Top quality boccia on show at secondary school competition in Brae
FOURTEEN of Shetland’s top boccia players were brought together by Ability Shetland to contest the fourth annual secondary competition in Brae junior high last week.
Boccia is a paralympic sport in which athletes throw, kick or use a ramp to propel a ball onto the court with the aim of getting closest to a ‘jack’ ball.
Players from across the isles were divided into three groups in a round-robin format, with the top two players from each group going into the knockout stages.
Willa Anderson and Steven Williamson were the players who came through group one, with Williamson winning a third-end decider against Anderson to ensure he had a 100 per cent record.
Eddie Sheaffe Greene, playing in his first ever tournament, and Erin Miller were the other two competing in the first group.
Five players contested group two, where Louie Coyne edged past debutant Thorfinn Hay in the opening match.
Despite this, Hay recovered to pick up two wins and to advance to the knock-outs along with Thomas Souter.
Connot Leslie also won two matches, but was unlucky to narrowly miss out on the final stages after being pipped on points difference by Hay.
Newcomer Caleb MacFarlane was the undisputed winner of group three, winning all four of his games against Hector Holbourn, Harriet Robertson, Jake Odie and Riley Davies to cruise through.
He was joined by Davies, who overcame Odie and Holbourn on his way through to the final stages.
There were just three quarter-finals to be played, with Hay meeting Williamson in the first in front of the enthusiastic Brae crowd.
Some fantastic shots were played by both and a tie-breaker was needed to separate the two, with Williamson eventually triumphing 2-1.
There was a high standard between MacFarlane and Anderson in the next game too, with the referee needed to make the final call on some exceptionally close shots.
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MacFarlane won the deciding end to come through as 2-1 winner, but having accumulated the most points over the tournament Anderson joined him to help complete the semi-final line-up.
Souter played some of the best shots of the competition against Davies in the last quarter-final to seal a 2-0 win.
In the semi-finals another tie-breaker was needed to settle Williamson’s match with MacFarlane, which lived up to the high expectations.
It was MacFarlane who continued his 100 per cent record to win 2-1 and earn a place in the final.
Having been restored to the last four due to her performances, Anderson was able to pull off measured shots and to show tactical prowess to beat Souter and proceed to the final.
Souter met Williamson first in the third place play-off, and produced a fantastic performance to win in two ends and to finish third overall.
The final was a rematch of Anderson and MacFarlane’s quarter-final clash, which MacFarlane had won.
And when he took the first end it seemed like his perfect record was going to continue, before Anderson levelled a nail-biting final to set up a deciding end.
Here it was Anderson who stayed composed and narrowly clinched the win to earn a superb victory in the competition.
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