Over the weekend of 25th and 26th November, University of Warwick Sports and Wellness Hub hosted the 2023 UK Boccia Championships.

 

Boccia England sent a strong squad of players looking to equal or better last year’s performance. Representing Boccia England:

David Smith, Michael Halfpenny, Fay Hart, Andrew Morgan, James Clowes, Jason Rolph, Reshad Saraj, Will Hipwell, Will Arnott, Matt Berry, Raf Young, Cecilia Turk, Sally Kidson, Penny, Froude, Sophie Newnham, Louis Saunders and Harrison Smith.

 

The pool stages were contested to a high standard with 7 English athletes from the BC2’s, BC3’s and BC4’s reaching semi-finals whilst the 5 BC1’s played in a round robin competition. The semi-finals and finals didn’t fail to disappoint with some exceptional boccia being played throughout all the home nations and some standout performances from our English squad.

 

Outstanding performances saw the Boccia England squad achieve 8 medals.

 

BC1

BC2

BC3/ Ramp Operator

BC4

1st

David Smith

(ENG)

Claire Taggart

(NIR)

Matt Berry/ Sue Berry

(ENG)

Stephen McGuire

(SCO)

2nd

Fay Hart

(ENG)

Reshad Saraj

(ENG)

Will Arnott/ Connor Welfare

(ENG)

Tyler McLelland

(SCO)

3rd

Michael Halfpenny

(ENG)

James Clowes

(ENG)

Patrick Wilson/ Meredeth Greenwood

(SCO)

Sophie Newnham

(ENG)

4th

Andrew Morgan

(ENG)

Scott Cromie

(NIR)

Rafael Young/ David Ellis

(ENG)

Louis Saunders

(ENG)

5th

Rachel Bailey

(WAL)

Lewis McConnell

(SCO)

Robyn McBride/ Davy McBride

(NIR)

Fiona Muirhead

(SCO)

6th

 

Sain Jones

(WAL)

Sally Kidson/ Hannah Stewart 

(ENG)

Penny Froude

(ENG)

7th

 

Jason Rolph

(ENG)

Cecilia Turk/ Mervyn Turk

(ENG)

Tomas Martin

(WAL)

8th

 

 

Ross McNeil/ Stewart McNeil

(SCO)

Paul McIntyre

(SCO)

9th

 

 

Daniel Elliott/ Billy Elliott

(NIR)

Harrison Smith

(ENG)

10th

 

 

Gareth Stafford/ Gill Stafford

(WAL)

 

 

Reflecting on the compeitition Boccia England CEO, Chris Ratcliffe said:

This year’s 2023 UK Championship was a great showcase for boccia where we saw some great performances from so many athletes over the weekend. We want to thanks Boccia UK for the opportunity to host the event and our home nation teams for making it an enjoyable and competitive event.

We would like to thank all volunteers and staff for supporting the competition and helping make it a great success. Without this continued support we would not be able to host such high quality events.

 

Photos taken from the competition can be found at https://digitalsportsmedia.zenfolio.com/p940615333