Chuldow Squad Pages

CHORLEY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Sunday, 26 June 2005

FORMS REPORT

A glorious sunny June morning and we set off to Chorley, to the All Seasons Leisure Centre for the EMA Lancashire Open. We stopped, as usual on our trips over the Pennines, at Birch Services – I think they are getting quite used to us turning up en masse in red tee-shirts and demanding bacon butties and lattes – at premium rate of course. (I think we should get discount for buying in bulk and repeat business!)

I think Chorley is one of the smallest venues we visit on the circuit but that didn’t deter competitors from as far away as Bromley and Caernarfon from trekking across the country to take part in this top-class showdown.

Representing Chuldow for forms today were, in random order, Adam Field (creative empty hand), Katie Townsend (musical weapons and traditional), Nichola Rock (non-musical weapons and traditional),Hannah Varley (non-musical weapons), Jordan Varley (non-musical weapons and traditional), Ian McNeill (traditional), Matt Kemp (musical weapons), John Leeming (musical weapons and traditional) and Sarah Crosby (creative empty hand).

There were some really good teams who we compete regularly against on the open circuit – notably Bushido and Team Xtreme (great support) plus other ‘big names’ such as Oliver Willison and Richard Black.

Loads of categories today, and very well split, giving everyone a really good chance to compete against their peers – although the running order totally threw everyone – much panic as traditional gi’s were swapped for freestyle suits.

First up was Adam in creative empty hand – he was wonderful, threw a scorpion kick in for good measure and got silver! Hannah Russell and Anthony Turner from XMA got gold and bronze respectively. But the biggest cheer of the day for was tiny Fiona Wetherall from Jason Greensmith’s club who was a real little trooper, despite her nerves!

John Leeming entered the coloured belt junior musical weapons section, as did orange belt Danny Bowen from XMA - I think he got first but whatever he got II like him a lot – he is going to be brilliant very soon! Jordan and Katie were up against tough opposition in the black belt section - Katie’s form is looking very crisp and she achieved a well-deserved first place, whilst Jordan blagged the lot, forgot everything, and got silver – oh Jordan!

Hannah got a silver in the black belt non-musical weapons but said Andrew Richardson from White Tiger (bronze) was better. There were a few controversial judging decisions today – more of that later. I loved his version of our Ku Shanku with kama – its called something else in his style but I can’t remember what! Jordans new mate, Andrew, is not going to Canada in November for the WKA Worlds but he tells me he is off to the Dominican Republic with Team GB – well it should be warmer! Nichola got first in this category with Enpi kama – nice one Nic!

John entered the Junior coloured belt traditional section whilst Jordan (Jion), Katie (Hangestu) and Nichola (Enpi) competed in the very strong black belt sections. I enjoyed watching the Tae Kwondo girls from Bromley, Olly Brooke Adams again and Anthony Turner from XMA who came away with first.

Onto adults and Sarah left her nunchucks at home this time and competed in empty hand whilst Matt Kemp was up against Jason Baird and Terry Flewers in musical weapons. Again, some controversial refereeing decisions – Matt reckons Terry should have taken second instead of him . . . Jason got first with all three doing some awesome stuff with bits of metal and wood – and those tricks – incredible!

Linda Davies from Caernarfon, deservedly took first in the ladies section and well done to Eileen Maria Skelthorn from Elite Stockport – nice form.

Ian entered one of the hardest sections of the day in the Senior Mens Black Belt traditional section. He was up against Oliver Willison, Richard Black, Mark Swindlehurst from Bushido and Jason Baird. Richard and Jason tied (at that time we didn’t know for what place) and went before the judges again. The final result was 1st Oliver, 2nd Mark and 3rd Jason. When it became evident that there had been a mix up in how the judges scores were recorded, organiser and president Ann Jackson was called in to resolve the issue.

Finally, and a highlight of my day, was a great performance from Team Tae Kwondo from Bromley, comprising Kylie Johncock, Rianna Nash and Jenny Beardwood. There were really, really good and the forms section ended on a high note.

Despite some strange judging decisions, the standard of today’s competition was very high – it seems to be getting better and better at every tournament we go to and our forms squad are right up there competing with the best of them. Well done to all of you – you make us very proud!

Again, usual disclaimer – if anyone spots an error here with names, clubs, results, etc – please let us know!

SPARRING REPORT
by LIV again coz of lack of sparring reporter

Well, EMA Chorley! Sorry this report took so long everyone, but I've just been so busy with my new job and all the other squad stuff and going south for CIMAC world cup that I just haven't had any free time!

But still, plenty to took about at this competition...
Fighting kicked off with some brilliant performances by the little people - who are always my favourite fighters because they just show so much determination and fighting spirit! Excellent performance from little Alfie Jackson, who, despite his first comp being only a few weeks before, really pulled it out of the bag this time - as you will see from the excellent photos we have of him (courtesy of his mum).

I was also impressed with Luke Fields, who seems to be improving every time he fights - he's looking more and more like a teenager every day! It's very scary. Some really good footwork and timing.

Rob Wilson had a decent fight with one of the lads from Liverpool - they both showed a good amount of brain power (for a change Rob) and their fight was beginning to look like a chess match before the end.

Finally got to see Warlords' Lauren (Loz) Wilson fight. She had a great tear-up with Veronika Kantovitch (sorry don't know your team) in junior girls points. Its good to see so many girls coming up - there were hardly any when I started!

Should also mention what I saw of Tom Sampson's fight - before being interrupted it was really quite inspirational - both fighters showing some real talent. Looking forward to when these 14 and 15 year olds finally explode onto the adult fighting scene. Should be a shock to some of the old school.

His dad also competed in continuous - his first ever open competition - despite years of being a coach - and prettty much proved that hes got the stuff - and should probably stick to coaching and beating the stuffing out of other like minded people in our studio basement's cage (where we lock him on a night with his pies for the safety of mankind).

The man, whose name i don't know, who won the mens continuous heaviest category was really excellent - showing some good skill and control.

There were some really excellent teams at this competition, proving that EMA's are really going strong. Teams that had been long missing are drifting back and new teams are appearing all the time. Hopefully the team battle at the end of the year should be a real highlight. We are all looking forward to it anyway!

For obvious reasons we didn't get to see much of the older end fighting, though I caught the beginning of my ladies section which looked rather good. All our team who didn't get to fight were awarded points in the website rankings appropriately.

Due to the still lacking sparring reporter, if any of you (out there in the wider world) want to report names to me of those in your club who did well or of anyone you would like to mention - you can do it on the day of a tournament or email me that same night. I will try to include anything you send where possible.

Its very lonely out here in cyber-space - I'm talking especially to other teams - if you want general tournament reports as we have been doing for the last few months and not just reports for our team, then please give something back by joining discussions and contributing etc. Otherwise you might find this website gathering cobwebs like the rest of them...