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In October 2016, the fifth ‘Andy and Nessie Ross’ Boccia tournament took place, in memory of Nessie Ross, a previous committee member of Boccia N.I and participant in many Boccia N.I. tournaments and her husband, Andy Ross. With 18 teams competing from across Belfast, Dundonald, Antrim and Newtownabbey, the tournament was very closely fought. All teams played three games against three different teams with the team with most points at the end of these games taking home the shield. The winner of this tournament was a Jigsaw NI team – The 3 P’s. There was a tie for second place with three teams having to play off to see who came runner up, one of these being another Jigsaw NI team, but after the play off second place went to St Brigid’s Dodgers from Newtownabbey. Clare McQuiston, Manager of Jigsaw NI, said “This was a very well organised tournament by Boccia NI. There was a great turn out on the day and on behalf of Jigsaw NI I’d like to thank Boccia NI for organising and facilitating the tournament. It is a brilliant achievement for the 3 P’s, winning their first ever tournament. The group have great fun at their weekly boccia session and it is obvious that they are improving all the time. Well done and congratulations to all the teams, especially “The 3 P’s.”

The Andy and Nessie Ross Boccia tournament 2016 took place on 20th October 2016 in the Spectrum Centre. All teams enjoyed their day out.

Boccia is a great way of getting people active, while adding a competitive edge when playing games. Jigsaw NI organises and facilitates weekly sessions of Boccia in Andersonstown Leisure Centre on Thursday mornings 10.30-11.30am, Connswater Community and Leisure on Thursday afternoons 1.30pm – 2.30pm and in Skipperstone CC, Bangor on Thursdays 11.30am – 12.30pm and is very popular with our service users.

Boccia is a Sport that can be enjoyed by almost anyone regardless of age or ability both in a friendly and/or competitive environment. Jigsaw NI also offers Art, Swimming, Chair-based Activity and Exercise in water. If anyone over 18 with a disability is interested in any of our activities please contact Liz or Clare on 028 90319054.

The Jigsaw NI Boccia tournament took place on 10th March 2016 at Connswater Community and Leisure. There were ten different teams that took place in the tournament from the three different Jigsaw Boccia groups that are held in Connswater, Andersonstown and Bangor.

The teams were split into two different leagues and played on separate courts. Each team played three games within their league. On court 1 ‘Mary’s Mates’ (Andersonstown team), ‘The Seasiders’ (Bangor team) and ‘The Rascals’ (Connswater team) were all on 4 points after the first game, but in the second game The Rascals took the lead collecting seven points. The Rascals maintained the lead in this league with The Seasiders coming in second and this would be the semi-final. A close fought game took place but The Rascals came out on top and proceeded on to the Grand Final.

On court 2 ‘Glynis’ Boys (Andersonstown team) and ‘The Beach Boys’ went well out on the lead after their first game racking up 11 points and 10 points respectively. By game three ‘The Beach Boys’ took the lead by three points with ‘Glynis’ Boys’ being runner up. The semi-final was therefore against ‘The Beach Boys’ and ‘Glynis’ Boys’ which ended in a draw. At this stage one member of each team was elected to play a shootout to see who could get nearest to the jack and become winners of this game. This team would proceed through to the final against The Rascals who were already through on the other court. ‘Glynis’ Boys’ won the shootout and met ‘The Rascals’ in the overall Final.

The final between ‘Glynis’ Boys’ and ‘The Rascals’ was another tightly fought game, but in the end ‘The Rascals’ came out on top, making this the first year one of the Connswater teams won the shield.

Clare McQuiston, Manager of Jigsaw NI said “This year’s tournament was a great success and we’d like to thank Active Community coaches Stephen and John who helped us on the day and meant the tournament ran very smoothly. Congratulations to ‘The Rascals’ on winning the shield. This now means that the Jigsaw NI Boccia shield has been won by a team from each of the weekly groups (Andersonstown, Connswater and Bangor). Well done to all the teams that took part in the tournament and commiserations to ‘Glynis’ Boys’ who have missed out narrowly on winning for a second time this year.”

Photo: Liz Bowman (Programme Co-ordinator for Jigsaw NI), Arder Carson (Lord Mayor of Belfast), Terry Woodside and Bill Beaumont (service users of Jigsaw NI).

On 9 October 2015, we were invited by the Lord Mayor of Belfast Arder Carson to attend an event at Belfast City Hall to receive a Certificate of Recognition in association with Divis Community Centre. We are so pleased to have been acknowledged for all of our work and dedication to our local community and overwhelmed to be referred to as a ‘true Community Champion’.

We develop a range of physical activity programmes for our services users from boccia to swimming. Our activities are for groups of individuals that have a range of disabilities, including mobility problems, brain injury, sensory impairments and multiple sclerosis.

It is always great to see our service users enjoying our activities and give them the opportunity to improve their self-esteem, mobility, confidence and health, as well as building friendships along the way!

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone that supports us at Jigsaw NI and to the organisers of this certificate!