Cerebral Palsy Society Boccia: Get Rolling Newsletter

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1 Cerebral Palsy Society Boccia: Get Rolling Newsletter Issue 9 Content Page 1: From the Director of Boccia Page 1: Boccia accessories Page 2: PNZ National Championships Page 3: The Rosebowl Challenge Page 4: Sporting Ability Page 5: Upcoming events Page 5: Equipment tip Page 6: Player profile Page 7: Mamaku From the Director of Boccia For the last newsletter in 2011, I d like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and summer break. I am already looking forward to seeing you all again in the new year ready to get involved in more Boccia as we look to implement new ideas and further develop those initiatives already in action! Lastly, a special thank you must go out to the Coffee Club New Zealand for their generous $200 donation in support of Boccia development work across the country. Until the next end, keep rolling everyone Luke Morriss Director of Boccia Boccia accessories For those of you who wish to brighten up your Boccia sessions with equipment to assist with training - (1) lightweight double-sided red / blue paddles; (2) measuring tape / callipers and (3) set of coloured rubber targets (photos below) are available. For more information, please contact Luke on or [email protected] but be in quick as items are limited! December

2 PNZ National Championships The Boccia competition - as part of the 38 th Mitsubishi Paralympics New Zealand National Championships from 3 rd -6 th November - was held in Hamilton at the Eastlink Badminton Stadium. This year it featured 12 players from all over New Zealand each representing their respective regional teams. The clash for regional dominance placed individual and paired players placed into mixed pools for a round-robin format. As expected, the competition was tough with a number of close matches. In the individual competition - where the key figures of the veteran Maurice Toon (Waikato), the classy Jeremy Morriss (Canterbury), the dominant Scott Burdett (Northland) and the skilful Fleur Mann (Auckland) all began strongly in their respective grades. In the end, the Waikato hometown hero Maurice Toon narrowly emerged as the champion (on points) over arguably the most consistent performer from the year in Scott Burdett from Whangarei. Meanwhile, Jeremy Morriss from Canterbury claimed third place in similar fashion over Fleur Mann from Auckland who was in search of her fourth podium finish for Over in the Pairs competition, Jeremy Morriss teamed up with Louise Atwood (Manawatu) to claim outright victory over the Manawatu pairing of Rhys Bycroft and Virginia Ridd, while Scott Burdett joined with the impressive newcomer Diederick Struijck (Manawatu) to clinch the bronze medal in what was a very close pairs competition with the final placings decided by the slimmest of margins. A big thank you to Waikato for hosting the PNZ National Championships, and well done to all the other players and officials for a successful and enjoyable tournament. Also, a special mention to the wonderful Sport Waikato KiwiSport Officers for their tremendous refereeing duties and enthusiasm during the event. For photos: Hawke s Bay Results Individuals (G) Maurice Toon (WAI) (S) Scott Burdett (AKL) (B) Jeremy Morriss (CAN) Pairs (G) Jeremy Morriss (CAN) (S) Rhys Bycroft (MAN) (B) Scott Burdett (AKL) Louise Atwood (MAN) Virginia Ridd (MAN) Diederick Struijck (MAN) December

3 The Rosebowl Challenge The 2 nd annual Paul Hunter Rosebowl Sports Challenge was held at the Pettigrew Green Arena in Taradale on Tuesday 22 November. This year 11 groups from around the region attended the bowling inspired multisport event (featuring boccia, bocce, indoor bowls and ten-pin bowling) held at the Pettigrew Green Arena. Proving again why the Hawke s Bay is the fastest growing Boccia region across the country, the staggering number of people within the Hawke s Bay region who knew about the sport was simply breath-taking. Although Boccia is a comparatively new sport to the Bay, it was no surprise that this was a very well attended event with over 35 competitors taking part in the Boccia teams competition alone - as competitors were only able to enter one sport. Furthermore, despite the relatively short amount of time that the players and teams have been playing the sport of Boccia, the standard of skills and level of competition were absolutely fantastic. As the games and rounds of play progressed further into the competition, it was evident that all athletes involved were not only enjoying the tournament, but they were also learning and improving from end to end. After the final games had been played, the two teams representing the Paul Hunter Centre in Hawke s Bay, the Stewart Centre from the Manawatu, and Brain Injury Hawke s Bay all emerged as victors across their respective 4 boccia courts. Congratulations to Brain Injury Hawke s Bay for claiming overall champions across all sports. Mike at Sport Hawke s Bay is now looking to build on this growing momentum to assist more people all over Hawke s Bay with their Boccia needs as dates for next year have already been decided! December

