Jacob Thomas is such a boccia star!
Having watched Jacob Thomas compete in Boccia at the Paralympics in London I knew that he was an exceptional player but it only when you watch him close up that you realise just how good he really is.
Play against him, however, and the realisation dawns that he is off the scale in local terms, as I found out when I took him on for just one end at the Haverfordwest Leisure Centre recently.
Billy Palmer, his jovial carer, had warned me that he had been playing against Jacob every Wednesday for the past few months and in that time had scored just one point against our star boccia player from Bethesda, near Narberth.
“And I think he let me win that,†confided Billy.
Jacob has to use a ramp to propel his six boccia balls and I have to sit on a chair in my 'box' or zone alongside him. His dad Mike is his regular 'ramper' but on this occasion it is mum Caroline who adjust the ramp in the direction and height ordered by Jacob in his calm, assured tones. She is not allowed to look at the balls bowled or speak to Jacob, as per competition rules because the ramper is virtually his robot in the game.
To my surprise the balls have a different feel in that there is one very hard one, almost like a cricket ball, and the five others range down to a very soft, almost squashy ball. As well as deciding on length and speed, therefore, it is the choosing of the ball for the particular occasion that makes ball choice a third but very important factor. Which one do I pick? Not a clue, but Jacob was happy to give the minimum of advice when I looked with pleading eyes!
He sportingly let me throw out the white 'jack' and I decided on a medium length, somewhere on my side where I felt I might spring a surprise. So out went the jack and I followed it with my first red boccia ball, which finished up about six inches away from the white ball.
“Not bad,†I thought, “that should test him.â€
But then Jacob put his first blue ball touching the front of the jack.
So I used my hardest ball and knocked his ball and the jack away, only for his next one to be almost as close to the jack, which was now quite a long way away.
Under the rules of boccia, I then had to keep rolling my balls until I was nearest the jack – and four balls later I was six inches away with two balls, but still four inches further away than Jacob's second ball.
It meant that he had another four balls to try and score from, and all four went with unerring accuracy until three of them joined his second ball by being within my first red ball.
It meant that Jacob won that end alone by 4-0 and when I said that I would be back in the near future for a full game now that I knew how it was done, it was more bravado than expectation of success.
Jacob is some player and a real competitor who had to show me how it is done – and boy did he do just that. I thought I was lucky to get 0!
My only consolation was the fact that as I walked out Billy Palmer whispered to me,
“Don't worry Bill, he often beats me 5-0 in an end!â€