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all the latest news and competition results........all the latest news and competition results........all the latest news and competition results

Over the weekend of 18th and 19th November we held our last international trip of the year. Fourteen of us travelled by minibus to Lille. Full report to follow.

Five club members attended the event at the Black Lion Leisure Centre over the weekend, which attracted over 280 entries. First to fight was Jarad Kemm in the Under Yellow Belt event. Seven year old Jarad waded through the other young lads in his group with ease, defeating all with maximum Ippon throws.

During the three fights he had on his way to collecting another Gold medal, he scored the quickest Ippon of the day, when he threw his second opponent the very second they took hold, with a excellent O Soto Gari for Ippon which left the other lad wondering what had happened.

Ashley Tagell was the clubs other junior competitor at the event, taking part in the Boys U60kgs category. Ashley was unlucky on two fronts, as he weighed in just outside of the U55kg category he was aiming for and so had to compete against heavier boys and was also drawn in the same preliminary pool as eventual group winner. With 13 entries for this category the competitors were split into 4 pools with only each preliminary group winner going forward to the finals. Ashley gave his all and was even a Waza-Ari score up on his first opponent, which he scored with an perfectly timed counter. However, he was caught with almost the same technique near to the end of the bout leaving him the hardest fights to come. He was thrown again with a counter in his second fight and then he met Lewis. Ashley, took the contest to the experienced youngster and nearly applied a well-timed counter for a score. However, in the end he was caught and held for 20 seconds and hence went out of the event. It was a good effort from an inexperienced but improving young fighter.

Vicky Barton was hoping to repeat the success of her October win at the East Anglia International and got off to a good start in the U63kgs group, throwing her first opponent for Ippon. Her next couple of contests went much the same way with Vicky easily outclassing the other women. The final was a much tenser match between a quality opponent recently returned from a British Cadet training camp in Cuba. There was some intense grip fighting and both girls made initial attacks, which looked as though they were probing each other’s defences. In a close call Vicky was attacked to the rear with a leg grab but managed to turn her backward direction into a throwing opportunity, managing to turn the tables on her opponent and gaining a score. Vicky defended her lead well and even managed to add a further score to the board in what was a tough final and a well deserved win.

Two out of the eight men in the Men’s U81kgs group were from Walderslade, but here once again the only real battles were ever going to be for the bronze and silver places as Andy Ladbrook has had this category sewn up at this weight for a number of years now. As predicted, Andy went through each opponent with ease using a series of techniques to dispatch each fighter for Ippon. Andy’s has continued to develop his range of techniques over the past few years, which has helped him retain an edge against his opponents. His only real test was Norfolk fighter Chris Abel who lasted longer than most but was eventually thrown for Ippon with a variation of a drop shoulder throw Andy had been working on recently.

Whilst Andy was working through to another gold medal, Blue Belt, Barry Hutchings was making a return to competitive judo having taken up the sport again recently. Although only winning one contest he was pleased to make it to the medal positions and come away with a bronze for his efforts. Barry is hoping to grade for his Brown Belt in the New Year and so was using this event as a benchmark and to shake off some of the cobwebs from years away from the mat.

During the half term holidays, Walderslade Judo Club organised a specialist kata training event in support of 'Sport Medway' the twice yearly sports development initiative funded by Medway Council. The day was an open an informal session where participants could come along and study whichever kata they needed for their forthcoming gradings and examinations. The technical aspect of the day was presided over by My L Mower, 6th Dan.

Mr Mower worked with all of the Coaches and prospective Coaches throughout the day covering Nage No Kata, Katame No Kata and even touching upon Kime No Kata.

Those who took part said the day had been a great success and that by the end of the day they all felt more confident about the kata's they needed to learn. The club is grateful to Medway Council for supporting this opportunity to provide specialist training in a very technical area of judo.

At the Anglia International, held at the University of East Anglia near Norwich, both of Walderslade's senior members present came away with gold medals after some tough fights.

Andy Ladbrook fought in the Men's U81 kgs event having come back down from the U90 kgs group he competed in at the BJA Kent Closed earlier in the year, and devastated the opposition in style to claim yet another international gold at this weight.

Meanwhile clubmate, Vicky Barton was taking part in her first event since gaining her 1st Dan at the National Summer School. She won each of her fights well, although found her Swedish opponent awkward to set up for a big throw due to her unorthodox style. However, in the end Vicky managed to get the decision she needed to also give her another international gold to add to her collection.

