LSP and Wheelchair Association go Scooching in Portarlington

Last Wednesday the Laois Sports Partnership held a Scooch tournament for clients of the Laois

wheelchair association. The event took place at Portarlington community centre Scooch is an Irish

sport which was inspired by the sport shuffleboard. It was created to be played in smaller spaces.

Scooch is designed in such a way that it caters for all competitors of various abilities and is very

much an inclusive sport. It is ideally played on a flat surface and can be played in teams of one V one

or two V two. We went along to the event and while there chatted to Laois sports partnership event

organiser Mary Hurley about the event and the sport of scooch itself

Mary first explained to us the scoring system as well as the equipment used in the sport. “The

the scoring system in scooch is end to end and the four discs are played from end to end. Both the

competitors or teams will have two different coloured discs. Whoever gets closest to the target wins

that set. So it’s a bit like tennis in that regard. The sticks you see being used are called scooch sticks

as such, they are made to fit around the discs. The top is formed in the same shape as the disc

because the aim is to push the disc rather than hit it”

Mary went on to discuss the competitive nature of the participants “We have a great number of

competitors here today. We have a lot of newcomers from the wheelchair association. They seem to

be enjoying it. It’s a very inclusive game, they play against people they know but it gets very

competitive. So there is great excitement at stages”

Finally, Mary told us about some of the other events being run throughout the year by the LSP “LSP continue to run events like this throughout the year for the wheelchair association and also for

any of the disability groups in Laois. It’s all-inclusive. We do lovely outdoor walks during the summer

which was very useful during different stages of Covid in terms of keeping events and engagement

going. We also do chair volleyball which the clients here love. We also do a chair exercise

programme and also Yoga which is great for keeping mobile and the participants feel great from a

health perspective