Chuldow Squad Pages

Forms Report
By Parent - Jacqui Varley

And so to Manchester . . . Purely from a comfort point of view it was a great relief to be able to find somewhere to sit at Manchester this week after the ‘cattle truck’ experience of Judgement Day a couple of weeks ago – even though it was an excellent tournament.

Considering this was an invitational event, the turnout was pretty low with a few notable absentees - although that didn’t dampen spirits. The sections, though smaller than the squad have been used to of late, were of a good standard, with many of those chosen to go to Canada competing.

The nine squaddies competing in forms today were: Adam Fields, John Leeming, Jordan and Hannah Varley, Katie Townsend, Nichola Rock , Sarah Crosby, Matt Kemp and Tim Potts. Many entered two or more sections with great success. In total we had entries in twelve sections! All the sections were judged by well known and respected referees Mick and Sue Issacs and Rob Campbell.

Adam and Jordan entered in the Junior Boys Japanese section. At first, I thought they were the only two in the section but then out came the big guns! They were joined by Nathan Blur, Oliver Marshall and Oliver Brookes Adams who took the top three places in the section. Our two little ones were dwarfed by these guys but nevertheless put on creditable and much improved performances of Ku Shanku and Jion respectively.

Nicola and Katie entered the Junior Girls Japanese section with Katie borrowing Jordan’s heavyweight suit to compete – and very good she looked too even though the trousers were a bit short! Nicola took an excellent third doing Empi with Leanne Newton taking the first spot, whilst Katie got VERY positive feedback from the judges for a first open performance of Hangetsu.

Adam was up against a well-known creative empty hand competitor, Oliver Brookes Adams, in the Junior Boys Empty Hand section. And boy does that extra gymnastic training show Adam! He dazzled us all with a fantastic performance and took gold much to everyones delight.

Jordan was thrilled to finally beat his old adversary (and mate) Jack from Blackpool Budokan in the musical weapons section and took his first gold at an open. John Leeming also competed in this category and is gaining confidence with every tournament. Jordan also took a gold in the non-musical section much to his surprise! (Kempy is smiling!)

Hannah also picked up a silver in the non-musical weapons section after dropping her stick for the first time in a competition (doh!). This particular bo form is still very much a ‘work-in-progress’ which is evolving into a very technically complicated piece of creative weaponry! (Thanks Liv – we think!).

Sarah, Katie and Hannah entered the girls musical weapons section next. Hannah took a silver in the musical weapons section following a tie in which she again chose to swap weapons to kama and pinch Jordan and Matt’s music. A very strange look passed over her face when she realised she had forgotten the form and had to blag much of the middle section with a improvised version of empi! (Answer: PRACTICE!) Katie’s weapons form gets better at every tournament and Sarah is going to be SO good. Very stylish performances from all three girls and it was great to hear music different from the usual techno dance stuff.

And so onto Senior Japanese Forms, with Matt entering this section against Oliver Marshall, Nathan Blur and probably the best kata practitioner in the country at the moment, Lee Tiffany. After a brilliant performance of one of our kyu grade katas, Chinto (similar to one of the black belt Shotakan forms) he tied with Oliver Marshall and took a bronze.

Matt also went onto to get a gold in the Korean section, proving again why he has been picked to compete in Canada in this particular style.

However, it was in the Senior Mens Weapons with Music section that his nerves were really tested. He got a gold using kama, (of course we all knew he would!), against seasoned opposition. Very flashy, very spinny, very kicky but most of all technically excellent with clean cuts and solid stances.

Our ‘barely over 35’ veteran Tim Potts (so he says!) was the last of our individual squaddies to compete – in the Veterans Japanese section. After a tie, Tim came away with a silver medal which is no mean feat against people who have been doing karate for eons!

A surprise addition to our portfolio of sections today was the entry of four teams in the Team Kata category! Our teams were: Tim and Sarah (Bassai Dai), Jordan and Adam, Hannah and Nicola (both Ku Shanku – Liv will slap you later Jordan! STANCES!) and Katie and John (Pinan Godan). They were all up against Team Impact, comprising Nathan Blur, Oliver Marshall and Leanne Newton whose polished performance won them the section. However, Nichola and Hannah are still in perfect time after a long break from this category and took silver with Tim and Sarah getting bronze after about 10 minutes practice! This section was great fun to watch and, by the looks of it, great fun to compete in!

My over-riding impression of the day, apart from the chewing gum and Ribena stains on my jeans (don’t ask!) was that the forms team is going from strength to strength with all of them giving confidence-building, improving performances and hopefully learning from their mistakes. Team Chuldow is gaining a reputation for excellence, fair play, respect, fun and teamwork on the open circuit, both in forms and fighting, and this really showed today.

SPARRING REPORT

Well I admit I didn't get to see much of the sparring since I had sooooo much going on over at the forms area (I am the forms coach after all!) but what I did see was pretty top quality from all the teams. I especially liked the coloured belt divisions, since you don't get them for juniors that often at an open competition - I think they would be a welcome addition to many of the other tournaments out there!

We got 8 sparring medals (i think - there might have been more) which means most people who fought got one! Hoorah for us! Was especially impressed wth Danny Pye - you can see the pictures to the left, and of course Gwiz's fight since he managed a very smug and spectacular 10-0 against his opponent in a very short amount of time. You sure can tell he's quit smoking (well done! God help who ever fights you at Morley). Also, I enjoyed coaching the girls points - which had some very good fights - even though I had to keep running about trying to keep up with forms in between fights!

Someone from Liverpool Warlords came over and kindly pointed out my two guestbook chatters as well, so now I know who has been causing me to delete entries in my guestbook everyday for about a month! Thanks a whole bunch guys! Have you registered on the forum yet? I'm considering just leaving the guestbook full so you can't post in it - hehehehe. Be sure to actually come over and say hello next time (chickens! lol ) and I will introduce you to all the others who go on the site n' all.

Jade and Natalie of 'undisclosed club'- below is a picture of Ben Thatcher just for you - and its pre-stupid head injury as well! Try not to swoon too much will you Natalie? You might fall over and bang your head like he did...

Anyway, my fights sucked ass coz I had about 30 seconds notice and thats not even an exaggeration coz I rushed over from kata after someone shouted me! But still, I enjoyed them - even though my energy was nil!! hehehe - It was especially great to see Jade (Edmonds?) back again - I have missed fighting her - she seemed to disappear for agggges. Wooohooo for good women fighters!

Well thats about all I can say for this comp, I promise to set someone on sparring photography at Morley so we can do a better report - so if you read this and want your picture here - be sure to come find me and I'll make sure we get your name and a fighting photo! (Well unless something comes up such as... er... someone hands me a bag of skittles - never good for my concentration...)

I can't be arsed adding all the additional photos coz theyre pretty much all forms - but any forms squaddies looking for photos of yourself just email/msn me and i'll send you some!