Belgium and Holland Comp's

Last weekend see Ford Judo Club travelling to Holland to compete in 2 competitions, 1 in Belgium for the Flanders Cup and the other in Holland to Meilo. Saturday at Flanders was a mixed day, with some players looking a little out of salts while some strong performances were given by others. Kelly Staddon, although not complaining was feeling poorly and lacked her usual sparkle, even fighting well under par, it showed her mettle by getting in to the final but was not able to perform to her usual standard but credit to her still took silver.

Dru Oakes fighting Europes number one first fight was caught cold and was armlocked early in to the fight, although putting in a good performance on his second fight was unable to progress further.
Tom Williams got a couple of good wins under his belt before meeting Belguims number 1 player, unfortunately Tom received a penalty near the end of their fight for a infringement they were both doing, Tom had no choice but to chase the score. A good performance from Tom who is in a transition period trying to address his style of fighting..

Both Matthew Kavanagh and Richard Jackson fought well under their normal standard but this was accepted as a bad day and redemption was possible as they were both entered in the comp the next day..
Frankie Goulding had a good day, giving away a few kilo's in his category he never looked out classed in any of his fights. His semi final fight went in to golden score after the referee's neglected to award what was in my opinion a score before the final time. The fight went against Frankie in golden score but a good performane by Frankie.
He went on to win the bronze medal, giving a strong performance and some good judo..

Sunday at Meilo was a good day as judo was concerned. In my opinion it was some of the best judo I had seen from the age groups attending. Many ippon scores were being seen on each of the 6 mat areas and I believe this spurred on the Ford players to raise their game.
Charlie Jackson was the first to fight Having a bye first fight, with restrictions in place Charlie had to tighten up his performance, and he certainly raised his game, winning the next 3 fights to take gold.

Matthew and Richard were fighting at the same time but there timing was good as one finished the other was going on. Matthew had an extremely hard fist fight with his opponent attacking with strong seoi nage's but Matt was able to ride them and controlled the fight and went on to win. losing out in the semi finals Matt dug deep to put in a great performance to win the bronze medal.

Richard had a bye first fight and then caught his next opponent with a fast ippon seoi nage for ten in the first 30 seconds of the fight, next was the semi finals and again Richard dominated with his grips and unsettling his partner with some good judo.
Richards transition work in the final was superb and good to watch. After a knockdown Richard was able to turn his partner with a sangaku turnover, although Richard held on long enough for a yuko score his opponent escaped only for Richard to repeat the feat and hold for ten..

A contrast in the boys performances from the previous day, but it was more of a reflection on what they are capable of acheiving....

Well done to all, a great weekend overall..

Bill...