Congratulations to  Gregor Ewan, Jim Gault, Ian Donaldson, Gill Keith & James Sellar who won the 2020 Scottish Wheelchair Curling Association British Open which was held at Hamilton Ice Rink from Sunday 9^th to Monday 11^th February.

Home based teams including Paralympic medallists Gregor Ewan, Angie Malone & Jim Gault were joined by Team Germany and members of the English national team in an 8 team round robin format before plays-offs on Tuesday afternoon to decide the winners.

Defending champions Team Ewan entered the tournament as favourites and they delivered a wheelchair curling masterclass to go unbeaten through the round robin stage before playing Team Germany in the 1^st v 2nd final to decide our champions.  In a close final Team Ewan held the upper hand throughout the early stages with Team Germany closing to within a couple of shots at the final end.  Final Score Team Ewan 7 – Team Germany 5.

Our thanks go to Hamilton Ice Rink for allowing us to use their facilities and thanks to the ice staff, umpire Harry Brodie and all the catering staff as well as our army of volunteers.

Our next tournament is the SWCA Scottish Championship, 17^th to  19^th March at The Peak, Stirling. Please see the new SWCA Facebook page “Scottish Wheelchair Curling Association” for info on this great sport.

More UK locations will be part of Get Out Get Active’s (GOGA) success story over the next three years. Thousands more inactive people across 21 locations will benefit from the latest £5million programme funding. Today, Scottish Disability Sport is delighted to announce Tayside is one the successful locations.

In September 2019, we announced the founding funder, Spirit of 2012, awarded a further £3 million to GOGA across the UK. At the same time, Sport England also invested an additional £1 million into England. Last week the London Marathon Charitable Trust revealed their additional £1 million grant investment.

The ground-breaking programme began in 2016, created to bring disabled and non-disabled people together to be active. It engages the least active communities in fun, inclusive ways. Now it is set to continue until at least 2023.

Creator and lead partner Activity Alliance teamed up with an extensive range of partners, including Scottish Disability Sport, to help GOGA reach more people. These partners offer in-depth local knowledge and national expertise.

GOGA is more than being active. It strengthens community spirit, increases confidence and improves mental health. It increases the demand for, and the accessibility of, activities. These may be provided by local authorities, sports clubs or the voluntary sector. The success is through tapping into people’s real life motivations to be physically active.

The new funding will enable partners to build on phase one’s success and share learning. Initially there were 18 locations across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, who together engaged an incredible 20,000 people. Commencing in April 2020, phase two will have 21 locations.

After a stringent process, Tayside was chosen as to be part of phase two. Scottish Disability Sport and NHS Tayside will work in partnership to increase the numbers of physically active disabled and non-disabled people participating in activities together, across the 3 local authorities in the Tayside NHS region (Angus, Dundee City and Perth & Kinross).

Gavin Macleod, CEO of Scottish Disability Sport, said on the announcement:

“Scottish Disability Sport would like to thank Spirit of 2012 and the London Marathon Charitable Trust most sincerely for investing in the phase 2 GOGA programme in Tayside. This investment will allow us to build on the success of the first phase GOGA localities in Fife, Forth Valley and Grampian and develop an innovative approach to linking health services and physical activity opportunities to the benefit of the least active across the region.”

Ashleigh Henderson, Senior Health Promotion Officer with NHS Tayside added:

“This is a very exciting time for Tayside with the newly formed partnership between Scottish Disability Sport, Spirit of 2012, the London Marathon Charitable Trust and NHS Tayside, driving forward the GOGA Programme.  Being physically active has huge benefits for everyone, and being active together, can make a significant difference to our overall health and wellbeing outcomes.  GOGA will be a fantastic addition to the physical activity work going on across Tayside at present and I look forward to supporting this important and inspiring programme”.

I recently proudly reported that British Athletics and Scottish Athletics had named 46 athletes on their Paralympic World Class Programme for 2020. World Championship silver medallist Derek Rae from Kirkcaldy and Fife Athletic Club was one of four athletes to be upgraded to the top tier podium level funding. Derek was one of twenty athletes who won medals at last year’s World Championships in Dubai or London, earning him the right to be on the programme.

