The 2017 Boccia season is under way and PACE A made history by making their debut in the Super League. The Super League teams earn their places through promotion from the National League, which PACE are the current champions of having sealed the title in July. The Super League takes place over three days of match play over the Boccia season. The first day took place on September 30th, in Sheffield.

PACE  played three games on the day against, Camboccia, Paul’s Place and Rio’s Rockets. The PACE A squad for the season:

• Alex Dukes (c)
• Jagjit Chuk
• Reshad Saraj
• Jamie Keat
• Ramandeep Mann
• Mitchel Robinson

PACE A’s first match was against Camboccia, a team that is based in Cambridge and has been competing in the Superleague for many years.

The PACE A line up for the first match was Alex Dukes (c), Reshad Saraj and Jamie Keat. With the high of winning the London league and a clear strategy in mind the team were feeling confident. Sometimes in life though, things don’t always go to plan.

PACE A lost the match 15-2 the biggest loss the team has suffered. Speaking about the match afterwards Alex said…

It was a tough match, Camboccia are a great team with great players and they deserved the win. We didn’t meet our high standards and we definitely have things to work on.

Their next game was against the current Super League champions Paul’s Place. A powerful team that excels at  long range. After the heavy loss from the first match, some changes were made from the first match. Alex was subbed out for the recently promoted Mitchell, allowing him to make his debut and aiming to strengthen PACE’s long game.

The second match ended 7-4 to Paul’s Place and as expected It was a high intensity match with much of the Boccia play going long. PACE A held their own however, limiting Paul Place to 1-2 points on their ends, with good defensive shots from the team limiting the opponents opportunities. PACE were unfortunately unable to secure the points needed to win.

The last match of the first day was a rematch of the National league final. PACE A vs Rio’s Rockets. If it was anything like the final it promised to be another fantastic match – and it was. PACE A decided to name an unchanged starting line up. PACE A got off to a great start scoring 4 points in the first end after good build up play from Reshad and Jamie closing the space around the Jack and Mitchel finishing it off by knocking away the opponents closest ball thus making Reshad and Jamie balls scoring balls. PACE were 4-0 up. The lead didn’t last long however, Rio’s Rockets tied the score in the next end. This turned out to be the theme of the match, with PACE A going in front and Rio’s Rockets pulling it back to level the score.

In the last end, it was Rio’s Rockets Jack Ball. They needed 3 points to win so decided to go long. As with the last meeting between the two teams the finale was nail-biting. They managed to get the 2 of the 3 points needed to take it to a tie break but were unable to secure the last point they needed. Instead they accidentally knocked on PACE’s closest ball, giving PACE the point. The final score was 8-5 to PACE A

PACE finished day one of the Super League with a win leaving the team second bottom.

The next Super League round of fixtures are scheduled for December 3rd in Cheltenham. You can keep up with the latest news and events by visiting PACE facebook and twitter page.