Cerebral Palsy Society of New Zealand

Michelle Batchelor

The 2010 CP Tournament was held last weekend at the Alan Brewster Centre in Papatoetoe. It was a different format from previous years with the tournament being a two day event and only being a pair’s tournament. Harvey had the enviable job of matching people into pairs (a good player with a not so good player) and every pair had a handicapped score added to the first end of each game.

For Neale and me it was great. We arrived on the Friday evening and helped with the set up. Len Williams was still in holiday mode and had us in laughter with some of his antics. We were able to get into the venue earlier than planned which meant we left on time.

The CP Tournament is one of those rare occasions when people who are normally refereeing, ramp assisting, or supporting players get the opportunity to play as well. We heard lots of laughter and everyone was having such a good time. It was a great opportunity to see all grades of Boccia playing together. For me, playing against Anthea Hurst was a real challenge and my appreciation of the skill and patience of the BC3 players and their ramp assistants never ceases to amaze me.

Harvey had worked out the draw so that everybody had four games to play on the first day and three games on the second day. After all the games were played on Saturday Harvey then worked out who went thru to the three divisions and the rest of the players were put together to make 2 teams of 8.

My pairs partner Mark Grantham got thru to the third division and we had to play Alex Dickson and Ian Stamp in a one end tie-break. We had all managed to win 2 games, draw 1 and then had the same amount of points for and against us. Unfortunately Alex and Ian managed to beat us. Despite Mark not playing Boccia for a few years he really improved as the weekend progressed. As he got better I’m sure I got worse!!!

Neale and Sheldon ended up in different teams on the Sunday.