4 Sporting Ability Once again, the Halberg Trust Sports Ability Auckland Competition took place at St. Kentigern School in Remeura and this year it featured 7 schools taking part in teams boccia. The competition was fierce evident from the number of close matches and number of teams vying for the top spot. However, it was the Mount Roskill Grammar Coasters who proved the team to beat, going undefeated over the entire day and showing constant pressure and consistently winning points to impressively claim the top spot, while Arohanui 1 and Peninsula Primary 2 took out second and third places respectively in other hotly contested playoff matches. Congratulations to Sommerville Special School for claiming overall champions across all sports. Lastly, a big thank you to Chris and Stacey at the Halberg Trust for organising and preparing the event and well done to all the participating schools and students from St. Kentigern school for officiating and hosting another successful and enjoyable tournament. Already there are a number of schools looking to continue the boccia momentum into 2012 as interest in the city of sails grows! December

5 Upcoming events January: nd : Cerebral Palsy Society Holiday Boccia Open Tournament, Allan Brewster Centre Papatoetoe, Auckland. February: Boccia New South Wales State Titles Singles, Sydney Academy of Sport - Wakehurst Parkway, Narrabeen. March: Boccia New South Wales State Titles Pairs, Sydney Academy of Sport - Wakehurst Parkway, Narrabeen. April: th : New Zealand National Independence Games, Auckland. June: 9 th -10 th : North Island Boccia Regional Championships, Allan Brewster Centre, Papatoetoe, Auckland. 15 th : Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools Boccia Competition, Tauranga. July: nd : Auckland Boccia Battle of the Bridge, Allan Brewster Centre Papatoetoe, Auckland. Equipment tip For those who travel regularly for trainings and competition consider purchasing a metal case. These are available from most hardware stores and are a very safe and cheap way to look after your equipment. These can fit: an entire set of boccia balls, muffin trays, referee equipment, wheelchair straps, coaching ideas and much more. Fill the inside of the case with sponge and you have storage that is hard on the outside and soft on the inside perfect for looking after your gear! December

6 Player profile Jeremy Morriss To wrap up the player profiles for the year, we feature the young, yet highly experienced and classy Jeremy Morriss from Rangiora. After his frightening introduction to the international scene at the World Cup in Christchurch back in while still in high school - Morriss has since taken his steadily improving game to Greece, Malaysia, Brazil, Canada, China, and Hong Kong over the following years. Morriss was a part of the first New Zealand team to claim a silver medal at his inaugural Paralympic Games in Athens 2004 in the teams event. However, it wasn t until the following year when he first made his own individual mark on the world after putting in hours of hard work and training to eventually improve to finish 5 th individually. Subsequently, numerous accolades followed shortly after as Morriss earned (among others) the honour of North Canterbury Sportsperson of the year. A year later, Morriss played an influential part again in the teams event when New Zealand surprisingly upset favourites Portugal to claim the World Championships gold medal arguably the greatest triumph in New Zealand s Boccia history. Although his international career has been put on hold in recent years, Morriss still competes regularly in national competitions and once a week can be found at his local ParaFed Canterbury Boccia club where he coaches the up-and-coming younger generation of Christchurch talent so watch out the rest of New Zealand! December

7 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 please note that these have been all sold out but Reg will let you know as soon as he has more in stock. * You can get in touch with Reg by [email protected] December