Eight teams from the Coleraine & District Battalion of the Boys’ Brigade took part in the first of their outdoor events for the session. This was the Orienteering Competition with Downhill Forest being the venue. Thankfully the weather was dry and mild unlike the cold and snowy conditions of late. The 14 marker course had a mixture of difficult and more obvious locations which proved a challenge to the wide variety of age groups.

The eventual winners were the reigning champions 1st Garvagh BB Company who completed the course in 47 minutes, finishing 4 minutes ahead of their nearest rivals 1st Balteagh BB Company.

1st Garvagh Team Winners	1st Balteagh Runners-up
2nd Coleraine Team	1st Kilrea Teams
1st Garvagh Teams

Spring Competition

Junior Challenge 2010
BATTALION HEAT

The 2010 Junior Challenge competition will be held on Saturday 6 March 2010 in 1st Macosquin at 2.00pm. Companies may enter 1 team of 4 boys accompanied by at least 1 officer. The officer will supervise one of the challenges. Boys should wear their blue BB polo shirts and shorts along with trainers/gym shoes.

Full details of event were published in Junior Section Newsletter January 2010.

Congratulations

Congratulations to 1st Kilrea the winners of the Junior Section 5-a-side competition and runners-up 1st Garvagh. Also, at the Figure Marching the winners were 1st Macosquin and runners up were 5th Coleraine. The Leading Boy was from 1st Kilrea Company.

James Craig - Junior Section Northern Ireland District Representative

Over the festive period twenty eight teams representing fourteen Boys’ Brigade Companies of Coleraine and District Battalion assembled at the University of Ulster Sports Complex for their annual 5-a-side football competition. The event was organised by Ivan Morrison (Battalion Recreation Convener) and Martin McCook (Tournament Official). Robert Black, a former BB officer of the Battalion, officiated as referee.

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The fifteen teams competing in the Junior Competition (forms1 to 3) were drawn into four sections and this created some notable performances by the teams from 1st Drumachose, 5th Coleraine, 1st Kilrea, 2nd Limavady and 1st Portrush in the early group games. It took a penalty shoot out between 1st Kilrea and 1st Portrush to produce the four eventual sectional winners who would progress to the semi-final stage. The outcome of both these matches had to be decided by penalties which saw 2nd Limavady eliminate 5th Coleraine and 1st Kilrea over power 1st Drumachose. The final itself was another close encounter with 2nd Limavady being the victors by the narrowest of margins defeating 1st Kilrea by a single goal.

The Senior Competition (forms 4 to U6) saw thirteen teams compete over two sections. 1st Kilrea and 1st Dunluce were the only undefeated teams in the group stages but 1st Dunluce failed to qualify to the final having been overtaken by 1st Garvagh who accumulated more points from their six games. This set up a final between local rivals 1st Kilrea and 1st Garvagh and as expected produced a close contest finishing in a 2-2 draw. Enter once again penalties with 1st Garvagh emerging as winners.

The boys of the Coleraine & District Battalion Boys’ Brigade took part in their recent Annual Volleyball Competition hosted in St. Patrick’s Hall, Coleraine. Owing to the increased entry the competition was played over two nights. Ten junior teams (forms 1 to 3) competed on the first evening and also ten senior teams (forms 4 to u6) battled it out on the following evening.

The standard of play was high and resulted in many close fought fixtures. The initial stages of the competition were played in two leagues of five teams with the top two qualifying to the semi-final knockout stage. The eventual winners were 5th Coleraine in the Junior event and 1st Kilrea in the Senior event but all teams performed well and produced great entertainment over the both evenings. This was a tremendous advert for the BB with the boys demonstrating true determination in a sporting manner and exercising friendly enthusiasm throughout the tournament.

Our sincere thanks are expressed to Ivan Morrison (Battalion Recreation Convener) and John McFadden (Competition Organiser) for running the event and to 1st Coleraine Company for providing their excellent facilities all of which contributed in making the competition a huge success.

Juniors

Semi – Final (best of 3 sets)

1st Portrush 2 1st Garvagh 0 1st Ballywatt 1 5th Coleraine 2

Final

1st Portrush 0 5th Coleraine 2

Seniors

Semi – Final (best of 3 sets)

1st Kilrea 2 1st Potrush 1 2nd Coleraine 2 1st Ballywatt 1

Final

2nd Coleraine 1 1st Kilrea 2

The Coleraine & District Battalion of the Boys’ Brigade held its first competition of the new session with an outing to the Ten Pin Bowling Alley at the Coleraine Jet Centre. A good turnout of almost 120 boys took part, occupying 20 lanes. Competition between the boys was keen and all involved had a very enjoyable and fun packed evening.

Junior Winners 5th Coleraine

Senior Winners 2nd Limavady

Local Company 5th Coleraine came out on top of eight teams in the Junior Event (forms 1 to 3) scoring a respectable total of 483 points. Second place went to the boys of 1st Ballywatt Company who accumulated a score of 431 points. Individual prizes were won by Trevor Scott (2nd Limavady) who obtained the highest score of 112 points and runner-up was Stephen Kelso (1st Tamlaght O’Crilly) with 109 points. Joshua Greene (5th Coleraine) triumphed by winning the prize for the highest number of Strikes & Spares.

