Cerebral Palsy Society

Cerebral Palsy Society
Boccia: Get Rolling Newsletter
Issue 14
Content
Page 1: From the Director of
Boccia
Page 1: Waikato Schools Boccia
Page 2: Auckland Schools Boccia
Page 3: Northland Schools Boccia
Page 4: North Island Regionals
Champs
Page 5: Bay of Plenty Schools
Boccia / Equipment Tip
From the Director of Boccia
Over the past 22 months I have been working to grow the
grassroots of Boccia across New Zealand and have
successfully managed to get more people involved in the
game. The next challenge for Boccia in New Zealand will
be taking it from a sporting activity and adding more of a
competitive element to it as players start to take the
game more seriously, in particular the school settings.
I will be away in London over the next 2 months helping
to manage the Boccia event at the Paralympic Games but
look forward to seeing how things go in my absence.
Page 6: Upcoming events
Until the next end, keep rolling everyone…
Page 6: Notices
Luke Morriss
Director of Boccia
Page 7: Mamaku
Waikato Schools Boccia
First the first time, Hamilton secondary schools had a chance to take part in an
interschool Boccia competition held at the YMCA on Tuesday 22 May. Unfortunately, only 1
of the 5 secondary schools were available to attend on this occasion – Waikato Diocesan
School for girls – who made good use of this time to hone their skills and learn more
about the subtleties of the game. ParaFed Waikato are looking to work with more schools
and community groups to up-skill players as Boccia in the Waikato looks to gain more
momentum in offering sporting opportunities for potential Boccia stars of the future.
www.cpsociety.org.nz
June 2012
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Auckland Schools Boccia
Once again, some of Auckland’s top junior Boccia players took
part in the recent schools competition held at Trusts Stadium
Wednesday 23 May. Following on from the success gained over
the past 2 years, 9 different schools (Mt Roskill Grammar,
Waitakere College, 2010 winners - Papatoetoe High, Carlson
School, 2011 winners - Oaklynn Special School and newcomers
Rangitoto College, Pakuranga College, Sommerville Special
School and Rosehill Special School) took part in an extended
teams’ format.
As usual, the quality of play was at a high standard – especially
after a number of schools are now familiar with the tactics needed
to play consistently and after the Halberg Trust have also joined in
to help grow the sport within the schools setting by assisting with
funding equipment for some of the promising youngsters. After 6
rounds of play, points were determined by the average score
across all teams.
In the end it was very close
but the following teams took
away the top honours with
their respective points:
Results
(G) Waitakere College (23)
(S) Mt Roskill Grammar (22)
(B) Rangitoto College (21)
For more photos: http://www.facebook.com/cpsocietynz/photos
www.cpsociety.org.nz
June 2012
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Northland Schools Boccia
Some of Northland’s top junior Boccia players took part in the inaugural Northland
Schools Boccia tournament held on Thursday 7 June at Kensington Stadium.
Following a very successful preparation campaign, which saw members of the local
Northland Boccia club visit schools to offer training and equipment, this was the first
time for many of the youngsters at competing in a formal situation. Over 40 students
took part from the following schools: Blomfield Special School, Dargaville High
School, Excellere College, Okaihau College and Tikipunga High School.
The atmosphere was billed to be of friendly competition and participation, with the
key principles being enjoyment and friendships, however, as soon as the schools got
onto the court, things got serious as the competitiveness took over. There was plenty
of great shots and teamwork being played and as the games progressed, the
students started to pick up the tactics needed to gain that extra advantage over their
opposition. In the end it was a close finish, with Excellere College claiming the top
honours for 2012. Now that the Northland schools have had their taster of the action,
watch out for more Boccia to come from the far north of New Zealand!
Results
(G) Excellere College (31) (S) Okaihau College (29) (B) Tikipunga High School (27)
www.cpsociety.org.nz
June 2012
3
North Island Regional Champs
Boccia New Zealand ushered in a new era at the recent North Island
Champs held recently at the Allan Brewster Centre in Auckland on June
9-10 with a youthful and fresh looking list of entrants.
