As 2018 draws to a close and as things start winding down for Christmas, the same cannot be said for the Boccia season. The second day of the Super league took place on December 3rd in Cheltenham .

On match day one, PACE A beat Rio’s Rockets 7-5 in their final match to secure 5th place back in September. Looking to place higher up the table this time around, PACE A were determined to get off to a good start.

PACE A’s group for match day two were as follows: PACE A, Rio’s Rockets and Jovic Boccia

For their first match, PACE A were once again up against Rio’s Rockets, This would be the third time PACE A have played against Rio’s Rockets this year, and PACE A winning the last two. Could it be third time lucky for Rio’s Rockets?

The line-up for PACE A: Alex Dukes © Ramendeep Mann Mitchell Robinson Jamie Keat (Sub)

PACE A started off well, going 2-0 ahead in the first end, with Mitchell and Ramandeep scoring the points with superb lay-up shots. Rio’s Rockets then responded well, tying it up 2-2 in the second end. This pattern continued into the 3rd and 4th ends. Going into the 5th end the two teams were still neck and neck, 5-3 to PACE A. With the last two ends being crucial, PACE A decided to bring on Jamie, for Ramendeep. This proved to be the correct call. In the 5th end the Rockets had the Jack Ball, they throw the right to edge of the court, medium left. They failed to get their first ball on the Jack, thus giving PACE A a chance to get on the Jack. PACE did just that, with a great lay-up shot from Alex. With the pressure on, Rio’s Rockets missed the rest of their shots attempting knock away the blue. PACE A were now in the ascendency with the opponent having no balls left, PACE A stepped up a gear, knocking the Jack Ball of the court after a great shot from Jamie. This enabled PACE A to score an easy two points, making the score 6-3 to PACE A. Rio’s Rockets put up a good fightback scoring two points, but it wasn’t enough. The final score was 6-5 to PACE A.

PACE A’s second match of the day was against Jovic Boccia, a team that PACE A have never faced before. PACE A made one change from the last match, bringing in Jamie for Ramandeep. PACE A unfortunately couldn’t maintain the same level of performance from the previous match against Rio’s rockets and coupled with superb play from Jovic Boccia, in particular their captain Beth Moulam, who controlled the game from the off. The match ended with the score of 7-2 to Jovic Boccia. Despite the loss PACE A still finished in second place in the group due to Jovic Boccia beating Rio’s rockets 6-5.

This meant PACE A faced the team that also finished second in the second group, this team was Paul’s place – current champions of the Super league, and a team they have faced before.

Using the experience of the last time they played Paul’s place, the team made some final changes to the starting line-up, taking off the captain Alex and bringing on Ramandeep. This change needed to be made due to Paul’s place immense power and accuracy to play long, something PACE A experienced in the last match. The match finished 6-5 to Paul’s place. The match was fiercely contested from the very beginning, PACE A took the lead 2-0, on their end with a fantastic first ball on from Jamie, which allowed them the opportunity to score an extra point. The team knew that Paul place going to go long so they set the target of not conceding more than two points on their end, and that is exactly what happened for the first two ends. Paul’s place bought it back to 2-2 in the second end, however PACE A took the lead again, score a point in the third end. The forth end PACE A managed to go one better and score a point against the opponents long Jack ball, thanks to a brilliant shot from Mitchell. The score was 4-2 going into PACE’s last end with the Jack ball and the team knew that if they could limit the scoring, they were in with a good chance of causing a big upset. Unfortunately, the realisation of this scenario impacted the team negatively giving up 4 points in the fifth end. The team didn’t manage what they set out to do and limit the scoring space by getting close to the Jack, this allowed the opponents to score the 4 points making the score 6-4 to Paul’s Place. This was bitterly disappointing for the team after such a great performance. PACE A knew it was going to be difficult to score the points in the sixth end needed to win the match but despite this, they managed to score a point and even had a small opportunity to take it to a tie break, but it wasn’t to be. Despite the loss, this was still a huge achievement for PACE A taking the super league champions to the limit. The team finished 4th overall in the table for the second day.