ONE of the biggest Boccia competitions ever staged was held in Blackburn recently with teams battling it out for county glory.

The Lancashire Schools Under-19s Boccia Championship was held at QEGS with 37 teams from 22 schools from across Lancashire taking part.

Blackburn-based Sporting NRG Ltd hosted the competition on behalf of Boccia England.

This year, Boccia England aligned two successful school boccia leagues; the Lord’s Taverners Under-19s Physical Disability Programme and the Pan Disability School Boccia League, into one delivery model. Coordinated and delivered by coaches from Sporting NRG Ltd, more than 200 players with varying disabilities and special educational needs, aged between eight and 19 years took part.

Boccia is a fantastic inclusive sport which is similar to bowls.

Played on an indoor court, opponents have six coloured balls (either red or blue) and must throw these, in turn, towards a white target ball, known as the ‘Jack’.

Points are awarded to the individual or team who manages to get their balls closest to the Jack.

Skilled practitioners of the game use all manner of tactics to beat the opposition.

The teams, a mixture of boys and girls from primary, secondary or special schools, were grouped into one of six leagues and played a round robin competition.

Within the pan disability competition, players had various impairments, disabilities and special educational needs – yet all worked together within their team to compete for the title of Lancashire U19s Champions.

In the Lord Taverners’ Physical Disability competition, St Paul’s Superstars were the overall winners after they remained unbeaten on the day.

The Coppice School were runners-up and Crosshill School took third place. St Pauls Superstars are now invited to represent Lancashire in the Boccia England regional competition in Liverpool in February.

Within the pan disability competition, players had various impairments, disabilities and special educational needs – yet all worked together within their team to compete for the title of Lancashire U19s Champions.

St Thomas’ Super Heroes finished in first place, the Loyne in second place and Longshaw Lions in third place, all of who will also progress to the Regional finals.

Organiser Debbie Davies from Sporting NRG Ltd was delighted with the way the day went with the battle for honours going to the wire.

“Some leagues were extremely close with teams winning the same number of matches, and winners then had to be decided on points difference,” she said.

“Congratulations also go to St Thomas’ Legends and Daisyfield Daisies who won their leagues but narrowly missed out on the medal positions.”

Davies was delighted with the feedback the event got, from both team manager and players.

“It’s wonderful to see how well the sport of boccia is locally supported, and feedback on the day from the players themselves was great,” she said.

“From those who were happy to win matches to those who enjoyed throwing the ball as far as they could.”

On the day, the event was supported by a team of 18 newly-trained Boccia Young Officials aged 14 to 19 years from a number of schools across the county, including special schools. All 18 pupils have now gained a Boccia England Young Officials Bronze Award, and three young mentors on the day – Sarah Wilkinson (Westholme) and Ebony Harrison and Lucy Turner(both St Bedes) – gaining their Gold Awards, for officiating over 12 hours in the past year.

“These officials worked tirelessly on court to ensure while the games ran smoothly, basic rules were still enforced, and players had a positive experience of representing their school in a competitive sport,” said Davies.

“One of the managers said to me that they were a fantastic example of wonderful young people giving something back and showed good leadership skills which was great to hear.”

The young officials involved came from St Bede’s, QEGS, Crosshill, Our Lady and St Johns, Great Arley, The Coppice and Moor Hey.

Davies added: “We would like to thank QEGS Sports Centre for loaning their wonderful accessible facility to us, St Bede’s for all their support with resources and the School Games Organiser for his continuing support in enabling us to champion disability sport at an equal level within Blackburn with Darwen.”