Packaworld and Bocce Australia have teamed up to support their shared goal of getting more people engaged in bocce.

As part of the collaboration, Packaworld’s portable bocce courts are available at a special price to league organisers, event coordinators and players in Australia.

Bocce Australia, which marked its 50th anniversary this year, organises bocce events Australia-wide to introduce the game to as many Australians as possible.  

Frank Funari, Bocce Australia’s president, welcomed the new partnership, which he said would make the game more accessible and allow game organisers to take bocce to new locations, including schools and communities without existing courts.

The tide is turning for water polo players in the Middle East as they gear up for a tournament in Dubai on Saturday 19 December.

After a quiet year for water polo in the United Arab Emirates due to Covid-19 restrictions, the fast-paced beach water polo event, to be hosted by Dubai Camels Water Polo Club, is a chance for players to get back into the game.

The tournament venue – at Breeze Bar and Grill on the Palm Jumeirah artificial offshore island that resembles a stylised palm tree – will transform into a water polo dream with the help of Packaworld’s portable field and Packagoals.

A goalball coaching session held in Auckland, New Zealand last weekend used innovative portable goals from Packaworld to introduce blind and low-vision athletes to the sport.

And the success of the session, hosted in Spinal Support NZ’s gymnasium, has renewed hopes of starting a New Zealand team.

Goalball NZ committee member Troy Ramsay, who coached the players at the event, was happy with the turnout. Six beginners and 10 experienced players dived into the introduction and training event.

“In New Zealand, goalball numbers have dropped off a bit, and Covid-19 has not helped, so this was an event to get things moving again."

A school-based physical education programme in Hong Kong is using world-first inflatable goalball goals from New Zealand to bring the Paralympic sport of goalball to children with physical or intellectual disabilities.

The Jockey Club ‘Sports Without Limits” youth empowerment programme aims to increase opportunities for disabled children and young people to participate in sport.

​Set up by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the programme is part of a physical education and research initiative seeking to improve student outcomes by growing understanding of the links between physical activity, mental health and physical and cognitive development.

A group of young New Zealanders with vision impairments took to the hockey turf in October to experience the thrill of adapted hockey. 

The exhilarating sport is an adapted form of traditional field hockey, played using audible balls so that players who are blind or have low vision can identify where the ball is.

​Blind Sport New Zealand Awareness and Engagement Coordinator Stephanie Brown said the hockey skills session was organised by Blind Sport New Zealand and Counties Manukau Hockey Association to promote inclusion and raise awareness of the sports on offer for people with vision impairments.

Goalball is continuing to grow in South Australia as athletes with vision impairments look for new ways to stay active now that COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.

The Australian state has recorded relatively few cases of the virus in recent months and life is largely back to normal, with some additional hygiene and contact tracing measures in place.

Goalball South Australia has been making the most of their relative freedom, using their portable Goalball Packagoals from Packaworld International to run competition matches, training sessions and ‘Come and Try’ days. ​

Packaworld International was at the Wellington Gold Awards finals in Wellington, New Zealand, on Thursday night as a finalist in the ‘Innovation Gold’ category.

The finals appearance recognised Packaworld’s bocce court project, which saw the introduction of new materials and an improved manufacturing technique for Packaworld’s Competition Packabocce courts. The project also included changes to the court’s disabled access gate so players in wheelchairs could access the playing area more easily.

Packaworld Chief Executive Peter Roberts said the Wellington Gold Awards finals recognition was another high-profile honour for the company.
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One of Western Australia’s most beautiful beaches will come alive with the sounds of beach water polo this summer when Bunbury Water Polo club brings the sport to Australia’s south west.

The club has been trialling a portable water polo field and goals from Packaworld International at its indoor training sessions and plans to use them over the summer at nearby Koombana Bay. The scenic Bay is known for its wildlife, including pods of bottlenose dolphins that frequent the area daily.

​Club president Alice Luscombe says at least four of this year’s regular Tuesday evening senior competition matches will be played by twilight at Koombana Bay from mid-October.