There are only six months to go until the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and every week from here on is meticulously planned for the Great Britain T46 marathon athlete. Derek is currently ranked number two in his class. The world record may have been lowered recently by the Australian number one in Texas to 2:19 but this has made him even more determined to arrive in Japan in the best shape of his life.

Derek has recently returned from another camp in Iten in Kenya where training at 8,000 feet produces exceptional returns. Derek will return to Flagstaff in Arizona for a second year and additional warm training is scheduled thereafter. An altitude tent has become a regular feature of home life and the magnificent chamber at Napier University provides Derek with world class heat, humidity and altitude preparation for Japan.

Derek, being the true professional that he is, always finds time when he can to catch up on volunteering duties with Disability Sport Fife at the Michael Woods Sports & Leisure Centre every Wednesday. On his recent visit to Kenya he found time to visit a school for children with hearing impairments and as he often does in Fife he inspired the youngsters with his stories and warm personality. Sport in Fife and beyond has benefitted enormously from the arrival of this great Fife athlete as a global star.

Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman Disability Sport Fife (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

Former Commonwealth Games athlete Meggan Dawson-Farrell has been rewarded for her bold decision to change sports with selection for the Scotland team competing at the World Wheelchair Curling Championships in Wetzikon, Switzerland later this month (29 February – 7 March 2020).

The 27 year old, who was named today as the team’s fifth member, previously represented her country in the 2014 Commonwealth Games Para-Sports 1500m wheelchair event and she has demonstrated her speed in a different way with her rapid progress since being inducted into the British Curling programme earlier this season, having taken up the sport just last year.

“I had my first taste of wheelchair curling at a ‘come and try’ session at the National Curling Academy (NCA) in May 2019 and I was hooked from that point on,” she said.

That session was led by Paralympic Sochi bronze medallist Robert McPherson, who introduced her to the game and she is delighted that she will now be joining him and team mates Hugh Nibloe, David Melrose, as well as fellow debutant Charlotte McKenna at the World Champs at the end of the month.

“I would never have presumed that I might get the call up. If there is no expectation there are no blows, so it was a great surprise and an honour to get the selection, especially as I am so new to the sport and my team mates are a very talented bunch of athletes and very well-deserving individuals,” Dawson-Farrell noted.

Living in Tullibody, close to the programme’s base at the NCA in Stirling, she has put in the hours to get up to speed for her biggest test yet in the winter sport.

“It feels a bit surreal to have been selected, it has not quite sunk in yet and my mum and dad are over the moon and they know I have worked hard for this. I am extremely grateful for all the support and training I have received and I have felt a bit like a sponge, trying to absorb everything I possibly can,” she said.

Dawson-Farrell hopes her example of talent transfer and the prospect of representing Scotland for a second time will inspire others to try curling. However, she admitted that she had to overcome her own fears to start her relatively late career pathway to becoming a full time athlete and feels sport in many ways has been her salvation.

“It actually makes me feel a bit scared when I think what my life would have been like if I had not discovered my love of sport and it really is thanks to my parents,” she acknowledged.

Born with Spina Bifida, Dawson-Farrell has always been a wheelchair user and her sporting talents went undiscovered until her parents Kirstie and John booked her a place at a sports camp in Largs, organised by Scottish Disability Sport and Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Scotland.

“I was 16 years old, I was resistant to going and I was terrified, so much so that my mum and aunt had to book into a local B&B in Largs,” she recalled.

“However for the first time I was surrounded by other kids like me who had a disability. I felt welcome, I could relate to others and not having had any previous experience or provision of sport during my school years, I suddenly discovered I loved it.”

She was encouraged to join a local athletics club, Forth Valley Flyers in Grangemouth and never looked back, her drive and ambition leading to the chance to compete in a Commonwealth Games in front of a home crowd in 2014. However, despite qualifying for the final her medal aspirations were blighted by illness.

“No-one fully understands the extent of ailments and illnesses and the challenges they represent to disabled athletes unless you are close to them,” Dawson-Farrell pointed out.

“I wanted to be in that final despite having a kidney infection and pleaded my case with the surgeon, telling him he would have to wait until after I had competed.

“I finished seventh and three days later I was having surgery to correct the condition.

“It now feels like this is my second chance and I now have the opportunity to fully explore my potential.”

