Thousands of Special Olympics bocce players in New York are now enjoying their sport on the same high-quality portable bocce courts used for many of the global organisation’s major bocce competitions.

The state’s Special Olympics body has brought in 14 of the courts to run events for the 4,600 athletes participating in Special Olympics bocce competitions and school programmes across the state. The courts have already been used for competitions in Capital District, New York City, and Long Island. In August and September they were used for a bocce exhibition at the New York State Fair.

Special Olympics New York Director of Digital Engagement Kyle Massa said the Packabocce courts were being used to grow the sport, with a particular focus on holding more unified competitions.

Two Australian schools have got the hockey ball rolling once again and, with some help from Packaworld International, shots will be flying into the back of the net.

The portable sports gear company awarded Magill Primary School and Mudgee High School each with a set of Hockey Packagoals, after they won a competition on Packaworld’s Facebook page.

Australian parents and teachers were called upon to nominate their schools, outlining why they deserved to win.

Cynthia Paterson’s inspirational nomination describing Magill Primary School’s hockey revival was a particular highlight. The sport “was as good as dead in 2014,” she wrote.

Special Olympics bocce players in Ireland will have access to high-quality playing courts following the purchase of 26 portable Packabocce courts by their national body.

The new courts are a major investment in the sport’s future and will help Special Olympics Ireland introduce bocce to athletes in new venues and locations.

Special Olympics Ireland Sport Development Manager Elaine Twomey said the courts arrived in the country in October and had their first outing last week at a two-day area advancement event attended by more than 190 bocce athletes in County Kilkenny. 

The event was a success and played an important role in determining which athletes would be eligible to advance to the Leinster Regional Games next year and Ireland’s National Games in 2022, she said.

England’s visually impaired rugby team has triumphed over Japan in the sport’s second ever international test series, hosted in Kumagaya on 14 October.

The three-match series was part of a festival of visually impaired rugby organised by UK charity The Change Foundation to coincide with the Rugby World Cup.

Packaworld’s high-quality inflatable Blind Rugby Packaposts were used throughout the series for player safety and to make setting up the smaller fields used for visually impaired rugby simple.

“I never thought I would be playing rugby with other visually impaired people, let alone playing in Japan during a Rugby World Cup,” said England team Captain Jack Pearce.

Hundreds of New Zealand school students will soon be playing handball as part of their PE classes, thanks to a NZ Handball Federation programme using portable goals from Packaworld International.

The initiative will see the goals supplied to selected schools in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. It will expand on the current programme, which has been successfully running in Wellington.

NZ Handball Federation president Mike Roxburgh said the new goals were purchased with the help of a grant from One Foundation to help grow the sport.

He said the NZ Handball Federation was aiming to have 5,000 registered players within the next five years, but a lack of goals and equipment had limited that growth in the past.

An organisation championing disabled sport in the Netherlands is expanding the number of bocce and goalball clinics it offers with the help of portable courts and goals from Packaworld International.

Gehandicaptensport Nederland is a national sports federation that runs competitions and introductory clinics for disabled people who want to play goalball, bocce, para ice hockey, wheelchair hockey, boccia, 5-a-side football and showdown. Bocce and goalball sessions have historically been challenging to run because traditional courts and goals are difficult to transport.

Gehandicaptensport Nederland sports coordinator Joris van Impelen said the portability of the inflatable Packabocce courts and Goalball Packagoals was allowing volunteers to expand the number of clinics being run at schools and sports clubs across the Netherlands.

Children at six New Zealand schools have been side-stepping, tackling, kicking and dribbling their way to fitness with a little help from Packaworld International.

The Wellington-based company provided a set of hybrid football/rugby goals to Wellsford School, Pukeoware School, Turaki Primary School, Grants Braes School, Leeston Consolidated School and Rakaia School after they won a competition on Packaworld’s Facebook page.

The competition called on principals, teachers and send in inspiring nominations for their local schools, outlining why they deserved to win and how the goals would be used.

Pukeoware School in Waiuku received an impressive 15 nominations, more than any other school.

When it comes to what makes bocce special, there are few people better qualified to comment than Special Olympics Bocce Sports Resource Team chairman Mike Ryan.

Known to some as "Mr Bocce", the hardworking New Zealander has been involved in the sport for 25 years.

There’s no doubting his passion either – his car number plate is BOCCE and he has "bocce" tattooed on him in Greek, Arabic, Chinese and English – one for each of the Special Olympics World Games he’s attended as either a bocce coach or technical advisor.

We caught up with Mike to ask his views on what makes bocce so popular in the Special Olympics, and what it might take for it to achieve world domination.