The competition was a well run and well supported event with teams from France and Sweden taking part, which added to the excitement of the day.

Our club development plans continue to progress well. Matt Sage continues to work hard at the leaflet drops and we are receiving a good number of calls as a result of these. Then on 16th and 17^th October, two Club Coaches and a mat assistant attended the Greenacre School in order to provide taster lessons to children from local junior schools in Year 6.

Three local schools provided four classes for the 90 minute lessons. In all, around 120 children took part in the four sessions and all of them thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to experience judo at the Sports College. Jon Rye the Sports Partnership director was very pleased with the feedback received and thought that the event had been a great success all round.

The taster sessions have sparked a great deal of interest in the club with youngsters who attended the Monday morning session already returning to the club to train on Monday evening.

The sessions covered the basics of judo taking the children from warming-up games and judo specific exercises, through to breakfall practice and eventually building up to moving with a partner. The youngsters learned kesa gatame and finally stepping across for a basic version of tai otoshi. All of the children were well behaved and attentive which enabled so much to be achieved in the 90 minute lessons. Each of the schools also took away leaflets to hand out to their remaining classes. Everyone who took part was presented with a club leaflet and a judo sticker kindly provided by the BJA and arranged through Karen French.

Although the sessions were hard work, they were a really good way of introducing youngsters to judo and giving them an good idea of what training in a judo club would be like. The Greenacre School was very supportive of the events and even cancelled morning Assembly on Tuesday so that the mats could remain in the main hall for the two days. This helped us on Monday evening as well, as the mats did not need to be laid for the evening classes. This was yet another excellent initiative and a great example of school-club links working well in order offer sporting challenges to children in local schools.

Walderslade gained another Black Belt this month, when Vicky Barton was awarded her 1st Dan at the BJC (MAC) National Summer School in Ipswich. Vicky has demonstrated her contest ability on numerous occasions and the promotion was well deserved. Vicky also had to demonstrate Nage No Kata, a series of Renraku Waza and 30 techniques, all to the Examiners satisfaction, during the intensive weeklong course.

Vicky proudly wearing her fathers Black Belt, which was presented to her by Walderslade 4th Dan Andy Ladbrook after the Course Presentation Evening.

Although a number of Walderslade members attended the course, only one other judoka took a grading. Fourteen year old Ashley Tagell did exceptionally well in the junior grading, defeating three of his opponants with style and gaining promotion to Green Belt + 3 Blue.

Between 5th and 7th May all of the clubs Dan Grades and Coaches underwent intensive training and assessment in order to transfer and validate their grades and Coaching Awards within the British Judo Association. It was an excellent couple days and all of those involved worked really hard. We were very lucky to have Dermot Heslop, National Schools Development Officer, Steve Lesik, Examinations & Promotions Commission, Dave Duffy, National Coaching Officer and Kerry Manfredi, former British Team Member here to help and to put everyone through their paces.

The weekend was the direct result of the Greenacre School gaining Specialist Sports College status and our involvement with the BJA in trying to develop judo further at the school.

All of the club's Coaches passed with flying colours and we even gained two new qualified Coaches in Vicky Barton and Steve Stacey. In order to ensure the assessments could begin on the Friday evening we were pleased to have visiting Coaches from Parkwood Judo Club on hand to take each of the lessons on the Friday, and our thanks goes out to them.

Four senior club members took part in the BJA Kent 'Closed' Championships on Saturday 22nd April. The venue was the splendid new dojo at Dartford which opened just a few months ago. The £4.3 million centre was a great venue for this type of event with two full size contest areas set on a purpose built floor. The attendance was fairly low for seniors but the standard of those judoka taking part was very high.

However, despite the strong opposition our judoka still came away with two gold, one silver and one bronze medal.

Andy Ladbrook, U90kgs, led the way with straight ippons on every opponent, as did Ralph Hamblett in the U100 group. There was initial confusion in Andy's first fight following what we thought was a seoi nage for ippon near the edge. After a meeting of the judges it was decided that the score not only did not stand but that Andy should have a penalty for stepping out. Andy's response was to repeat the move seconds later in the centre of the contest area. There was question that time and the Referee signaled ippon.

