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 | You and Yours - Transcript BBC Radio 4 |
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| TX: 22.09.05 - Wheelchair Rugby PRESENTER: CAROLYN ATKINSON |
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| Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. ATKINSON At the far end of the hall here at Alexandra Palace the sport once known as Murder Ball is about to start. Wheelchair rugby has come a long way from the time it was first played in Canada in the late 1980s and it's now a full Paralympic sport and the fastest growing wheelchair sport in the world. There are plenty of young hopefuls up and down the UK already turning their eyes to Beijing in 2008 and for the truly long-sighted London in 2012. And here at the Independent Living Show coaches from the GB Wheelchair Rugby Association are on the look out for new talent. You can hear the talent in the background there. Bob O'Shea you're from Team GB, first of all, just explain how do you play wheelchair rugby? O'SHEA It's a cross between a few sports - it's a cross between rugby, basketball, ice hockey and American football, people can relate to it in America. It's played indoors on a full-size basketball court. It's played with a volleyball. You have to pass or bounce it every 10 seconds. And the idea is to score between two [indistinct word] at either end of the court whilst in possession of the ball. You're allowed to make contact, anything that's too physical you will spend a minute in the sin bin. But you can see from the way the chairs are built they're built for impact and contact. ATKINSON I mean they're sort of encased, you're encased really in a chair aren't you, it doesn't look like a usual wheelchair. O'SHEA Yeah, initially when we first used to play years ago we did play in day chairs but then we found that with more camber on the wheelchairs there was more stability, if we sunk lower into the chairs giving us a bucket seats, we'd stay in the chairs a lot more often. With technology and innovations the chairs have got lighter and stronger and looking at some of the chairs now they're armour plated, you wouldn't think we'd be able to push them but the metals are a lot lighter now. But in this sport disabled people it does give them a lot of confidence, you speak to any of these guys they're full of confidence, a lot of them with ambition as well. And you've got the social side but also if someone comes into this sport that's disabled, especially with a high level of disability, they can see people of their own level of disability and if they can see them doing it they know that they'd be able to do it. ATKINSON Okay Bob, now one of the people that you sort of talent spotted is Noel Thomas here, who's aiming to be in the 2012 team. Noel, how did you get into wheelchair rugby? THOMAS Well after my accident in 1999, I've always been into sport and so I naturally wanted to get back into sport as soon as possible. And as part of the hospital I was at you go to an inter-spinal unit games where you can try a number of sports, basically I saw the rugby, saw the full contact and thought that's for me. ATKINSON That's for you. Because you had tried wheelchair curling, hadn't you, was that a bit sedate? THOMAS Yeah, I found I'm sort of still in my 20s and as a young person wheelchair curling was a bit mundane and wheelchair rugby was a full active sport. ATKINSON I mean, we said that they used to call it murder ball, you can hear it going on behind us, I mean it's really rough. THOMAS Yeah, and I think that's one of the main aspects that attracted me to this sport, the fact that because we're in wheelchairs doesn't mean to say that we take it easy and gentle on each other, we really do go for it. ATKINSON And you're going to go for 2012. So what sort of training programme do you have to get into now to make sure you basically make the team, make the grade? THOMAS Well at the moment I'm on the GB long squad, which is ... ATKINSON And what does that mean? THOMAS It's a team of 19 players basically that are training together and they cut that down to 12 for big tournaments, so I've already made it on to that 19, now all I've got to do is make it into the last 12, so keep going, keep with the training and just stick at it. ATKINSON So we're going to hopefully follow you through to 2012 and hopefully you'll be there. THOMAS Yeah, yeah I mean that's certainly my aim. ATKINSON Now Phil Greening is also here, England and Lions international, you currently play for Wasps, you've never been in a wheelchair before until today, you're ready to take on team GB in a four a side. I mean what's your impression so far, because we can hear - it looks much rougher than the rugby you play? GREENING Oh yeah definitely, the contact and some of the skills the guys have got is fantastic, you know, I just wish some of the players at Wasps had the same sort of skill. But their commitment and competitiveness is fantastic and I've only been out there for about two minutes just messing around and was actually absolutely tired and the boys gave me a lot of right good hammering to be fair. ATKINSON And they're going to give you a complete hammering now because you're going to play four a side. GREENING Yeah. ATKINSON Yeah. What are your chances? GREENING Pretty little by the looks of it, the way they were chucking the ball about and smashing into me, I don't think our chances look great, I think I'd rather go against the All Blacks than against these guys. ATKINSON Okay, I want a score prediction, what's the result going to be? GREENING Oh we'll get stuffed I think, I think we're only playing for about two minutes, I reckon they'll score about five. ATKINSON Okay well our commentator today is the former England rugby international and 5 Live commentator [indistinct words] Alistair Hignell. HIGNELL Seconds away from tip off at the Ally Pally. Here it comes now. High, hanging back for O'Shea, O'Shea has it now. Powering forward. In comes the big hit. But Thomas is clear out wide. O'Shea looks for Thomas, finds him - great pass from O'Shea. Thomas now. Thomas going for the line. In comes Greening, Greening to block, Greening against Thomas. Greening grabs for the ball. Thomas I think is through, yes he is. What a try. Thomas scores. First score Noel Thomas. ATKINSON Phil, you got up a sweat there. GREENING Ooo, I don't have to train this afternoon now, I've done it, done it. That was very hard, you know, just trying to work the chair is very difficult and you see some of these guys turning on a sixpence it's unbelievable, fantastic skills you know and it's hard enough for me. ATKINSON And Bob, if people are interested in taking up wheelchair rugby how do they get started? O'SHEA Well they can contact with any of the disability sporting organisations, there's lots of websites - wheelchair rugby websites about and - and there's also the British Wheelchair Sports Foundation that have got links to us as well. ATKINSON So basically you're really interested in hearing from anyone who's keen to take it up? O'SHEA Yeah we're always on the look out for sporting superstars for 2012 and Beijing. ATKINSON And really it's not too late? O'SHEA No, a lot of people - this is an acquired sport where people come into the game and they start wheelchair sport quite late on in life, after acquiring an injury. ATKINSON So Bob O'Shea, Phil Greening and Noel Thomas, thanks very much indeed. Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
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