler McLelland (Fife) kicked off his final day taking on Louis Saunders in the BC4 playoff. Narrowly losing 3-2, Tyler ended up finishing in  6th place in the BC4 after a hard fought match in the playoff. 

The day continued on for the McIntyre brothers with Scott taking on Jayne Milligan in the BC4 7th/8th place playoff. Unfortunately, Scott lost 7-8 in a close game, the Forth Valley boccia player will be returning home with an 8th place in the BC4. 

Alex Medley from Perth and Kinross won his final match of the week, 6 – 4 to see him cap off his championship with a 7th place finish in the BC2. 

Ayrshire’s Kayleigh Brown (nee Haggo) won her first match of the day against James Clowes (7-1) to advance through to the BC2 final, against Reshad Saraj. 

It was an intense final with the last ball deciding the medals. Reshad took the gold with Kayleigh settling for silver.  

Fellow Paris 2024 Paralympians – Patrick Wilson and Stephen McGuire – put on a cracking show in the BC3 and BC4 finals.  

After success in the semifinal (beating Sally Kidson 4-3), Paddy faced William Arnott in the BC3 final. As expected, it was a closely contested game but the Scot put in a stellar performance to bag his second UK Championship title of his career. 

After a 10 – 1 win over Penny Froude, Stephen faced Sophie Newnham in his final. Sophie made the Paralympic champion work hard in the BC4 final which proved to be yet another, very close and riveting face-off which came down to the last balls of play. A bit of luck was on Stephen’s side as he took the title, 3-2. 

Many thanks to all the athletes, assistants, coaches, officials, volunteers that made the Championships such a huge success.  

SDS would also like to say a huge thank you to all the event sponsors: Associated Seafoods Ltd, BioMar Ltd, Blackadders LLP, Blacks Haulage Solutions Ltd, Cefetra Ltd, Glenarm Organic Salmon, Inverlussa Marine Services, Loch Duart Ltd, LCL Shipping Ltd and Mowi Scotland. Without you, the UK Boccia Championships would not have been possible.  

If you missed the championships or would be interested in catching up on some of the action, you can watch the livestream from court three: day one and day two.  

Stephen McGuire throwing a red boccia ball as Tyler McLelland watches

Day 1 Review: UK Boccia Championships 2024

The Scots put on a good show on the opening day of the UK Boccia Championships 

 Day one of the UK Boccia Championships got off to a great start, with the Scottish contingency racking up several wins in the pool stages. 

Here’s an overview of how the seven Scots got on –  

 

BC2 

  • Kayleigh Brown 1 – 3 v Luke Walsh, 6 – 5 v Jason Rolph, 6 – 1 v Tomas Martin. 
  • Alex Medley 2 – 7 James Clowes, 11 – 1 v Sian Jones, 0 – 11 v Reshad Seraj  

 

BC3 

  • Patrick Wilson 8 – 4  v Mark Roderick, 3 –3 v Lee Croker (tiebreak). 

 

BC4 

  • Stephen McGuire 17 – 0 v Harrison Smith, 19 – 0 Lewis Crawford, 7 – 2 v Tyler McLelland. 
  • Tyler McLelland 8 – 2 Lewis Crawford,10 – 1 v Harrison Smith. 
  • Paul McIntyre 2 – 4 Louis Saunders, 10 – 0 Scott McIntyre. 
  • Scott McIntyre 0 – 4 v Louis Saunders. 

 

The competition will resume on Sunday 17th November, with play-off games followed by semifinals, finals A and B.

You can follow the action live on the SDS website via the live results page and livestream (available Sunday morning), as well as seeing behind-the-scenes content posted across the SDS social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram and X). 

 

Useful documents – 

UK Boccia Championships 2024 Competition Guide

Saturday 16th November 2024 schedule.

Sunday 17th November 2024 schedule.

To view the Live Scoring document click here.

Photo of Stephen McGuire and Maree Todd smiling to camera, holding Stephen's gold Paralympic medal

Scotland Host UK Boccia Championships at Prestigious Inverclyde Venue

Scotland welcomes the best of British boccia for the UK Championships this weekend (16-17 November), at sportscotland’s national training centre in Inverclyde.
For Paralympic gold medallist, Stephen McGuire (BC4, Hamilton), it is the first time competing since his golden moment at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in the summer. The world number one will be looking to continue his winning ways on home soil.
“The UK Championships is the showcase event in our domestic calendar. I’m super excited to be competing, especially in Scotland”, said Stephen. 
He continued to say: “It’s always great to see the development of athletes coming through to challenge us athletes on the World Class Programme. Last year’s UK Championships saw all Talent Transition Squad athletes reach the podium. This demonstrates excellent depth within the UK and we will all need to perform well to reach the podium once again.”
Fellow Paralympians Kayleigh Brown (nee Haggo, BC2, Ayrshire) and Patrick Wilson (BC3, Lothian) will also be in action on the courts, joined by Scots Tyler McLelland (BC4, Fife), Alex Medley (BC2, Perth and Kinross) and brothers Scott and Paul McIntyre (BC4, Forth Valley). 

The Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport, Maree Todd MSP, visited Inverclyde on Friday (15th) to offer her best wishes to Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) ahead of competition starting on Saturday morning, as well as fitting in a quick game of boccia with Stephen. 

Stephen McGuire and Maree Todd playing a boccia game at Inverclyde
Maree Todd MSP enjoying a game of boccia with Paralympian Stephen McGuire

The Minister expressed her great admiration for the sport and highlighted the impact that boccia can have in communities across Scotland. 

“Boccia is the most amazing sport. It’s really inclusive and accessible”, said Ms Todd. 

“Boccia provides an opportunity for everyone. Everyone can join in with boccia, that’s part of the beauty. But for some of our people who have complex disabilities, there are real challenges getting involved in physical activities. So it [boccia] is a competitive sport that is open to everyone.”

The Minister also praised Inverclyde as being a premier accessible venue in the UK, that prides itself being the first UK residential sports centre of its kind – designed for inclusivity.

“It’s absolutely vital. Without accessible venues these competitions can’t happen. There’s no hassle in this venue and it is really welcoming to absolutely everyone who wants to play sport. And it shows with a little bit of thought and a little bit of planning, a little bit of work with the community, what can be achieved and I want more of that all over Scotland. All over the UK, so that all of our athletes can have the chance to compete”, said Maree Todd MSP. 

Kayleigh Brown – who recently just got married to sports assistant Kevin –  also returns to the court following her Paralympic debut in Paris:

“It’s been really busy since Paris – we got married, we’ve been on honeymoon and we have moved house – so I haven’t been able to train much but I’m really looking forward to this weekend. It’s always a great competition which brings the four nations together and gives me the opportunity to compete for Scotland. It’s brilliant to see a high number of entries and I’m sure it’ll be fun.”

Whilst the UK Championships is the first event of the 2028 Paralympic cycle, with some athletes’ sights set on LA 2028, the championships provides a fantastic opportunity for Scotland to showcase the best of boccia. 

You can follow the action live on the SDS website via the live results page and livestream (link available soon), as well as seeing behind-the-scenes content posted across the SDS social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram and X).