Latest update - We now have 19 wheelchair rugby chairs, 19 registered players, 4 possible newbies and we've had to move from doing 2 hours a week at our last Sports Centre, to moving to a larger venue and running 3 hours a week (Plus we start an extra session on Friday September 18th, which we already have 10 people on the list for)
We've got 1 team building up nicely with 5 players (Need about 8 to form a Team) and we've got another Team getting ready for the new rules game starting in 2016 (Hopefully) where more disabled players can play equally. (We may have so many players we could put out 2 teams in that League!!!)
We've now got an Invictus Gold Medal Winning Wheelchair Rugby player, our coach is ex Team GB and we've got a wide collection of wheelchair athletes in the Club.
We still need to find another £20,000 to get more wheelchairs and need to find a sponsor to sponsor us for the next 3 years, kit etc etc etc. It's been hard work as we've had no backers. Most wheelchair rugby clubs are linked with a University, we decided to do it on our own so we had 100% control over everything, and although sometimes it's been hellish, we're doing it and we can really say "We are the people's club" It's down to everyone in the community who has helped us, donated or given time, effort.
We have 3 referees and looking for more, we are saving up to get ourselves a Timer so we can learn to play within the rules (Instead of someone shouting from the sideline that we've only got 5 seconds left to score!! Which can be quite funny if they are counting out of time with the referee!!)
We've lost several players to injury - 1 is in Hospital getting his amputated leg back up and working again, another has a broken hip and was playing for weeks without knowing and one of our players is back in the spinal unit getting fixed up again ready to start playing soon (I say soon, I mean January). 1 of our players had a double stroke in his eyes and has lost 90% of his vision, so we don't know about him and I've just found out I have been walking on a broken hip for up to 30 years, but the NHS always said the pain was because of my knee caps dislocating so violently when I walked (They removed both knee caps and didn't replace them as the bones are so ****ed!!) So, it's too late, but it's good to know what was wrong with me.
I must admit though, we have the BEST Club in the country (Well I would say that) but we do like a good laugh and although the majority of us cannot drink because of horrendous side effects, we do enjoy a good cup of coffee after 3 hours of hard work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaOQaScA1eM The guy in the orange chasing the ball at the beginning is Ben Steele (Invictus Games) being rammed by Luke White (Team GB) This was just our training session, when we play a proper match, then we go hell for leather!!!
Wheelchair Rugby Challenge is now going to be shown live on ITV every night in the middle of the Able Bodied Rugby World Cup and The Dorset Destroyers are going from strength to strength aiming to get some of our players in the Team GB Squad