Despite moving from what she calls a ‘warm sport’ to a ‘cold sport’, she finds the camaraderie and team element of curling an even more positive experience.

“In races it was just me as an individual on the start line. I had a great support team but the focus was all on me and I found it quite a lonely sport because of that, whereas in the team environment of curling everybody is pulling together, sharing the experience of the highs and lows no matter what,” she said.

“I love the team dynamic side of it. It is a sport I want to be playing for years to come and I hope my example will show others that they should try curling at any age and hopefully get so much out of the experience.

“Going to my first World Curling Champs is such an exciting time for me and my team mates and hopefully this time around it will be my time to shine.”

Scotland will meet Russia in their opening game of the eight day event hosted in the Curling Hlall Wetzikon, where they hope to replicate the form of last year’s line-up that won silver in Stirling. 12 mixed gender teams will be taking part, competing for medals at the championships as well as qualification points for the 2022 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

Players selected for World Championships:
Hugh Nibloe (Stirling)
Robert McPherson (Bellshill)
David Melrose (Duns)
Charlotte McKenna (Bridge of Allan)
Meggan Dawson-Farrell – Alternate (Tullibody)

Please click here for more information on the World Wheelchair Curling Championships .

#curling #WWhCC202

Images: Perthshire Picture Agency – Graeme Hart.

We’re delighted to announce the squad that will represent Bowls Scotland at the Para Bowls Home Nations Championships. The team will play against England and Wales at Potters Resort, Hopton-on-Sea from Friday 27th March to Sunday 29th March.

Bowls Scotland’s High Performance Para Bowls Co-ordinator, Bob Christie, said: “This is an opportunity for the players selected to be tested in a competitive environment and to challenge for the top position within the Home Nations. The selection team have every confidence in the players to reach the standard required to return home with the trophy.”

B2/B3 Mixed Pairs:
Robert Barr (Jordanhill BC)
John Fox (Spateson BC)
Melanie Inness (Coltbridge BC)
Mary Stevenson (Shanks BC)

Directors:
John Hannah (Baillieston BC)
George Millar (Saltcoats BC)
Chris Morrow (Willowbank BC)
Nigel Walker (Dalgety Bay BC)

B6/B7/B8 Triples:
George Guthrie (Maryhill BC)
Garry Hood (Ayr Craigie BC)
Barbara McMillan (Kelty BC)
Mike Nicoll (Jedburgh BC)
Kevin Wallace (Clackmannan BC)
Pauline Wilson (Willowbank BC)

Hamilton, 9-11 February

The 2020 SWCA British Open Wheelchair Curling Championships will take place at Hamilton Ice Rink from Sunday 9^th to Tuesday 11^th February.  Eight teams will compete in a Round Robin format with play starting on Sunday at 10.00 with further sessions that day at 14.30 and 17.45.  Monday’s play starts at 9.30, Tuesday’s play starts at 10.00 with the finals at 14.30 on Tuesday rounding off what promises to be a great event.

Many strong teams are entered with Paralympic medallists Angie Malone, Gregor Ewan and Jim Gault all playing for home based teams.  Gregor Ewan’s team will be looking to defend the title they won in 2019. Players from throughout Scotland and the north of England will also be taking part along with Team Germany.  We are looking forward to many exciting games over the three days and it promises to be a great competition which we we hope will be well worth coming along to spectate, entry is free.

Anyone who is interested in finding out more about wheelchair curling in Scotland then please see the new SWCA Facebook page “Scottish Wheelchair Curling Association” for info on this great sport.

Britain’s Jordanne Whiley, Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid secured a historic brace of doubles titles on Friday at the Australian Open as Andy Lapthorne made it a perfect day for players on the LTA’s GB Wheelchair Tennis World Class Performance Programme. While it’s the first time that Brits have won both men’s and women’s doubles titles in Melbourne, Lapthorne booked his place in Saturday’s quad singles final after claiming a final set tie-break against Australian Heath Davidson.

On a second successive day when play was delayed by extreme heat, Whiley partnered close friend Yui Kamiji of Japan to earn a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Dutch top seeds Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot. It was Whiley’s first Grand Slam title as a mum, having returned to international competition only last February.

It was also a third Australian Open crown for Whiley and Kamiji and a tenth Grand Slam doubles title in total since 2014 for the duo, who claimed their fourth Wimbledon title in 2017 when Whiley was 11 weeks pregnant.

