Kurling competition a hit with South Cambs children

The South Cambs School Sports Partnership recently hosted its first ever New Age Kurling competition and the event was a great success. Teams of children from 8 schools took part in the event which was hosted at Bassingbourn Village College and organised on the day by an excellent group of sports leaders from the college.

New Age Kurling is an exciting target game with teams playing a tactical game of position with the stones. Adapted from the original curling game played on ice the sport is play indoors on a smooth flat surface, such as a sportshall, making it perfect for able bodied and disabled people of all ages.

School Games Organiser, Claire McDonnell said,

“We decided to offer this competition for 2017-18 with the aim of introducing a new fully inclusive sport which would be suitable for children with SEND or additional needs but also hopefully appeal to a group of young people who might not like your more traditional sports and therefore perhaps don’t normally get an opportunity to represent their school in sporting competition.”

Teams of 2 players from Bassingbourn, Histon & Impington Juniors, Fen Drayton, Waterbeach, Bar Hill, Caldecote, Petersfield (Orwell) and Swavesey Primary School took part in the event which was played over 8 courts. Teams played in a round robin format and took on the other schools in their group. Players took it in turns to push their stones along the ground towards the target with the idea being to get as many stones closer to the centre of the target than their opponents.

Winners on the day were presented with medals and included teams from Fen Drayton, Swavesey, Caldecote, Bar Hill & Bassingbourn.

‘Spirit of the Games’ awards were also given out with one of the recipients being Alex from Fen Drayton who was nominated for ‘showing respect towards his opponents, giving his team mate helpful advice and encouragement & trying his very best throughout the competition.’

Claire Mott, PE coordinator at Fen Drayton Primary school said:

“It’s great to see those children that wouldn’t normally engage in sport taking part and having such fun, it’s been brilliant.”

This is what some of the children had to say about the event:

Max , year 5: It was really good fun, I enjoyed it a lot and would go again. I think I got better at the kurling and I liked playing other schools. I am glad I went and would go again. I liked wearing the school team kit as well.

Poppy, year 4: I was a little worried about going but I thought it was really fun and wasn’t nervous anymore . I would definitely go again if I could. I also won a water bottle for the spirit of the games.

Finley, year 6: I really loved going as I haven’t represented the school before. I was really pleased to be chosen to go as I was the only year 6 and was paired with max in year 5. We really did get much better at hitting the targets during the afternoon. I’m really glad I went.

Claire McDonnell added,

“I must thank Bassingbourn Village College for hosting the event and say well done to their sports leaders who did a great job in leading and scoring the competition as well as supporting and encouraging all of the players.”