Stefan Creran and Ross Hepburn, who are now part of the West of Scotland Talent Development Squad fought in the morning, with Peter Doogan and Stuart Kennedy, two of our seniors competing in the afternoon.

Ross was first up for the team and started really well competing hard against what seemed to be much larger opponents. There was some excellent techniques shown with a fantastic tate shiho gatame hold for ippon against an east coast player which was rewarded with a bronze medal in the 60kg+ category.

Stefan was next up competing in the -60kg category which was undoubtedly the category for the craziest hairdo. Stefan started slow but really came on to a good performance by controlling his opponent with his gripping skills. There was no medal here but definately a good start to the competitive calenar.

The two senior players won their first fights of the day by the skin of their teeth. This was against the weigh in scales! Once on the mat Stuart was first up and started of with a throw for ippon. Stuart kept up the performances and won match after match by ippon all the way to the final. In the final Stuart fought well but was caught with a good throw for Ippon by, would you believe “Mr Mcguinness”, no it wasn’t me it was an english player who was part of a large team from Newcastle who had travelled north to compete.

Well done Stuart on an excellent silver in the -90kg category

Peter fought in the -81kg and his first fight was against a frenchman, there was some good exchanges in this match but Peter was caught on the ground and could not escape hi opponents grip.

Next up was a match against the eventual winner of the tournament. Peter attempted a nice seoi nage, but again was caught on the ground. Not the result Peter was looking for but gives us a starting point for the next competition.

Well done to all of the guys who fought.

Roland Smyth, Lewis Christie and Summer Cranney all took part in this years event which would have been their first judo tournament. All three did the club proud with some fantastic fighting and gritty performances. Roland started off the day with an excellent win by Ippon but unfortunately Lewis got caught cold early in the fight. Both of the boys fought well and came away with some valuable competitive experience and their heads held high. In the afternoon Summer started her first tournament well by winning her fights mostly by Ippon all the way to the final. Her performance in the final was fantastic and up against a more experienced player pushed her opponent to a golden score situation. Summer nearly had the gold as she had her opponent in a hold twice but she had managed to escape. It came to a referee decision and this time it went the other way. Summer came away with the silver, not bad for the first attempt.

On the 9th we held a club competiton which provided the crowds with some fantastic judo. Players from all of our classes from Tiny Titans up competed in some hard fought battles.

Well done to all who fought and keep up the hard work for the grading in June. Above is a picture of the medallists from the club competition.

With this year in mind Paul had said “I’m trying to sort the kids programme but at this point due to the current financial climate we are unsure if the college would be able to support the summer camp, worse case is we can put on a watered down version for the kids”. Paul added ” Regarding the training camp, I’m trying to obtain the services of the countries top competitor at the moment to provide our big name for the summer, following last years big guns Graeme Randall, National Coach and Former World Champion and John Buchanan, National Talent Development Coach and World Bronze medallist”.

The club would again like to thank the afore mentioned parties in their valuable contribution to services we provide.

All the players who take part in the camp compete in its annual tournament and in his category Nathan picked up the silver after a great fighting performance.

Well done Nathan

You’ve got to check this out before 15th January.

Paul

Some newer seniors coming through are Malky and Craig, they both competed in the national grading at Ratho. Both had a fantastic start and both threw for ippon to cement their first 10 points. A shaky second fight for both but they both soldiered through and battled to win the next contests to get the points they needed to be promoted green belt.

Another more familiar face was at the grading, John Lipsett completed a big chunk of whats required to collect his second Dan. John has worked hard over the last few years and is well on his way to collecting the well earned accolade of 2nd Dan.

Well done to all the guys doing the business for the club.

some crazy people

This Saturday saw another great night with the Mick Tausney band at the annual Halloween dance. There were lots of fancy dress costumes on show and a great turn out from Saddam Hussein, Darth Maul, Spiderman, Dr Kenny Lingus, Mr Incredible, Amy Winehouse, Daddy Cool, Count Dracula to name a few!!!

Even with the torrential rain and howling wind there was still a great turn out to make the night fantastic and also show support for the club by taking part in the usual coin toss for the bottles.

During the day we held the kids party, wow!! there was all sorts turning up here, from Ben 10 to the Wolf Man, Darth Maul to Indiana Jones. Some fantastic costumes on show and hopefully a fun time had by all.

All the kids put a lot of effort into the costumes, so thank you and keep up the good work.

Hopefully more pics to follow on the flicker button on the right.

Anyone who took some pics please send the good ones to paul@titanjudo.com

Darren Kennedy and Lewis Greig both represented the club in seperate weight categories.

Darren won the bronze medal in his category and was unlucky not to pick up the silver with some questionable refereeing. Darren fought extremely well and gained more experience fighting in this difficult tournament.

Lewis fought extremely well on the day and won all his fights on his way to collecting the gold medal. He won his fights with several different techniques and showed his class with a few ippons.

The boys fought really well and to come away with two medals out of two is an excellent result.

We are running a slightly different timetable until the end of August. Make sure to have a look at our timetable so you know when we are on.