Vicky Barton was unlucky in the final of the U63 category. She threw and held her opponent, but with 24 seconds on the clock and just one second to go, she could hold on any longer and her opponent escaped the hold down. Just 30 seconds later the tables were turned and although from where we were standing matside it looked clearly as if she had escaped the hold and was sitting on her knees, the Referee saw it differently and called the hold until time. It was a tough fight but clearly Vicky was very unlucky. Eddie Orgee, U73kgs, came away with the bronze after two tough fights, finishing off another successful day for the club.

Over the weekend of 8th and 9th April Walderslade's Senior Coach visited Judo Club Monsois in Lille, France. It was all part of a great birthday treat and what better way to celebrate than to do some judo too !!

The Senior Coach at the local French club is Michael Claeyssen who visited us in Walderslade recently and it was a great opportunity to build a stronger relationship between the two clubs. Michael turned the Sunday morning training session over to Eddie, who took all of the 2 hour lesson. The hospitality shown throughout the weekend was superb and it is hoped that we can reciprocate this in the future. The following photograph shows the judoka present after the session.

Once again our annual championship was a great success and we were very pleased this year to have a new guest instructor with us. Michael Claeyssen a French 3^rd Dan who teaches in clubs in Dunkerque and Lille was with us from the Friday until late on Saturday evening. Michael took the Friday night sessions and then led the free Saturday morning session too. We were also pleased to have 4 Dutch judoka on the mat from To-Zai Judo Club in Holland. This really added to the international feel of the day.

The individual championship was a very exciting affair with 77 young judoka taking part throughout the day, many of them our own members. All in all, our club gained 5 gold, 8 silver and 13 bronze medals, but most importantly, all of them fought hard and fought well showing good sportsmanship determination.

The team event saw 5 clubs take part this year; Akzo, Lenham & Harrietsham, Parkwood, Walderslade and Wrenwa. It was a very exciting event which Parkwood won by just one win to take the title for the first time. Our team fought really well with Suzy pulling off one of the throws of the day with a very good tomoe nage for ippon. Bronze medals were gained by the team which was one member short in the Girls U25kgs.

Thank you to all those clubs who supported the event and to the Officials and helpers who kept going all day long to make this yet again a great event.

Michael about to start the senior class on Friday evening and then coaching juniors at the Saturday morning session

Our annual end of year event went really well once again, all down to the sheer hard work of all of our Coaches and club officials. The championships and games were hotly contested and much noise and excitment was generated.

In November a number of club members made the long journey to Hereford, to take in part in the BJC Nationals for the first time. It was bitterly cold morning when we set off, with thick frost everywhere but, after a few missed turns we arrived safe and sound.

We had four fighters competing, and Vicky Barton was first to the mat in the Ladies Kyu Grade U63kgs. Vicky stormed her way through to the final and never really looked threatened by any of the other women in the group. Later in the day Vicky also entered the Ladies Kyu Grade Open event, which she also won in style. This gave Vicky both the BJC (MAC) and BJC U63kg titles at Kyu Grade level, an excellent achievement.

Steve (Crash) Stacy was next up in the Mens Kyu Grade U90kgs. Crash had a blinding start with a hold-down for ippon. However he then got caught in his next two fights which put him out of the running in what was a very large pool. Crash continues to improve and is certainly going to be in the medal positions soon.

Ralph Hamblett had a good competition gaining a Bronze in the Dan Grade U100kg event, and demonstrating some big throws on his way. He finished one fighter off with a superb seoi otoshi and the next with tai otoshi, both for ippon. Ralph even managed to pull off a sumi gaeshi during one contest. However, he got caught locked onto his final opponents back and was sent crashing down for a huge o goshi. All in all, it was a great show and gained Ralph a well deserved bronze in a very tough group.

Ranj Atwal had a number of tough opponents in the Kyu Grade U100kgs category. However, he battled through to the end and came away with a well earned Bronze following an exciting final contest which Ranj eventually won with his strong ne waza.

Although the event was a successful one for our members, the venue left a lot to be desired. The hall was very cold, which may have added to the number of injuries seen on the day. Of the four mats in operation, only two had three Referees officiating each of the contests. Although the organisers had very strict rules on the day about what size badges could be worn on jackets and insisted that competitors wore zoris to the competition area instead of outdoor shows, I feel they would have done better by concentrating more on the safety of the fighters and the organisation of the event rather than worrying about little things like wearing zoris to the matside when fighters toes were going blue with the cold !!

