Jigsaw NI Boccia Tournament 2016

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.”