Wheelchair Rugby Arrives in the West Country

This weekend a new Super Series  begins with Division 1 teams lining up at Fenton Manor in Stoke on Trent. This great tournament goes from strength to strength with the quality of play increasing year on year. This is good for the game itself and also for the future of our national side.  Lorraine and Head Coach Paul Shaw will be dropping into Stoke over the weekend to look at players and talk with club coaches and Leagues 2 and 3  will see Talent Head Coach Phil Zealy around when their league starts. The number of teams in the competition continues to grow with 17 competing across 3 leagues this year - 8 in Division 1, 6 in Division 2 and 3 in Division 3.  This is fantastic growth as th...
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Clubs Prepare for 2014-15 Super Series

The clocks went back this weekend and this morning I set off at 530 in pitch darkness from my home in Cornwall to Twickenham to start  a busy week. I hate the dark mornings but as I drove up the A303 I was pretty excited about some of the things happening at the moment. I started the day with Lorraine and Kirsty interviewing candidates for the new position of Community Programme Manager, a key role which will lead on building a community programme around the WWRC15 tournament. It is an exciting position which will need someone who can hit the ground running to ensure they deliver against a tight timeline. We want to make sure that WWRC15 is not just about hosting an amazing international to...
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Pirates Wheelchair Rugby Club 25th Anniversary

Last weekend the Pirates Wheelchair Rugby Club celebrated their silver jubilee – 25 years of playing the game and giving wheelchair rugby opportunities to those in Cardiff and beyond who have wanted to get in a chair and enjoy themselves. The club’s rich history stretches back to 1989 when Oswestry Battlers wheelchair rugby team helped stage a demo at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. Debbie Stevens and Kath Jones, Physio and OT at Rockwood SIU had rounded up as many ...
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GB Athletes Entertain the Harlequins Crowd

It was a big game for Harlequins on Saturday who took on Wasps in one of the season’s London derbies. We were there in numbers as our partner Quins gave us a fund raising opportunity and a chance to showcase the sport on a specially laid surface on the pitch. It was a great day – Quins won a tight match and lots of young people and excited adults got in chairs and had fun. Thank you to the GB athletes who took part: Ships, Kylie, Alan, Mandip, Johnny, Jim and Ayaz as well as Kirsty, Lee and the volunteers who helped on the day. Our Chairman Kevin, a keen Quins supporter was also there, as was Trustee Andrew Flatt, an equally keen Wasps fan who looked slightly incongruous in his Wasps bas...
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GB Triumph at Invictus Games

Asked by Clare Balding if there was a highlight of the Invictus for him, Prince Harry replied, ‘it would have to be Friday night’s wheelchair rugby final’. By any standard the wheelchair rugby tournament was an incredible success. Arguably the two most important indicators of success in sport is athlete experience and spectator satisfaction and Invictus triumphed at both. We saw wounded and injured service men and women from six nations playing a version of the game at an intensity and competitiveness which was no less than anything I have experienced at any other international wheelchair rugby event. The noise and the sheer joy of the Copperbox crowd took me back to the London 2012 ex...
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The World Championships – More than Just Rugby

Anyone who watched GB take on Paralympic Silver Medallists Canada in the World Championships on Thursday were fortunate to see a classic match and will have experienced the special thrill of our amazing sport. The game was a nail biter to the end - and it took a long time to get to that end as at full time the score was tied at 50-50. A  3 minute period of extra time followed but that ended all square again at 55-55 and so went to yet another 3 minute period where Canada edged the result to...
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