Once a year I get the opportunity to compete for Northern Ireland at a boccia event, and this year’s UK Boccia Championships were held at the University of Warwick, Sport and Wellness Hub.

I travelled on Wednesday night via the Stena Line Belfast – Liverpool Ferry, before driving down to the campus early on Thursday morning. As a wheelchair user, it can be difficult and uncomfortable to fly, and to minimise the amount of air travel I do per year, I will often get a ferry and drive as this way I can stay in my wheelchair, I know it is not going to be damaged / broken, and it is much less stressful than flying. Although it’s an early start at 06:30am, I’d take it ANY day over a broken wheelchair or delayed flight!

I was doing some filming on Thursday at the campus, which is why I got there earlier than most of the other athletes, but it gave me the chance to settle into my hotel and also get some good rest and recovery from the journey.

On Friday, before the training sessions at 5pm, I had a pre-arranged interview (coming out soon!), then I had some things to do, including going to Active Design who manufactured my custom wheelchair seating. I collected the parts I ordered, and was on my way back to the hotel to have a fitting with Caroline from DMO.

With the nature of my throw, being underarm and flat to my knees, I’ve been having some issues with back pain and increased muscle tone. As I already have scoliosis, alongside regular physio, I have decided to go down the route of a custom Scoliosis Lycra suit. Some of my teammates have been wearing these for years and have greatly benefited from them, so Caroline did my measurements and my custom Scoliosis suit will be ready in January.

After that it was time for training, and it’s always somewhat of a challenge! With over 30 players competing in the UK Championships, it is difficult to find court space, but everyone gets along and will work it out so all athletes are accommodated!

Something I find difficult about the UK Championships every year is keeping my concentration, particularly in the training session. Often it is the one time of the year where athletes from the home countries and World Class Programme meet, and everyone loves to chat and socialise, but finding and keeping my focus on the training evening has always been a struggle!

With 8 athletes in the BC2 Classification at this event, it meant there were 2 pools of 4, with top 2 straight to semi-finals. I was top seed, and in my pool was Jason Rolph (ENG), James Clowes (ENG) and Sian Jones (WAL). On Saturday my games were at 9:30am, 11:45am and 3pm.

I remember my first UK Championships in 2014, playing in the wrong classification (a story for another time!) and not doing any warm up, just rocking up to the call room with my balls, and a little Tupperware tub to put them in as I didn’t have a ball holder yet! Nowadays I have a much better and more stringent process – for context, my first game being at 9:30am meant my alarm was 6:15am!

As a first day, it was pretty good as I won all 3 games. It was good to see the progress that home country athletes and their coaches are making year on year, and it is important to remember that often the UK Championships is the only time that home country athletes can face WCP athletes.

For those of you who were in Coventry this weekend, you will have noticed that my dad was not supporting me on the Sunday, and that Glynn (my coach) was on court with me. My dad woke up feeling unwell and I decided that he should rest, and Glynn would be capable of stepping in. Thankfully my dad is now feeling much better, but in a way I am viewing this as a good thing, that Glynn was able to have a trial run at supporting me on court, in case of this eventuality at an international event.

With my 3 wins, it meant I was straight through to the semi – finals, and to face my fellow Northern Irish teammate Scotty Cromie. Scott has a passion for boccia, and his characteristically loud shouting and cheering is synonymous with the UK Championships annually. Although Scott and I are both from NI, we haven’t played each other since early 2019, based on my travelling schedule, so it was a big unknown for both of us. However, the game was won in the early ends but Scott challenged me to maximise and work hard for points.

Onwards to the final, I was to play Reshad Saraj (ENG), another teammate of mine but this time from the Boccia UK Talent Transition squad. Reshad and I play in a similar style, with similar court positions which made it interesting from the outset. Over the 4 ends of the game, it was tight until the 3rd end where I stretched away, with the final score being 8:2 to me.

I retained my UK Championship title for the 4th year in a row, and was delighted when I received my medal to look up to the stands and my dad was there cheering me on! It was an excellent event, and special thanks go to:

• Boccia England and University of Warwick for hosting
• Disability Sport Northern Ireland for providing my kit and travel costs
• UK Sport / The National Lottery who’s funding enables me to compete
• All of the volunteers, referees and officials
• My coach Glynn and my dad as my sport assistants!

Photographs taken by Steve Mitchell of Digital Sports Media