Panathlon has been working with Boccia England over the last few months and has delivered 3 regional London Lord Taverners u-19 Boccia qualifying competitions. With 9 teams from those qualifiers, through to the Final, the standard was always set to be extremely high. Held at Sobell Leisure Centre in Islington, teams from Croydon, Enfield, Richmond, Southwark, Ealing, Haringey, Havering, Dagenham and Hounslow battled it out, to see who would be crowned London Champions.
The format of the day involved two pools of teams with the top two teams from each pool qualifying through to the Semi-Finals. The winners of the competition would then have the opportunity to represent their school and borough at the National Finals in Sheffield on 6 March. The tension mounted in the group stages with surprise losses for 6 time champions St Giles school from Croydon. Nevertheless, St Giles and Alfred Salter school qualified through from Pool A, whilst Trinity School and West Lea school clawed their way through from group B.
After an impressive display in the Semi Finals from the experienced St Giles School they met underdogs West Lea School from Enfield in the Final. Ends 1 and 2 were extremely tight with both sides winning one end each but it was West Lea School who played extraordinary shots in the vital moments and crowned themselves first time London Champions for 2014.
A big thank you must go to the leaders from LA Swap who officiated each of the matches throughout the day. Their enthusiasm was key and we look forward to working with them again at future events.
