May 12th 2019
Sun 12th May 2019
The Northern Ireland Boccia League finals at Antrim Forum on Saturday marked the beginning of an exciting new partnership between Disability Sport NI and the Titanic Quarter Cycling Club to support the Northern Ireland team and individual boccia leagues for the year 2019/2020.
Boccia is a precision sport for people with high levels of physical disabilities. It is a Paralympic sport that is played from a seated position and is similar to bowls. There are now 11 boccia clubs in Northern Ireland that feed into the Northern Ireland league and the sport can be played at grassroots, competitive and performance levels.
The league offers an opportunity for the best boccia players in Northern Ireland to compete both as an individual or part of a three-player team to hone their skills and qualify for the Northern Ireland Boccia Team.
On Saturday the Titanic Quarter Cycling Club cemented the partnership with a thirty strong appearance at the league where they fully embraced the game cheering on the players and even picking up some top tips from Larne Boccia Paralympian Claire Taggart.
Nick Brennan from Titanic Quarter Cycling Club commented, “We as a club feel that Disability Sport NI is a great fit as our ‘Charity of the Year’ and are very excited to be supporting the Northern Ireland Boccia League. We will be holding a series of fundraisers throughout the year for our club members and look forward to the league re-commencing in October.”
The Titanic Quarter Cycling Club has raised £3,243 to date over the past year for the league and are continuing to fundraise throughout this year.
Kevin O’Neill, Chief Executive of Disability Sport NI welcomes the support for the Northern Ireland Boccia League, commending the club on their fantastic fundraising efforts and saying that, “It is fantastic to have a league sponsor to help us continue to develop and grow the league.
The Club has embraced the opportunity to partner with Disability Sport NI and have made a great effort to learn more about the sport of boccia. We very much look forward to continuing working with them”.
After an excellent day of boccia at the Individuals League Table finished at;
BC 1/2
1st Claire Taggart
2nd Scott Cromie
3rd Seamus McKenna
BC 3
1st Robyn McBride
2nd Daniel Elliott
3rd Hannah Uprichard
BC 4/5
1st Alan Weir
2nd Jayne Milligan
3rd Ruairi McDermott
The Teams League table finished at;
1st Place
Enigma
2nd Place
NIPS Saints
3rd Place
East Antrim
For further information on how to get involved in boccia please contact Disability Sport NI on email@dsni.co.uk or 028 9046 9925.