Just under 300 judoka descended upon the Black Lion Leisure Centre for the last championship of the year organised by the Southern Region of the British Judo Council (MAC). This was one of the best attendances for a couple of years and the organisers were very pleased with the support the championships received. Clubs from the BJC (MAC), BJA and BJC attended the event which provided some outstanding judo and some big throws.

Judoka came from across the south of England including 11 from Walderslade. Our fighters covered a spectrum of experience, ranging from new club member Ashley Tagell entering his first competition to Andy Ladbrook a 4th Dan with years of competition experience behind him.

The club's six juniors all fought really well and returned with 5 medals between them. James Clarke in the Boys under 27kgs event was in a tough group with some experienced fighters. He fought hard but ended up 5th in a large group and so just missed out on the medals. James is improving all the time and it wont be long before Walderslade has another medal winning player in its ranks.

Gold medals in the White Belt event came from Hayley Russell, a regular on the top of the rostrum now and Jarad Kemm who fought brilliantly in his group. Jarad in particular showed great determination throwing all of his opponents numerous times and showing great fighting spirit. Club newcomer Ashley Tagell, 13, was competing in his first championship having only joined the club following the Greenacre School Specialist Sports College Launch Event in September. He put a great deal of effort and came away with a well deserved bronze medal. Jadie Russell (U48kgs) and James Barden (U38kgs) both gained bronze medals in hard groups. Barden had an exceptional day, beating a number of experienced fighters on his way to the medal positions. A clash with a head during one contest left him with a battered and split lip but he went on to finish the fight 4 scores up on an experienced opponent who had previously won this event. He was unfortunate to meet Reid Baldwin in closing stages. After an exciting start Reid caught him on the floor and held him for ippon placing James in the bronze medal position.

Walderslade's seniors were next up. Matt Barton was always going to struggle in a group of six in the Mens U66kgs, which included 4 black belts. Matt, who is hoping to grade for blue belt soon was placed in probably the toughest of the pools and although he gave a sound performance he was beaten in both fights and so was knocked out of the medal hunt early on. Younger sister Vicky Barton however did better in the Ladies U63kg group where she once again took gold. Vicky seems to be unchallenged in this group locally and is now having to search wider a field for opponents to test her skills.

Steve (Crash) Stacy showed definite signs of improvement in the Mens U90kgs event. Although he went out at the hands of club mate and eventual group winner Andy Ladbrook, he had an exceptional battle with London's Ricky Turner which he eventually won. Stacy took the bronze in a tough group which was always going to be dominated by Ladbrook.

Walderslade's last medal of the day came from Ralph Hamblett who gained gold in the Mens U100kgs. Hamblett, who also gained his 1st Dan black belt in August, has really stamped his mark on events this year winning the U100kg title at the BJC (MAC) Nationals, a silver at the Anglia Home International and now the Southern Region title, also at U100kgs. All of his four fights were won by the maximum Ippon score. His first opponent from Oxford University Judo Club was dispatched very quickly with a huge driving O Uchi Gari, (Major Inner Reaping throw). His next two contests did not last much longer, one being beaten with one of the best throws of the tournament, a superbly timed Uchi Mata, which landed his opponent flat on his back. For his last contest he changed tactics using Seoi Otoshi (Shoulder Drop) scoring two Waza-ari's to finish the day in style.

It was an excellent day for the club which continues to grow in strength. The new Monday night sessions are building up slowly although new members are always welcome on either Friday or Monday. The event also provided a good warm-up for a number of the club's seniors who are entered into next weekends BJC National Championships in Hereford the results of which we will p

In September 2005 six senior club members traveled to Dusseldorf in Germany to meet up with our Brazilian judo friend, Alberico. We had been invited to train at their club in Dusseldorf by his instructor. We left on Saturday morning taking an early flight from Stansted to Dusseldorf (Weeze) Airport. We were treated to an exciting weekend on judo, site-seeing and partying and everyone seemed to benefit from the experience. The following photo shows club members with some of the judoka from Judofreunde '73 Judo Club.

Rudiger treated us all to a traditional Dusseldorf meal along with several local beers !!

Thirteen club members travelled to Ipswich for the annual judo course in August and all eight of them who graded returned with higher grades. The most exciting result however was the gaining of 1st Dan by Ralph Hamblett. Ralph can now claim to be the first ever club member to gain his Black Belt whilst studying at Walderslade.

