Warren Wilson of CamSight writes:
Two teams of three play on a court 18m x 9m. Each team takes it in turn to throw a 1.2kg ball with bells in it underarm, across the court in order to score in the goal that stretches the full width of the court. Meanwhile, the defending team dive in front the path of the ball in order to block the ball. There are rules that make the game very fast and require a lot of mental ability.
Our team, The Cambridge Dons Goalball Club started in January 2012 and we have come a long way from very humble beginnings. We now have 14 members, 3 of which are fully sighted. The club has 3 elite level players (2 of which are part of the GB squad and one of which has taken part in tournaments for GB), 5 intermediate players and 5 novice players. Our other member is an amazingly helpful and appreciated volunteer. Sarah Leiter and myself play in the GB squad. Sarah has played in a tournament with the GB squad and I am currently a squad member with aspirations to break into the team. Both of us had not played goalball before we joined the team. I am a founding member and have been with the team since January 2012. Sarah has been with the team since September 2012. We both started playing with the GB squads since May 2013.
Since January 2012 our club has competed in 4 tournaments and a few of our players entered an individual entry tournament. In our first 3 tournaments we came joint 2nd, 11th, 4th and now 1st! Our next tournament is in Nottingham on October 12th and it will be our clubs first intermediate tournament.
The players who went to the Reading Novice tournament in September 2013, were Rojimon Cherian, Filmon Eyassu, Michael Fleet, Dyfrig Lewis Smith. Alexander Wheen, Eve Adkins and Sarah Leiter went along as coaches. Here’s a brief report on the tournament by Sarah Leiter.
“The first match was against Northampton who were another good team. We lost 9:14 after some amazing goals.
The second match was against Nottingham and this was a tough one – we won 6:5 after a close match.
The third match was against a young Winchester. After being asked to tone down the shots we worked hard in our defence and in the end drew the match seven all.
The final match of the round robin was against ThamesValley, we were ahead throughout the match and won with the final score of 7:4.
This put us into the final against an undefeated Northampton. What a fantastic match! We won the final score of 7:4 with an incredible few shots right at the end.”
Please access the club’s Facebook page through the following link www.facebook.com/cambridgedonsgoalballclub
Please find out more about Goalball through the following link www.goalballuk.com
Cambridge Dons members:
Eve Adkins
Harshadha Balasubrimanian
Alan Chamley
Stuart Chamley
Rojimon Cherian
John Dyer
Lisa Dyer
Filmon Eyassu
Michael Fleet
Sarah Leiter
Dyfrig Lewis Smith
Nikki Morrison
Alexander Wheen
Warren Wilson
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