Report on the Kent Singles Competition held at Medway Park
on Sunday 24th September 

From an email from Jan Mulligan

I want to say a huge “thank you” to Medway Sport for hosting the event and to James and the wonderful volunteers who came to help us in then day. We could not have made it such a good event without the, - they enthusiastically helped lay down the court tape, assisted the referees and the athletes with any task that needed doing, kept the officials fuelled with food and drinks, and were still happy to lift up the tape and move chairs etc. at the end of the day – THANK YOU ALL. 

I also want to re-thank all of the officials. Again, everyone was enthusiastic and only too willing to chop and change to meet with the needs of the day (which did not always go to schedule).  A great team – THANK YOU!! 

The day went well, apart from some scheduling / timing difficulties:

• Two athletes did not turn up and some were delayed due to transport problems (bus replacement on trains etc.).
• Unfortunately, the missing athletes were from the same group so it meant the other athletes in that group had a lot of waiting around
• With multiple athletes from the same clubs playing at the same time there were not enough balls to allow for rounds to start at the same time (there were enough general Boccia balls to go round, but athletes wanted/needed their own club balls because of different weights, hardness/softness etc.)
• We had one ramp player and one slow player. This had a knock-on impact to subsequent matches.

On a positive note:

• Whilst we only had three out of the declared six volunteers, but they were worth 10, so no problems there
• We started the final 15 minutes behind the declared schedule which, from my view point as Head Ref, is a success!

Results:

Gold: Josh Wilkins
Silver: Jack Conie
Bronze: John Beddow (Prince Arthur)

John's comments were
After a wobbly start, I took my first match by a score of 7-5, taking all 6 on the last end!. This was followed by another close one, 5-4, when I only won one end, with my 5th ball being on a close measure, and a possible second scoring ball for my opponent being just outside scoring distance on the last end. I then romped my remaining 3 games, 10-1, 17-0, and 10-2 to win the group. In the semi-final I played a risky shot with my last ball on the 2nd end, and despite pulling one back on the 3rd, wasn't? able to put in enough blocking balls on my second jack end my opponent added 4 more to win 6-1. That said, against Mark in his first ever competition, we went to a tie break in the 3rd-place playoff, which I'm pleased to say I secured after 4 attempts to knock out his holding ball. Another medal, after winning the inaugural tournament last year, but not the colour I wanted. However, it was an excellent day, as many of us have now played each other a number of times at singles and team events, so there was a good atmosphere at the event, with everyone chatting to everyone else.

Fourth: Mark Draper (Prince Arthur)

Mark's comments were
I was a bit nervous about entering my first Boccia competition as I have only been playing for about a year.  But my fellow-Knights were buzzing in anticipation and I went with the flow.  It was a really early start and a long day to get through, particularly as some people who should have been in my group failed to show and there was a lot of waiting around. As the day progressed and the results came in,  the results didn't all go the way that we had expected.  Alex beat me in my first group match - that was always going to be close.  Then I was up against Joyce, from Herne Bay.  Time and time again that morning, I had heard the words "Oh, she's good!", so I expected my second loss of the day ... but the luck was mine and our match finished 8-0 to me.  Then it was time for my match against Christopher, also wearing a red shirt but I'm not sure whether that meant he was from Herne Bay or Bexley.  They said he was good too and it was a close match, nip and tuck all the way to the tie break.  Good he may have been, tactical he wasn't ... he should have declared when he was in front, but he carried on, knocked his ball out of place and allowed me to win by two.  Which then left it down to the mathematics as to whether or not I progressed in the competition.

Amazingly, I was in the semi-final, drawn against the ramp-player, Josh, who beat me soundly (although I may have had him worried once or twice?) and went on to win the competition overall.  But that didn't mean I was done for the day, as I was in the third/fourth place play-off against John, my team-mate from PA.  We've played together a lot recently, practicing for this singles contest but this time there was a bronze medal at stake..... it was a very tight, very tense match, one to watch through your fingers.  John declared on the fourth end to take it to the tie break and then, possibly, his nerve held better than mine, experience won through and I finished my first Boccia tournament in fourth place.  No medal but an amazing day!"

Looking forward, as with all events, there are things we can improve on and no doubt the clubs will chat these through over the coming months. 

Here’s to 2018!

Jan

OTHER BOCCIA KNIGHTS COMMENTS

Cliff Armstrong.

I would like to thank everybody involved with organising this years Kent singles.  It has been a very enjoyable experience and one I have learned a lot from.

I had a bit of a mixed bag in terms of results losing my first game 3-1 before wins in my next two by 3-2 and 4-3, this was followed with two heavy defeats of 9-0 and was followed by another defeat of 8-0 to the eventual winner Josh who was a very deserved winner on the day.

It was good to see Owen and Mark doing well in their first singles tournaments Mark losing narrowly in the semi final, so well done to John in finishing 3rd.

I'm now looking forward to what is hopefully going to be a very good season and would like to wish all the Team good luck in the coming season.

Some Photos from this Competition
Thanks to https://www.facebook.com/MedwaySportOfficial/