Name	Grade
James Clarke	Yellow + 2 Orange
James Barden	Yellow +1 Orange
David Gbikpi	Jnr Blue Belt
Mikaela Morris	Upper Brown Belt
Vicky Barton	Upper Brown Belt
Steve Stacy	Upper Brown Belt
Matt Barton	Upper Green Belt
Ralph Hamblett	1st Dan Black Belt

A number of club members also took Coaching and Referee's exams. Vicky passed her Coaching Award and Level 1 Referee Award and Ralph also passed his Level 1 Referee Award.

Nineteen club members took part in the BJC (MAC)'s largest event of the year over the weekend. Everyone fought hard and all but two of those who took part came away with a medal. Walderslade's two unfortunate members were Yellow Belts Adam Bale and Martyn Brooke, both of whom fought in large groups containing much higher grades and experienced fighters. Both tried their hardest, but were unable to get through to the medal positions.

The clubs juniors gained 2 Gold, 6 Silver and 2 bronze medals. The medal haul began in the Under Yellow Belt Event where the club entered a number of first time competitors. Bronze medals were gained by Lewis Andrews in his first ever event, and Lauren Vaughan. Lauren showed some improvement in recent months doing well against girls who had beaten her in previous events.

First of the clubs Silver medals was gained by Liam Caine who had an excellent first championship, attacking constantly throughout each of his contests and throwing his opposition many times in each bout. Silus Atwal also had a good day taking Silver in a tough group, with some excellent techniques being demonstrated. Likewise Luke Simpson had a great debut, defeating all but one of his opponents and taking a well-deserved Silver.

One of the most impressive performances of the day however came from James Bardon. James ended up in a pool of much larger boys and although taken off guard in the first contest he fought back hard in the next and won that on a Hantei (Judges Decision), after constantly attacking his larger opponent, although being unable to upend the bigger boy. In his last contest he showed a great deal of technique throwing and then almost holding a much larger opponent to take a good win and his first Silver in an event of this nature.

The club's only Gold in the Under Yellow Belt event came from Hayley Russell who put in a good performance steadily throwing and holding her opponents all the way through to the final.

Club members also did well in the main junior event with Jadie Russell taking Silver in the Girls U48kgs, James Clarke Silver in the Boys U27kgs and Suzy Bale Gold in the Girls U40kgs events with some sound performances from each. Walderslade's senior members had equal success on the day, even though a number had to compete in the same categories. Out of the seven fighters who took part they earned 3 Gold and 4 Bronze medals.

Bronzes came from Matt Barton in the Men's U66kgs group. Matt has come on leaps and bounds in the last 6 months and was leading in the semi-finals before getting caught with a lovely seoi nage (shoulder throw) for Ippon by the eventual group winner just 30 seconds before the end of the bout. A Bronze also came from Ranj Atwal in the Men's U100kgs. Ranj was in a tough group with at least 2 previous winners of this event and one fellow club-mate to contend with. Ranj, a Green Belt put in a good performance earning himself a well-deserved Bronze in a tough pool. The Under 81kgs group saw three of Walderslade's members fighting for honours. Lesley Williams and Eddie Orgee both fought through their opening pool, which at one stage saw them pitched together, Eddie winning the group and Lesley coming second. This put them both into the finals where Lesley met the eventual winner whilst Eddie met Anglia Regions, Chris Abel and was beaten by a Yuko, leaving both of them with hard fought Bronze medals.

It was 4th Dan club member Andy Ladrook, who took the groups Gold medal once again, finishing the day with a superb left handed hip technique for Ippon against club mate Lesley Williams. Andy never looked to be in trouble throughout the day and moved steadily through to the final against Chris Abel. After some initial grip fighting and a few probing attacks, Andy took Chris down with a well timed knee wheel and held him for Ippon and the U81kgs title yet again. The second Gold in the senior ranks came from Mikaela Morris in the Women's U63kgs. Mikaela had easy wins all the way through to the final. She overpowered each of her opponents with none of her fights going to time.

Ralph Hamblett took the final Gold medal of the event for the club in the Men's U100kgs event. After a hard and tense contest with Paul Knott, a tough opponent from the Eastern Region who Ralph had lost to earlier in the year, he pulled out a superb Uchi Mata taking his opponent for Waza-Ari and then locking a hold-down on for the full Ippon. Ralph also defeated club mate Ranj Atwal and previous group winner Nick Scott from Oxford on his way to winning the U100kgs title and National Champion status.

