Cookies help our website to remember you and your preferences. For more information or to update your cookie settings, please go to our privacy policy.

Accept Decline
Skip to content.

The national charity and leading voice for disabled people in sport and activity

Menu. Open and close this menu with the ENTER key.

Exciting first day at the DSE Boccia Open in Sheffield

Almost 100 competitors took part in an exciting first day of the Disability Sport Events Boccia Open at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

The DSE event is a fully inclusive tournament, with individual BC1 – BC8 events taking place over the course of the weekend. The tournament welcomes players from all areas of the UK with a mixture of individual competitors and community clubs bringing teams to take part.  

The matches commenced at 10am with experienced players taking on emerging talent throughout the 7 individual events. The standard of performances were high with many matches being settled by only one or two points.

Terry Gentleman, member of the Boccia England Board, said;

The difference today in Boccia is that it is taken much more seriously. There are a lot more players, the quality of boccia is a lot better and the standard of equipment is vastly improved.

As the day progressed, competition for qualification places became tough. The BC2, BC3 and BC8 qualifiers were settled at 7pm tonight with the other classes returning for their final pool games in the morning.

Qualifiers from the BC3 class include 2013 finalist, James Bailey from Wales and Rebecca Morton from Cedars Academy in the North East. Cheshire Academy have had an extremely successful day in the BC8 class with three of their competitors qualifying for the quarter finals. Sunday will see the final rounds with the medals being awarded at approximately 2pm.

Damien Gentleman, BC3, said;

I enjoyed some first class games today and was very disappointed not to qualify. I want to wish good luck tomorrow to all the players who made it through to the next rounds.

Alongside the players, the event is being supported by more than 25 volunteers working as referees, timers and classifiers. Local volunteers from Sheffield College and Sheffield Hallam University came together with others from around the UK to ensure the delivery of a high quality tournament.

John Weddle, a young referee from Cedars Academy in Gateshead said;

I’ve been refereeing at DSE competitions for almost ten years and really enjoy helping out all the players. It’s great to be able to support them like I received when I was younger. Today has been great, competition has been tight and I’ve really enjoyed watching the games.

The DSE Boccia Open is organised by Disability Sport Events, in partnership with Boccia England. DSE is an English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) programme, which delivers a range of participation opportunities from grassroots to international standard.

The staff and volunteers from DSE and Boccia England are looking forward more exciting competition tomorrow. Results will be uploaded on the EFDS website and a full report will follow at the close of play.

If you have been inspired to take up the skilful and tactical sport of Boccia, please go to the Boccia England website where you can find further opportunities to get involved. www.bocciaengland.org.uk