Written by Khaleel Chima

With team captain Khaleel Chima at the helm, and weeks of Boccia training under their belts, the Charters‘ team travelled to this year‘s Kennet Games confident of winning a great selection of trophies and medals. They were not disappointed.

This year, the event took place on the 7 May 2011. The team consisted of six extraordinary players aided by two superb staff, (Mrs Freeman and Mrs Izod) and marvellous supporting parents. The six players were Joe Berridge who was new to the game but showed he had speed, stamina and endurance, Maddie Jenkins and Caroline Carter who were as equally as successful as last year with their great team work and sprit, Billy Stanford who had excellent agility, style and courage, Lucie Bouron with fantastic athleticism and mobile skills, and Khaleel Chima who was the motivated team captain.

The games commenced. First, Billy was up and completed the first course in seconds. Maddie and Caroline were next and did equally as well. The obstacle was next where Joe took the gold. Soon after this, it was Khaleel and Lucie’s turn to take on the slalom and the dash. Speed and determination was shown as Khaleel came 2nd in the electric wheelchair dash while Lucie came 1st in both wheelchair slalom and the wheelchair dash. Next, Billy showed his strength in javelin and basketball shoot and proudly took silver for both.

All moved into the other area where many activities took place. All showed their true powers and high potential. Lucie impressed everyone by coming first in floor darts, wall darts and table skittles. Khaleel was not far off as he came second in both skittles and table skittles.

The team events took place kicking off with Boccia. All were split into two teams which were called ‘Charters Boys’ and ‘Charters Girls’. Both teams played fantastically and made it to the semi-final where they had to compete against each other. It was a very tense match as Lucie’s, Maddie’s and Caroline’s Boccia balls were so close to the Jack. But Joe, Billy and Khaleel went through to the finals and became Boccia champions.

Before the awards were given out, a friendly game of dodge ball took place where Maddie, Caroline, Lucie and Joe participated. All showed enthusiasm and everybody was a winner. Uni-hoc came afterwards. Unfortunately, after two goals scored both by Maddie, Charters lost 3-2.

The mayor handed out the trophies and medals out to everyone in the closing ceremony. A lot of silver and gold medals were gained by Charters as well as three trophies. A trophy was given to the school for coming first in Boccia. Khaleel won a trophy for his positive attitude while Lucie won a trophy for coming first in the games.

It was truly a memorable day and captured in photos taken by Mr. Chima, (Khaleel’s dad) who the school like to thank. Here are what the pupils had to say about the day.

Khaleel Chima – ‘It makes me sad to say that this was my last Kennet Games. All the ones that I have been to, have all been extraordinary. I will miss a lot of things about it especially working together as a school. I hope and am sure that the new generation will keep the name of Charters School high. Thank you everyone for supporting me during my time at Charters.’