All in all it had been a great day for the clubs fighters. With the club now having three senior National Champions and 2 Junior National Champions to its name. The young White Belts fought well and we have seen that many have potential to go further in the future and our full juniors acquitted themselves well in tough groups. Our real strength now though seems to be in our senior ranks where we are doing well. Three senior National Champions and good results from the other seniors taking part is very pleasing.

Well done to all those who attended the Regional Kyu Grading on 11th June. There were some excellent results, especially amongst the seniors. The next Regional Kyu Grading will be on 26th November.

First Name	Surname	New Grade	Jnr/Snr/Intermediate	Club
Aloysious	Atwal	5+4	Jnr	Walderslade
Stephen	Sage	4+1	Jnr	Walderslade
Martyn	Brooke	5+2	Jnr	Walderslade
James	Clarke	5+1	Jnr	Walderslade
Jadie	Russell	4th	Jnr	Walderslade
Matt	Barton	Upper Orange	Snr	Walderslade
Ranj	Atwal	Upper Green	Snr	Walderslade
Ralph	Hamblett	Upper Brown	Snr	Walderslade

Once again our annual week long trip to the South of France was held to have been a great success. Our friends at Judo Club Serignan once more welcomed us warmly and even allowed us to use their dojo in the mornings for our training. This saved us taking mats along for the main house and improved the quality of the sessions we had planned. We trained with them on Wednesday evening and then on Friday evening we joined Gerard and his judoka on a trip out to another club, where we had an excellent evening followed by a 'grande aperitif' as they say in France !

In all, four clubs took part in the training, in what was an exceptional dojo, consisting of three mat areas, set in a splendid purpose built facility.

As well as the judo, we also found time to laze around the pool, visit the local French markets and tourist spots as well as generally chill out amongst friends in the 30 degree sunshine. After an enjoyable week, we loaded the bus for our return journey (which was not as eventful as last years thankfully) and we reached home feeling that we had further strengthened our relationship with our friends in Serignan and already looking forward to our 2006 trip.

Walderslade’s senior men also tasted international competition for the first time, when over the weekend of 14^th – 15^th May, they travelled to France for an international team tournament, which was deemed to have been a great success.

We fielded a full team of club members along with two reserves and one Referee to the Tournoi Europeen du Littoral in Dunkerque, which turned out to be a very high calibre event. We left Walderslade at 10:00 on Saturday morning travelling with the official BJC (MAC) team to Dover for the ferry direct to Dunkerque. Although everyone was in high spirits the most eventful part of the trip to France, was the disappearance of Ralph “Huey” Hamblett due to just a little seasickness. In true form, as soon as he reappeared from almost 2 hours worth of illness, we weighed him to see if he could now make the U90kgs. Unfortunately, despite his ordeal he was still a little over weight.

A fairly uneventful drive, found us in the centre of Dunkerque at the Stades de Flandres, the scene for Sundays tournament. We were welcomed by Michael Claeyssen, whom we had met on the Summer School in 2004. The team weighed in with everyone making their allotted category, which was a relief.

Following some speeches and introductions later in the day we were escorted to the hostel.

An evening meal had been arranged for all the foreign competitors and we headed off to the beachfront restaurant for dinner. Although situated on a number of different tables we all enjoyed ourselves, especially when the travelling South American singers came in and treated us to a very special medley of Simon & Garfunkle hits on pan pipes and guitar !!

With our hungry bellies now full we retired to the bar. As the night drew on some of the team began drifting back leaving just the hardcore revellers to see out the night.

So it was, that late in the night Ralph, Ranj and Eddie where to be found creeping considerately and quietly (so as not to disturb their fellow fighters) into their bunks. Following breakfast we were off to the Stades du Flandres again for the big event.

The standard of the competition was very high with some top clubs in attendance. With 14 teams in all taking part we found ourselves in a group along with two French clus, Wormhout and OGS. Everyone in the team fought really hard but with the opposition consisting of nothing but seasoned Black Belts, it was always going to be a really hard job to make it through the first round. There were a few suspect decisions though. Andy clearly took his player down in one contest with a well-timed counter landing him for at least a Yuko and probably more. However, no score was given and Andy was later held for ippon.

