Walderslade

December 2007

All change for Bale family

It was a case of ‘all change’ for the Bale family at the BJC (MAC) Southern Region Kyu Grading on 1st December. All three practicing members of the family achieved promotions at the grading, with Adam Bale moving up to Green Belt + 1 after a good mornings judo. Then in the afternoon it was the turn of Adam’s older sister Suzy and dad Adrian, both of whom were taking senior gradings. I think Adrian was the most nervous of the two but in the end it all went well and both Suzy and Adrian were promoted to Upper Orange Belt, meaning a well earned change in colour for all three of them.

There were a number of other club members taking part in the junior grading. Will Beadle and Jordan Bryant were in the same Yellow Belt pool. Both fought well, especially Will who was a little unlucky in some of his fights. However, Will moved up to Yellow +2 and Jordan went to Yellow + 4. The only junior girl taking part was Chelsey Bish. Although a little nervous, Chelsey soon settled into her judo and put in a good show earning herself promotion to Yellow +2.

Alex Helm was the last junior on the mat and although he defeated all of his Blue Belt opponents again with relative ease he moved just one place from 4 Brown Tabs to 5. Although a little disappointed not to have crossed the threshold to Brown Belt, Alex clearly has the ability to move to Brown Belt soon into the new year and is looking forward to the next grading already. Alex’s ne-waza is his speciality and he scored ippon on even the largest of opponents with osae-komi.

Ladies Memorial Championships

The Ladies Championships was held again at Walderslade on Sunday 2nd December. This is an ideal tournament for those new to competition and, as the name suggests, is for girls and ladies only. Seven club members took part and for a number of them this was their first judo championship. All fought really hard and did the club and themselves proud. Charly Harvey was one of those for whom this was the first championship and she narrowly missed out on the gold medal. She was winning all the way by a koka in her second contest until she got caught by a yuko throw with just 2 seconds on the clock. That left her with a chance at the silver medal which she took in style. Sister, Molly Harvey fought hard in her pool and came away with a well deserved bronze in her first event.

Catherine Smith-Dance and Isabelle Austen competed in the same group and had some exciting contests, with Catherine eventually taking the Bronze medal and Isabelle doing extremely well and gaining the top slot and the Gold medal. Both of these were good results for the girls who were sampling their first taste of competitive judo.

Caitlin Penny had an excellent day and she produced some really good and intelligent judo. Caitlin moves from left to right hand judo and pulled off some great throws, always remembering to follow her opponents down into groundwork. Caitlin came away with a well deserved Gold for all her efforts. The clubs last junior at the event was Emma Summers. Emma fought really well but was beaten by the slight difference in size of one of the girls in her group, who managed to grapple Emma to the mat and held her down. However, this did not put Emma off and she battled back to eventually gain the silver.

Louise Parsons was the club’s only senior and she competed in the Ladies Open. Louise fought really hard but was overpowered by two very strong ladies and had to settle for a hard fought for bronze in a very tough pool.

This small, friendly event was established in memory of two BJC (MAC) members who are no longer with us. One of those was 4th Dan Mark Barton, whose daughter Vicky still trains at Walderslade and is a 1st Dan herself. Vicky handed out the medals on the day.