ORGANISERS hailed a “fantastic” turnout at the SportsSpecial School Sports Partnership annual boccia competition.

A field of 17 teams took part in the tournament at Poppleton Community Centre in York with certificates for every entrant, plus section winners’ medals.

Organiser Val French said: “We had 11 schools competing from across the county, which included nine special schools and pupil support centres, and two mainstream schools providing competitive experience for their young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

“The provision for special schools is now very healthy and we have a calendar of 25 festivals across a whole range of sports. But we need to work harder to ensure all the young people in mainstream with a disability have equal access to these opportunities.

“We were delighted to welcome two mainstream schools in Easingwold and Joseph Rowntree, but we need more mainstream schools to get on board and this is something we will be targeting this year.”

Boccia, pronounced ‘botcha’ is a Paralympic sport, similar to bowls or French boule. The competition was split into four sections to cater for the different needs of young people.

In section one, for pupils with severe learning disabilities, Applefields, Welburn Hall and The Dales schools battled it out, with The Dales taking the spoils.

Five teams contested the mild learning disabilities section – Mowbray ‘A’ and ‘B’, Woodlands, Easingwold and Joseph Rowntree.

Joseph Rowntree won to take the trophy provided by Boccia England, and they will now go on to the regional boccia finals.

In the section for pupil support centres, Hambleton & Richmond emerged victorious, beating Brompton Hall and Danesgate.

There was also a primary section, giving many of the youngsters their first experience of competitive boccia.

Five schools took part – Danesgate, Woodlands, Brompton Hall, Welburn Hall and Hob Moor Oaks.

It was a close run thing, with York’s Danesgate and Scarborough’s Woodlands tying on points to share the title.

French added: “We could not have run this competition without the help of fantastic young sports leaders from Holy Family School Carlton and Welburn Hall School.

“Our thanks go to all of them, as well as support from Boccia England, North Yorkshire Sport, City of York Council sport and active leisure and the Federation of Disability Sport.”

For more information on visit the SportsSpecial website www.sportsspecialssp.co.uk or email school games organiser Val French at val.french@mowbray.n-yorks.sch.uk