National Championships

Well done to all who competed in this years National Championships. What a contrast to last year. Saturday see 5 Ford players fighting with great performances from all. Our 2 youngest, DJ Irving and Duncan Ward both gave their heart and soul with both of them placing. DJ gained a 5th place while Duncan a 7th, both very entertaining to watch and both gained essential experience for future competitions.
Great performances from our three squad players see all 3 gaining medals and valuable points to get them re appointed to the National squad.. Richard Jackson put in another strong performance and collected a Bronze medal to go along with the Bronze he won at the Heart of England.
Matt Kavanagh had a good days and was a far reflection of last years Nationals, much more focused and positive. matthew won his way through to the finals but I think the long wait between the rounds and the finals took its toll and Matt had lost a bit of his sharpness, but did very well to win the silver medal.
All 3 had some great throws on the day and Brandon Tutthill was ammong them, not sure what the referees were looking at but thanks to Mike Varey the photographer we had an instant reply of one of the best ippons of the day, but yes you guessed it, the ref's gave it wazari? Again a good perfromance from Brandon see him through to the finals.. Unfortunately, again Brandon was caught a little flat footed, a good Silver to go along with his Silver he earned at the Heart of England.

Sunday see the elder players fighting and the B and D band girls. Again, I was pleased with all their performances, it was touch and go whether Frankie and Dru would compete as both had picked up tummy bugs leading up to the weekend. I think this had a larger effect on Dru as he was not he's usual self, although he won 3 of his 5 matches he never really looked himself.
Mistakes are made to learn from and hopefully Frankie has learnt from his mitake in his first fight, completely dominating the fight and several scores ahead, including 1 wazari, Frankie attempted a very weak attack which his partner gladly took advantage of.. Frankie then came back putting that fight behind him to win the Bronze medal, a good performance.
Ryan had been given a task to go out and play his partners. Move and hit, move and hit.. His 1st fight see him against the evential silver medallist but gave him a great fight achieving what he set out to do, nearly catching his opponent in the opening seconds.. A good performance from Ryan and we hope he gets to reach the potential I know he has.
Tom's weight were called early and Tom was first up, although his opponent was at the same disadvantage as Tom, he seemed to cope with it better than Tom. After Tom collected a penalty, the fight slipped from his control.
After a little disagrement whether he did or did not want to continue, Tom returned to the fighting area and continued to win his way through to the Bronze medal.
Shaun Fauzens had a good day winning 4 of his six fights in a new weight category for him. A change in fighting style is required for Shaun and we see the biginnings of this at the weekend, a good effort and a 7th place gained.
Kelly Staddon too fought very well in her early rounds winning some in the first few seconds of the match. Her final pitched her against an opponent who Kelly had lost to at the H of E quite early in the fight with a nice ashi-waza. It was a much closer fight this time with Kelly doing much of the attacking, unfortunately they were not to be decisive enough for points. Another strong performance from Kelly and a well earned Silver medal.
Chloe Jackson was again on form and was looking forward to meeting some of the older girls in the group, although not 16 till November Chloe was a strong contender for the finals. She won though the quater finals to meet the Scottish player that had beat her in the H of E, controlling the fight very well and as planned, Chloe had won her place in the final. Unfortunately Chloe picked up a wrist injury in the first seconds of the fight but continued to fight on until the wrist got caught up in her opponents gi which then falsed Chloe to withdraw from the bout and visit the hospital where it was discovered she had a fracture of the Radius bone? just above the wrist...

All in all, apart from a couple of mishaps a good weekend, and if I believe the information I have received is correct finished 2 in the medal tally?
Good job everyone...

Bill...