The club took a small group to the TCGB Tournament in Bracknell on the 19th March. All the players as usual showed great effort and commitment at what was a very busy and crowded event.
Unfortunately our three poomsae competitors didn’t medal this time but it was good to see the progress in performance and especially to see a new competitor, Milan Mistry, competing outside club events for the first time. Good performance nevertheless and I think we’ll see more medals for these competitors in the future.
There was a large entry for sparring with 295 competitors and the standard of the players was good. So this was a hard environment especially for our two less experienced players. Kamil had a tough first match being quickly taken close to the points gap by a more experienced player however managed to defend well in the second round to finally the match losing on points. Liam also had a really tough match coming up against an excellent player from Future. Liam showed good skills and enthusiasm but just did not have the experienced to deal with a ‘A’ class player. However the experience of competing against a player with great timing and technique will undoubtably help Liam’s own development. Amy was drawn against a dan grade in the first match, fought well in a very close match and just took it by a point, 6-5. In the final, she again played well and dominated the match unfortunately due to a judging error (which resulted in 2 point incorrectly being attributed to her oponent), she lost 10-9 on points. The club lodged a protest but this was not upheld as there was not clear evidence of the error. The refereeing of this match left a lot to be desired.
Neo was our only gold medalist of the day. Getting a bye to the final, she smoothly dealt with her opponent winnng cleanly by 9-2.
The full squad was: Coleen Reilly, Sian Reilly, Amy Stock, Liam Griffiths, Neo Botha, Milan Mistry and Kamil Novak. Sparring players were coached by Gerry and Coleen, Poomse players by Lynne. Alex Walker handled the equipment and warm ups.