Limavady teams dominated play in the Senior Event (forms 4 to U6) with the boys of 2nd Limvady being victorious achieving a remarkable score of 583 points. Narrowly coming runners-up were 1st Balteagh with 570 points just a couple of bowls behind. James Purcell won the battle for the individual prizes making the highest score with 144 and also hitting the highest number of Strikes & Spares. Ian Archibald (2nd Limavady) came second to James in both competitions and notched up an individual score of 134 points.

Our thanks for a hugely successful competition go to Ivan Morrison (Battalion Recreation Officer) who organised the event and the staff of the Jet Centre for their helpful assistance.

Photos are available on the Battalion Bebo page, you must be a member of the Battalion group to view the images.

The results for Company and Senior Section events in the 2008-2009 season were as follows...

	Winners	Runners-up
Badminton
Division 1	2nd Coleraine	5th Coleraine
Division 2	1st Garvagh
10 Pin Bowling
Junior	C Shields (5th Coleraine) S Leahy (1st/3rd Portstewart)	M Donaghy (1st Ballywillan) R Jamison (5th Coleraine)
Senior	J Purcell (1st Balteagh)	G Armstrong (1st Garvagh)
Volleyball
Junior	1st Coleraine	2nd Coleraine
Senior	1st Portrush	1st Kilrea
5-a-side Football
Junior	1st Coleraine	1st Garvagh
Senior	1st Garvagh	2nd Coleraine
Masterteam
	1st Ballywillan
Orienteering
	1st Garvagh	2nd Coleraine (B)
Scripture Exam
	1st Balteagh

The battalion results for the Junior Section in the year 2008-2009 were as follows...

• Indoor Games - 2nd Coleraine
• Quiz Kids - 1st Kilrea
• 5-a-side Football (indoor) - 1st Aghadowey
• Figure Marching - 2nd Limavady
• 5-a-side Football (outdoor) - 1st Ballywillan

Congratulations to the following young men and their Officers on the achievement of The Boys' Brigade's premier award - The Queen's Badge, during the 2008-2009 session.

• Gareth Irwin (1st Balteagh)
• Richard Irwin (1st Balteagh)
• Andrew Scott (1st Balteagh)
• James Taylor (1st Coleraine)
• Michael Wallace (1st Coleraine)
• Andrew Boyd (2nd Coleraine)
• Andrew Cunning (2nd Coleraine)
• Brent Haslett (2nd Coleraine)
• Conor McMullan (2nd Coleraine)
• Christopher Cunningham (5th Coleraine)
• Ben Cartwright (1st Drumachose)
• Matthew Haslett (1st Drumachose)
• Andrew Gilmore (1st Kilrea)
• Adam Keys (1st Limavady)
• Connor McGoldrick (2nd Limavady)
• Ryan Montgomery (2nd Limavady)

And congratulations to Graham Thompson (2nd Limavady) who has qulified through the King George VI Officer Cadet Scheme in July 2009.

I would like to extend an invitation to Boys’ Brigade Companies throughout Northern Ireland to visit leading ferry company Stena Line’s terminal in Belfast to undertake a fundraising exercise.

The Sea Cadets ran a very successful event at our terminal in West Bank Road over the Easter period where they collected money in the car lanes (this was tallied with them washing car/van windscreens) and the departure lounge for an hour prior to two of our daily HSS departures to Scotland (1220 and 1710).

We would be happy to accommodate any BB Companies who would like to undertake a similar windscreen washing/collection exercise (the summer months are our busiest period of the year). Incidentally, the Sea Cadets raised approx £450 per day over three days. From our point of view our customers are provided with an extra service before boarding the ship, while the BB Companies get to raise lots of money. It’s a win-win for both of us.If any BB Company is interested in fundraising in this way could you please get them to e-mail me at the address below (please include mobile phone number) and I’ll make the necessary arrangements.

Nigel Tilson <nigel.tilson@stenaline.com>
UK Communications Manager
Stena Line

Via Kenneth McLaughlin (Training and Development Officer) at Rathmore House

1st Ballywatt Company have recently returned from their Camp at the Glenbrook Guide Centre in the Peak District.

The 10 boys and five staff (including their cook!) spent seven days at the site which is approximately five hours from Stranraer Port in Scotland. They found the site in a lovely location and very well maintained. The week's programme included various sports, competitions, worship and swimming.

The camp also included a trip to Old Trafford where they say they "never saw a lawn like it at Old Trafford – carefully guarded – couldn’t even hover over it, let alone walk on it!!". Also on the agenda was a day at Alton Towers. Both trips were within about one hour of the camp site at Glenbrook.

The boys and staff had good weather for the most part, with a few heavy showers. They said they would highly recommend the site adding that they took our own canvas but think that canvas can be hired.

"All in all a good week."

Details provided by Rev Ivan Hunter (Chaplain, 1st Ballywatt)