In A League Of Their Own! (07/06/23)
Newsletter contents: Speaking to the Winners of the Nationals Leagues, looking ahead to the British Championships, a new British Dodgeball supported club in Birmingham & the Asia Pacific Invitational.
To Top The Table!
The Northern Ireland, Scottish and English National Leagues all came to very exciting ends in the months of April and May, after another fantastic season of dodgeball across the UK. We spoke to champions Ballyhackamore Barbarians (NI Men’s & Women’s Super League), Granite City Guerrillas (Scottish Super League) and Leamington Spartans (English Men’s & Women’s Super League) to find out what it takes to top the table by season’s end.
Ballyhackamore Barbarians – Northern Ireland
Ballyhackamore Amazons claimed gold in this year’s Women’s Super League (NI), and the victory meant a lot to all the Amazons to ‘finally win the league’ after being beaten to the punch by Crossfire Cheetahs last season. Vice-Captain, Sarah McCloskey, had this to say: “For a long time we’ve always just fallen short so to finally win was a great feeling. I’m super proud of everyone and they all deserve it for their hard work this season”.
A big contributor to Ballyhackamore’s successful season was the recruitment of a lot of new players, which Sarah attributes to their training sessions focusing on the “fun elements of dodgeball”. This influx of players, positive atmosphere and mix of international talent from both NI and ROI (Republic of Ireland) has created a strong team, who claimed gold in the Women’s Super League! Looking ahead to next season, Sarah hopes to see the Women’s League gain an additional team and to “retain the title”.
Granite City Guerrillas – Scotland
At the top of the United Kingdom, Granite City Guerrillas were successful in defending their title once again, with a flawless 8/0/0 season! We spoke to Anthony Aldred, Club President of GCG, who revealed that “It means a huge amount to the guys and club to retain the title for another year. There is a lot of pressure and expectation for it to come the club’s way and it’s nice to keep those waiting for us to lose it waiting another year.”. Despite being undefeated, Aldred does say that “the league is certainly getting more competitive though which is amazing to see for dodgeball in Scotland!”, so who knows, maybe Buchan Sharks can finally topple GCG from the top of the table next season (The Sharks finished 2nd this year, only suffering defeat at the hands of GCG).
Aldred continued to say that winning the league has the additional benefit of ‘development’; GCG have qualified for the British Championships this weekend, giving the Guerrillas the “opportunity to play the best in the U.K.” which is a “huge learning experience” for them. You can read more about this below. GCG have been looking at all aspects of their game on and off the court to “really push their performance”, with the off court focus being a key component of their success.
Leamington Spartans – England
Finally, Leamington Spartans followed the example of Ballyhackamore, by winning both the English Men’s Super League & Women’s Super League! The Women’s League was arguably the most exciting league to watch on the final day at St. George’s Park this season, with 3 teams within reach of the title and 5 teams up for relegation. But after it all, Leamington Spartan’s claimed their first ever Women’s Super League title, which unsurprisingly, Captain Karen Pickering stated was “such an amazing feeling”. Having lost the league last year to Bedford Mighty Eagles by just 10 set points, it felt great for the Spartan’s to “finally get the top spot” and was rewarding of how the team has “worked really hard this season”.
A common theme across our champion teams, is a heavy focus on the team and not the individual. Being pushed by strong opponents as well as your own teammates provides the necessary drive for success. A success that all of the above teams will be hoping to replicate at the British Championships (Read more on this below!)
The Dodgeball In The City Project!
The Dodgeball in the City Project is a 2023 project that aims to set up 1 new adult club and 2 new junior clubs in Birmingham & London. James Robinstone, our Regional Development Officer for the South West of England, has been hard at work setting up these new clubs with helps from members of the British Dodgeball Community. The latest Adult & Junior Club, is Birmingham Renegades.
With the help of Virtue Empire’s Brian Williams, this is the latest club to be supported through the project and will provide dodgeball opportunities to a new area of Birmingham for the first time. The coaches are working with the host school to raise awareness of the club and will be keen to reach out to other local schools and community groups to promote the new club. Gemma and Brian hope that running on a Sunday afternoon will reach a wider audience that may not have the time on a weekday evening. Sessions will be open to players of all abilities and experience. Find them on FB or email them for more information.
The Champions of the Champions!
The British Championships is the final event in the 22/23 season calendar, taking place in Liverpool, on the 10th June, with the Junior Championships taking place the following day. The top teams from NI, Wales, Scotland and England will face off in this one day tournament, to crown the 2023 British Champions. Ahead of this exciting event, we got insight from the current reigning champions:
Lutterworth Meteors’ Captain, Brett Koenig, told us that “it was an amazing feeling to win the British Championships last year”. Explaining that the tournament is considered one of dodgeball’s “majors”, to those that have played for years, Koenig says that “it’s the perfect way to end the season as you can enjoy it over the summer break”. The 3-time league champions fell just short of rivals Leamington Spartans in the Men’s Super League this season but did get their payback at the British Open.
