Boccia Tournament brings Dewsbury together
Educating Yorkshire’s Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury had a visit from charity organisation ‘Kumon Y’all’ on Wednesday, who arrived armed with vats of curry and a set of boccia balls.
The ‘Boccia Tournament’ united people from all ages and backgrounds – from six-year-olds to those who were 91– in healthy competition which filled the room with feelings of positivity and connectedness.
Enjoying the sport were members of the army, police, the local church, mosques and of course students and staff from the school.
Boccia can be played by individuals, pairs, or teams. The aim of the game is to throw leather balls — coloured red or blue as close as they can to a white target ball, or jack.
After ‘Thornhill United’ –a lively team of bowlers made up of teaching staff – were crowned the eventual winners, Head Teacher Bev Matthews said: “It’s events like these, where the whole community comes together to create a better society, that our school is all about.”
Reverend Sue Clarke from Thornhill Parish Church added: “I just wanted to say thank you again for inviting us, we had no idea what it was going to be like. It’s been wonderful.”
The winners received a silver cup for their efforts and afterwards, steaming hot curry and samosas were brought out for people to tuck into after the sport.
With the aim of uniting communities, people from different backgrounds were able to share food and conversation to conclude the event.
Organiser, Farook Yunus of Kumon Y’all, said to a rapturous applause: “This needs to happen more often. When you see in the press that Dewsbury is looked upon in ‘not the best light’, now we can show them how it’s done.”
He continued: “We all need to get together and show that we are all different ages; hold different beliefs, have different abilities, live in different areas…but we all need the same thing in life and we all need to work together to achieve it.”
