An inclusive sporting project has hosted Ipswich’s first New Age Kurling competition as part of its bid to get more older people active.

More than 30 competitors rolled out to the council chamber at Ipswich Town Hall on Tuesday for the ActivIpswich event.

The game is based on the winter Olympic sport of ice curling, and sees players send stones toward a target along a smooth indoor floor using a stick called a ‘pusher’.

Project manager Mike McCarthy said the game was particularly accessible for people aged 60 and over because people they did not need to bend down low to play.

He added: “There are several groups now playing regularly in Ipswich as part of the ActivIpswich Project and many of those groups have been represented here at the Town Hall – the standard of play together with the friendly, sociable atmosphere has been terrific.”

Kurling is one of several sports that make up the ActivIpswich programme called, This is a Sports Project with a Difference.

Julie Stokes, CEO of ActivLives, the Suffolk charity that runs the project in partnership with Ipswich Borough Council, said: “The project seeks to provide sports opportunities for people who are over the age of 45, and who don’t see themselves as being particularly ‘sporty’.”

She added that this first Kurling competition had been a great example of the project being successful in getting new people participating in organised sport, “and loving it”.

The medals were presented to the winners by Ipswich Town legend and ActivLives patron, Roger Osborne, who famously scored the winning goal in the 1978 FA Cup Final.

To find out more about sessions run by ActivIpswich contact Mike McCarthy on 01473 345350 or email mike@activlives.org.uk