Ranj was our O90kgs entry and had his work cut out with some very big looking guys in his group. However, once again luck was against us as he clearly took one opponent with a very sweet Yoko Wakare for what really should have been Ippon. On the video one Corner Judge clearly gives a Yuko but the Centre Referee ignores the technique and appears to have called Matte !! What that was all about nobody knew.

The award for coolest fighter of the day went to Leslie ‘The Dude’ Williams whose laid back style impressed us all. Leslie incurred the only injury of the day when he land awkwardly on an out stretched arm. By the time we reached Walderslade at the end of Sunday evening it had stiffened up considerably.

With our team out of the event in the first round, we were able to concentrate on watching the excellent judo on display from the stands. Well except for Eddie, who had to wait till lunchtime before claiming “Je suis fatigue” to Michael and bowing out of any further refereeing duties.

The final was an easy win for the Mahorokan Judo Club from Holland with 5 straight ippon wins against Team BJC. In reality the final should have been between Dartford Judokwai and Mahorokan, which would have been much more exciting end to the event. As it was these teams had met in the semi-finals and Mahorokan had put Dartford in the bronze medal play-offs at that point.

Weary and beaten we said our farewells and began the long journey back to Dover. It had been a successful if not daunting first venture into the international scene for all of the club’s fighters, but everyone had learned from the experience and everyone had returned inspired and keen to return next year, with a target of getting us to the second round.

U66 Matt Barton; U73 Leslie Williams; U81 Andy Ladbrook; U90 Steve Morris; O90 Ranj Atwal

In March 2005 two Walderslade girls travelled as part of a BJC (MAC) cadet team to the USA to take part in a series of training events and compete in the Liberty Bell Judo Classic championship in Philadelphia. Mikaela Morris and Vicky Barton were part of a six girl squad supervised by Marshall Brooks from the Anglia Region. Both girls worked hard at the training sessions and although neither of them came back with a medal in what was a tough 'E Band' tournament, both of them tried their hardest and learned a great deal from the experience. During their stay they trained at McCleary Martial Arts Centre, Atlanta Judo Academy and the Kokoro Tatsu Martial Arts & Fitness Centre and were warmly welcomed at each venue.

Our annual championships was once again a great success. A total of 46 judoka attended the mornings pre-competition training session, which was again led by Finn Gleeson and John Evans, who did a very interesting lesson on movement and a system of 'organising' your judo to greater effect.

The afternoons championship saw 73 entries being fought in 19 groups and some excellent contests. Walderslade's medalists were as follows;

Name	Medal	Name	Medal
Connor Osborne	Gold	Brandon Kemm	Bronze
Jadie Russell	Gold	Chelsey Bish	Bronze
Matthew Sage	Gold	Ellie Judd	Bronze
Hayley Russell	Silver	Jarrad Kemm	Bronze
James Bish	Silver	Martyn Brooke	Bronze
James Clarke	Silver	Nichiole Chinsky	Bronze
Lauren Vaughan	Silver	Silas Atwal	Bronze
Yasmin Hogben	Silver	Zac Jones	Bronze
Nicholas Hawksworth	Silver	Suzy Bale	Bronze
Alex Helm	Silver	Adam Bale	Bronze

There were many oustanding performances, even from some of our younger and least experienced members and which are reflected in the excellent results shown above. Medals were presented by our Club President, Ray Whiting and our thanks go out to him for attending the event.

The evenings team event was a noisy and exciting affair between four local clubs. The final was a thrilling encounter between Wrenwa and Parkwood, which Wrenwa won, giving them the championship win for the fourth year in a row.

Thank you to everyone who helped out in whatever capacity and assisted in making the day a great success once more.

Eight members of the club attended the Regional Kyu Grading at the Greenacre School on Saturday 26th February. Everyone fought well and their theory was excellent. At the end of the grading the following promotions were announced;

Martyn Brooke	Yellow Belt + 1
Adam Bale	Yellow Belt + 3
Jadie Russell	Yellow Belt + 4
Stephen Sage	Yellow Belt + 5
Ellie Judd	Orange Belt
Suzy Bale	Orange Belt
George Aldridge	Orange Belt
Alex Helm	Orange Belt + 4

Congratulations to everyone. Don't forget the next Regional Grading will be on Saturday 11th June at the Greenacre School. This grading is for all Yellow Belts and above and all seniors.