The first ranking tournament of the year saw players compete against their own
classification grades in a pooled round-robin format with the top 2 from each pool
qualifying for the semi-finals. As always, the competition was hugely competitive
with a number of tense matches despite the apparent rusty nature of play to begin
(this did improve each game as the weekend wore on). First up was the individual
competition - where the ever-reliable Michael Bull dominated the BC1 grade to
easily take the gold. Meanwhile, over in the BC2 grade the usual suspects of veteran
Jeremy Morriss (Christchurch), the classy Fleur Mann (Auckland) and the young-gun
Alex Dickson (Whangarei) all began strongly in the BC2 grade. In the end, experience
proved to be the determining factor as Jeremy Morriss battled back in the last end to
clinch the final over Fleur Mann 6-4. In the BC3 competition, the future young
prospects of Oliver Hill-Parker (Nelson) fought out first-timer David Phuah
(Auckland) in the final with Annie Wihongi (Whangarei) sealing third place. Lastly, in
the Kiwi grade, local favourite Fay Ngata (Auckland) upset Scott Burdett (Whangarei)
in the final to take the honours, whilst Kimberley McLean (Whangarei) took bronze.
Next were the Teams’ and respective pairs competitions, with the Team of Jeremy
Morriss, Maxine Morgan (Auckland) and Michael Bull; the BC3 pairing of Anthea
Henry-Hurst (Auckland) and David Phuah; and the Kiwi pair of Fay Ngata and
Michelle Rathgen (Auckland) all claimed the respective titles.
A big thank you to the South Auckland Boccia club again for hosting the
tournament, and well done to all the other players and officials for a
successful and enjoyable tournament.
For the complete results, see www.boccia.org.nz under ‘News and Events’.
For more photos: http://www.facebook.com/boccianz/photos
Individual results
BC1
(G) Michael Bull
BC1
(G) Jeremy Morriss
BC3
(G) Oliver Hill-Parker
Kiwi
(G) Fay Ngata
www.cpsociety.org.nz
(S) Margaret Thomson
(S) Fleur Mann
(B) Yung Chen
(B) Alex Dickson
(S) David Phuah (B) Annie Wihongi
(S) Scott Burdett
June 2012
(B) Kimberley McLean
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Bay of Plenty Schools Boccia
Schools in the Bay of Plenty have also joined the action after some of Tauranga’s top
junior Boccia players took part in the inaugural Bay of Plenty Schools Boccia
tournament held on Friday 15 June at the Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre. Students
from Bethlehem College and Otumoetai High School took part in the day.
There was certainly a lot of improvement since last year as Bethlehem College
showed plenty of skill and tactical awareness to edge out Otumoetai High School to
claim the top honours.
ParaFed Bay of Plenty are looking to further their work with schools and community
groups around the region as Boccia continues to regain momentum with the Eve
Rimmer Games scheduled for early 2013.
Equipment tip
It is common practice to number your Boccia balls 1 – 6 with 1 being the softest ball
and 6 being the hardest ball. This helps you remember how soft or hard each ball is
when determining what sort of shot you need to play.
For example, choosing a really soft
ball (low number) is best suited when
trying to ‘draw’ and get close to the
jack, whereas choosing a harder ball
(high number) will be better used
when trying to ‘drive’ and hit balls out
of the way.
www.cpsociety.org.nz
June 2012
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Upcoming events
June:
27th: Canterbury Primary and Intermediate Schools Boccia Championships,
Addington Primary School, Christchurch
July:
21-22nd: Auckland Boccia Battle of the Bridge, Allan Brewster Centre – Papatoetoe,
Auckland.
August:
30th: Canterbury Secondary Schools Boccia Championships, Cashmere
High School, Christchurch.
October:
27-28th: Boccia New Zealand Nationals, Graham Condon Centre,
Papanui, Christchurch.
November:
24th: Boccia Australia Junior Nationals, Sydney Academy of Sport Wakehurst Parkway, Narrabeen.
Notices
Boccia New Zealand
Membership forms are now available for the 2012 / 2013 year for
Boccia New Zealand. Go to www.boccia.org.nz to find out more.
Marley
Marley have kindly donated a further 18 pieces of
wastewater pipe that have been made into basic
ramps to help deliver more Boccia into schools
around the country.
Ramps
For those of you who wish to take your ramp-based game to
the next level, L&A Woodworking are manufacturing highquality
wooden
ramps.
Please
contact
[email protected] for more information.
www.cpsociety.org.nz
June 2012
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Mamaku
Many of you will be familiar with Boccia balls made here in New Zealand by Mamaku
& Co. Reg Nichol now has ownership of the whole of Mamaku, and he wants to
inform the Boccia community that he can now supply genuinely “soft” Boccia balls to
the international specifications, also “firm” and “medium” balls.
He also has a small number of sets available at a significantly reduced price that are
very slightly outside the international specifications. These would be useful as
practice balls, or to introduce the sport to people who would not yet be interested in
playing in official tournaments.
* You can get in touch with Reg by email: [email protected]
www.cpsociety.org.nz
June 2012
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