Historically, Meteors are favourites to win the event, with a “bit of an affinity with the competition” having won it 4 times previously! This added with their win at the British Open last month, sees the Meteors looking for a 5th title, and Koenig states that they “back [themselves] to do so”. When asked about who Brett thinks will be Meteor’s ‘biggest threat’ in their charge for another gold, he commented that:
The Best Teams All In One Place!
The beauty of the British Championships is that it is a celebration of dodgeball around the entire UK, bringing top tier teams together, to demonstrate what our sport is all about. David Pool of Leamington Spartans, explained “it presents lots of different challenges compared to league, with the potential of 5 half hour matches”.
Lutterworth Meteors’, Brett Koenig, declared that one of the most exciting prospects of the event, is the opportunity to play teams from outside of their respected national region: “Playing the English teams can become quite methodical due to knowing each other well. We’re hoping new teams make for great matches!”. This is an outlook shared by VC of Ballyhackamore Barbarians, Sarah McCloskey, explaining that the “league in NI is very small so we all know each other really well so playing teams from England and Scotland is a good challenge for us”.
Perhaps the team with the biggest challenge ahead of them is Rhondda Dragons. The English Men’s League 2 Winners have been promoted to League 1 next season and are the Welsh representatives in this year’s British Championships.
As the only team heading to the event not from a Super League, the Dragons will be facing some tough opponents but they don’t see this as something to be worried about. Before it was disbanded, the Dragons held an undefeated record over 3 years of the Welsh Super League and now have a roster of very experienced national and international players. Rhondda Dragons are ready to embrace the challenge of the British Championships, to play their “hearts out and show the best of the UK what the Dragons are made of.”
The stage is set for an amazing event and we wish the best of luck to all of the teams who will be traveling to Liverpool to compete on the 10th June! You can view the groups and fixture schedule for the tournament here.
Our June SUMMER SALE!
British Dodgeball has just the thing to help you end the season or school year on a high note! 🔥
Use the code SUMMEROFDODGE to purchase through our website! Only valid for orders placed in June 2023.
June Summer Offers:
• 25% off KS1 & KS2 Primary School Lesson Plans & KS3 & KS4 High School Lesson Plans
• 25% off School Dodgeball Days and Dodgeball Leaders Awards
• 25% off all online courses including Introduction to School Dodgeball & Level 1 Award in Coaching Dodgeball
• 25% off Level 2 Award in Coaching Dodgeball face to face course
• 25% off Level 1 & Level 2 Coach Education Group Packages
Shop now at britishdodgeball.org.
Traveling Overseas To Play Dodgeball!
The Asia Pacific Invitational was a 4 day foam tournament hosted in Malaysia that started on the 25th May. Day one of the event started with the Tri Series tournament, where 3 teams compete, Asia / Pacific / Rest of the World (ROW) in Men’s, Women’s and Mixed divisions. London Storm & England Lions squad member James Fowler, as well as Norwich Nighthawks & GB Foam player Henry Skinner, traveled to the illustrious event to partake in some foam dodgeball. James & Henry both played for the ROW team, with James playing on the Mixed team and Henry on the Men’s; much to their joy, ROW won all 3 divisions in the Tri Series tournament!
James had a pretty busy time whilst attending the 4 day event. He had the honour of being asked on stage as the UK representative in the opening ceremony, alongside the sports minister of Malaysia. Won the Tri Series as part of the Rest of the World team and then played in the club tournament for New Zealand based Canterbury Vikings in the Men’s & Mixed division. Although Henry was playing for a Pacific based mixed team, he later joined James on the Vikings’ Men’s team due to injuries on day 2 of the tournament.
4 weeks ago James didn’t even know about the tournament. Henry invited him to tag along, found him a team the next day and by the end of the week, James had booked his flights. We absolutely love this little story of James & Henry’s adventure to the Asia Pacific Invitational and encourage more of our members to embrace any opportunity to partake in other countries’ events and share in the culture of dodgeball.
The European Championships are taking place a little later than normal this year, October, but we can’t wait to see our Home Nations compete against and mix with international talent.
The Dodgeball Zone
WE ARE HIRING! – 2 Regional Development Officers and a Marketing & Media Officer.
The NEW Chair Person of British Dodgeball is revealed. Read more here.
Sign-up to our Level 3 Coaching Course in Reading!
The Competitions Guide for the 23/24 Season – for Adult, University & Junior events.
Got something you want to shout out to the dodgeball community in the next newsletter? Let us know by dropping us an email at hello@britishdodgeball.com.