Whiley, who partnered Kamiji to win their semi-final on Thursday, the same day as son Jackson’s second birthday, said:
“It was more emotional than I thought because the match point didn’t go as I thought. I thought I’d missed the shot, the volley, so when I made it, it was kind of that immediate reaction of ‘Oh my God I’ve just won a Slam with Yui again’. And then it was emotional because I could just see how much Yui cared and it was actually really nice to feel that love from her and to know that she’s missed me and it means a lot to her as well.”

The Brit-Japanese partnership took a commanding 4-1 first set lead before wrapping up the opening set and Whiley served out a much closer second set to secure victory, executing a deft drop shot on match point after exactly an hour and a half.

Second seeds Hewett and Reid, already three-time Wimbledon and US Open men’s doubles champions, claimed their first title together at Melbourne Park after fighting back from a set down to beat French top seeds Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer 4-6, 6-4, (10-7).

Now seven-time Grand Slam doubles champions Hewett and Reid were unable to recover from losing an early break in the first set of the men’s doubles final, but hit back to consolidate an early break of their own in the second set. They found themselves 4-2 down in the deciding match tiebreak, but it was their French opponents who eventually succumbed to the pressure as Hewett and Reid sealed victory after two hours of play.

Reid, who also won the 2017 Australian Open title partnering Belgian Joachim Gerard, said: “We’re really pleased to finish the week as doubles champions. It’s the first time that we’ve won it here together – we’ve had a couple of chances before and not managed to get over the line, so it was a really pleasing victory for us out there and I think we finished it off in style as well in the tiebreak.”

After his first Australian Open title in either singles or doubles, reigning US Open champion Hewett said: “It feels pretty good. I think we were both a bit exhausted afterwards, it was a tough match, especially after last night’s epic semi-final another late one. I think we did well to recover and go again and the standard was really high for us in that final.”

Lapthorne, this week’s world No.1, went into his third and last quad singles round-robin match against Davidson having won seven of his previous nine matches against the Australian. However, he had to dig deep for his latest victory, saving two match points at 6-5 down in the final set. With the final set tie-break format played out as a first-to-ten match-break, Lapthorne eventually wrapped up a tense 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(10-5) after two hours and 32 minutes.

US Open champion Lapthorne, who’s won two of his three round-robin matches this week, will now play defending champion Dylan Alcott of Australia on Rod Laver Arena in Saturday’s final. Lapthorne said:

“I didn’t play massively great but at the end of the day it’s about getting to the final, about getting through those round
robin stages and giving yourself a chance to win the tournament and I’ve done that.”

For news and updates from the Australian Open wheelchair tennis draws and the fortunes of the Brits follow on Twitter @the_LTA and @WChairTennisGB and on the LTA website at www.lta.org.uk.

To find out more about the LTA’s work with disability tennis, head to www.lta.org.uk/play or email disabilitytennis@lta.org.uk.

The Glasgow Sports Personality of the Year for 2019 took place in the impressive surroundings of the Glasgow City Chambers on Friday evening, 31 January 2020.

Four world class athletes were nominated for the Glasgow Times Disabled Athlete of the Year: Stephen McGuire, boccia; Jo Butterfield, athletics; Louis Lawlor, swimming; and, Martin Perry, table tennis.

Testament to the prestigious nature of the event was that three of the athletes were in attendance with guests. Louis Lawlor was presented with the Award as the Disabled Athlete of the Year for 2019.

As part of the evening’s celebrations, Bryan Burnett, the master of ceremonies for the event, paid a moving and inspirational tribute to Janice Eaglesham MBE. He reminded all those present of how Janice made an impact wherever she was, always promoting sport for everyone with disabilities. He highlighted how she was so passionate about Red Star Athletics, a club within Glasgow, where she coached for so many years, seeing so much progress and success in her athletes. Before moving to the next Awards, a rousing applause in appreciation of Janice resounded.

The Volunteer of the Year was awarded to Danielle Brayson, coach of Louis Lawlor.

Thanks to Glasgow Life and the Sports Council for Glasgow for their continued support of Scottish Disability Sport’s branch, clubs, athletes, participants, volunteers and coaches in the greater Glasgow area.