Walderslade

January 2008

Club trip to Lille

Early in the morning on Saturday 26th January, 7 senior club members boarded a minibus in Walderslade and headed down to Dover for our first trip of 2008. An amazing sunrise greeted us as we approached Dover with the sky literally ablaze of red for as far as we could see. The 08:00 Seafrance crossing was very quiet and the Channel was as smooth as a duckpond which made for a really good start to the trip.

We arrived on French soil and headed down towards Lille where we were to meet with Michael Claeyssen at 12:00. A small language and technological problem with Terry’s GPS system meant that we were expertly guided to a quiet street in the suburbs of what we thought was Lille, but which in fact turned out to be a small town just outside of it!

A quick call to our French hosts quickly sorted out the problem and they arrived fairly quickly to lead us back to the dojo where we everyone was introduced to their host families and were taken off for lunch.

Crash and Garry probably had the best experience of the day being treated as they were to a full three course meal courtesy of Michel Dubois, one of the clubs Coaches and his wife. Fed and watered we all met back at Judo Club Monsois for the first of our weekend’s judo sessions.

These first two lessons were to be junior sessions, but they lasted for three hours in total meaning that by the time the main event, (the evening senior randori session) arrived we were well and truly warmed up.

All of the clubs seniors worked hard with the children and the youngsters enjoyed the experience immensely.

The senior session that followed at 7:00pm lasted for an hour and a half, at the end of which I think everyone in the group was ready for a rest and dinner. There were a good number of seniors on the mat and condensation was dripping from the windows and mirrors in the dojo and a number of us (and some of the French) were showing the physical signs of having been through a very good session !!

The French contingent included a female 5th Dan a female 3rd Dan and a male 3rd Dan who last year competed in the French 1st Division. Needless to say it was a tough evening.

fter time for a quick shower we were off to a fish and chicken restaurant for our evening meal. The food was excellent and the company relaxed which made for an excellent finish to the day.

Most of us collapsed into bed at about 1am but we did hear that Terry, Steve and their host Michel (there are three Michel’s in Judo Club Monsois !) eventually fell into bed at around 3am.

The morning seemed to come all too early and I certainly could have done with a few hours more sleep especially after the early start of Saturday. We all met at the home of Michel for breakfast and were once again treated to some excellent hospitality as our hosts could not seem to do enough for us.

Then at 09:15 it was off to the dojo again for another two hour’s judo with the clubs juniors. This was an easier session and gave us time to stretch off a few of the aches from the previous evenings exertions.

During the sessions Michael took the opportunity to throw Crash in at the deep end, giving him his first international coaching opportunity !! Steve stepped up to the mark and did really well to get his instructions across without any preparation time as he taught Mune Gatame and Seoi Otoshi to the young judoka.

The club’s President presented each of us with a small gift of a club tee shirt, pen and key-ring which we all gratefully accepted.

Following a small aperitif after the sessions we headed off to a local Moroccan restaurant in Lille for cuscus. A number of Judo Club Monsoi’s seniors accompanied us to the restaurant which made for a nice afternoon.

We set off on our return journey but managed to miss our ferry by 30 minutes leaving us to catch the 6:30pm. Although this would not have delayed our return by much this ferry had the added complication that a passenger seemed to have collapsed on board whilst everyone was still loading and medics had to be called on board to treat him. We understood later that he was ok but the ferry had then been delayed by about an hour. Hence, it was around 9pm when we arrived back in Walderslade, tired and ready for good rest. Our next trip across the Channel is scheduled to be the International Men’s Team Tournament in May, so there will be lots of preparation needed for that one.

Whilst a number of us were living it up in France, Richard Lynn headed off on his own to the monthly Budokwai Grading in London. After three tough fights, the last of which saw Richard winning by a waza-ari and then a hold down for 15 seconds, he was really unfortunate to get arm-locked into submission following an attempted attack which left both players on the ground. However, the Examiners considered he had done enough to warrant his promotion to 1st Kyu.

Richards’s promotion leaves the club in the exciting position of having five 1st kyu’s (Richard, Ranj, Steve, Barry and Matt) all now collecting points towards their 1st Dan Black Belts.

Congratulations to Richard.