|
Heart of England 02/09/07
Hi All,
After, what seemed like a forever, the judo
summer break came to an end and the new season kicked off on Sunday with a
trip up to Birmingham
for the Heart of England Tournament. This is traditionally one of the largest
events of the year, being a Ranking Event for Junior and Cadet Players. We had
only 2 players attend which is well down on previous years due to holidays and
injuries. So it was down to Sophie Daniels and Jonathan Pettinger to uphold
Club Honours.
Sophie - 2 Wins, 2 Losses. Things started oh so well for Sophie as she faced a Dutch
girl in her opening contest. Sophie quickly took the lead with her favoured
Drop Seoi-Nage (Shoulder Throw) and looked to be in total control. However
during a groundwork encounter, where Sophie is normally so proficient, she gave
out a straight arm which her opponent quickly seized and promptly arm locked to
take the win. To further compound the opening loss, Sophie sustained quite a
nasty injury to her elbow from the arm lock. Sophie was not at her best in
contest 2 but did manage a comfortable win with a particularly dramatic
Te-Guruma (Pick Up Throw) which saw her opponent stretchered off!! Contest 3
was another comfortable win, this time with a Drop Seoi-Nage. Contest 4 was for
the Bronze Medal and turned into a battle of penalties, with both girls getting
penalised for various indiscretions!! Sophie was really struggling to make any
meaningful attacks and eventually lost the contest in Golden Score (extra
time). This was obviously not the start to the new season which either of us
expected, but I guess sometimes things just don't go your way despite all the
pre-season hard work - just ask Sir Alex!
Jonny - 1 Win, 2 Losses. Jonny was making his debut in a new higher weight group
so he was going to be in untried territory. Jonny started in fantastic
style, winning his opening contest early on with a very nice Te-Guruma. Contest
two was much more of a test against a particularly strong opponent. Jonny rode
all his opponents opening attacks with ease and during a groundwork encounter
applied, what I thought would be a winning arm lock, but his opponent managed
to escape. As the contest went into the last minute Jonny visibly tired and was
eventually caught with a Tai-Otoshi (Body Drop Throw) and then held down.
Contest 3 was another very even start with both boys putting in attacks, but it
was Jonny's opponent who eventually got in the winning throw with a
particularly nice Okuri-Ashi-Barai (Double Foot Sweep). It was a pretty
reasonable start to the new season for Jonny, but it will need some hard
work to increase his strength and stamina at this higher weight group.
The whole tournament had a "first day back at
school" feel about it, with many of the fancied players having "off
days". It was also not as well attended as normal, with several leading
players/clubs not in attendance. I think if this tournament falls on the same
date next year I too will re-consider the merits of attendance. Also the NIA
imposes unbelievable security measures - you cannot even take in your own
food/refreshments, I guess this is a good way of making you buy their awful on
site fair which is massively over priced!!! Here's looking forward to our next
outing at a friendlier venue.
Regards,
Allen.
|
