The grading was run on Friday 18^th November by our head coach Chris Doherty, 5^th Dan, who was very pleased with the progress of the novices and with their dedication to the sport. He is also looking forward to seeing the entire class continue to progress within the club both technically and competitively. With Varsity and BUCS on the agenda for next term some of our beginners are so keen to get an opportunity to compete that they will be entering their fist competition this Saturday at the London Universities Tournament held at Brunel University, good luck guys.

The committee of the Oxford Judo would like to express their thank to the coaches, especially Jordan, Carol, Chris and Ben who have all coached this very successful beginners course. We also are thankful for the generous support from British Judo Association. Their beginner’s package, which includes free membership along with subsidised judogi and classes, has undoubtedly contributed to this year’s success.

Due to several injuries, Oxford Judo was able to send only two players to the British Judo Council Senior National Championships, but both of them came back with a medal. Bradley Joyce impressed with a flawless performance to secure gold in the O100kg Dan grade category. Vitek Sipal fought extremely well and secured a bronze in the very competitive U81kg Dan grade category.

Brad convincingly won his pool by opening with a very tactically controlled the match and winning by Wazari. This was to the followed by two further ippons including a battle for gold where he clashed with a 3^rd Dan weighting impressive 138kg. Brad was scared neither by the experience or the size of his opponent and instead took carefully asses the situation before ruthlessly dispatching his opponent with a well timed seoi-nage for ippon.

Vitek started well by winning his qualification pool where he beat both 1^st and 3^rd Dan opponents by Ippon. In the medal pool, he lost to both his opponents, but his performance in the silver medal fight is a real promise for the future, considering this was his first competition after his knee surgery.

Both players are now looking forward to the London Universities Competition hosted next week at the Brunel University. For this event, many members of our squad should be fit for competition and we hope that we will maintain the average of a medal per head even with higher number of entries.

Matt Edmans won the adulation of the crowd in is first contest at the under 81 kg category, as he threw his Indian opponent all around the mat in a spectacular contest ending in the equivalent of ippon. Matt got as far as the quarter finals, only losing out to an unorthodox Georgian in a close contest for bronze. This meant Matt had the best
result of anyone on the British team at the championships.

Henry fought like a lion, but in a cruel twist of fate, ended up drawing the Uzbek in the first round.  The Uzbek’s greater experience
of the sport of kurash proved Henry’s downfall, however, he wasn’t downhearted by the experience.

Both Oxford fighters acquitted themselves well on the highest stage, and return home feeling confident in the strength of their judo.

This eight-week course starts at 19.00 on Friday Week 1 (14th October) in the Dojo at Iffley Sports Center. We welcome both students non-students above 16, so come along and join our club. Please bring older tracksuit trousers and long sleeve tops hoodies / jumpers are ideal (no zippers).

Advanced players can attend our regular sessions on:

Tuesdays 17.30-19.00
Thursdays 18.00 – 20.00 (advanced randori)
Saturdays 14.15 – 16.30
Sundays 17.00 – 19.00

For further information please email info@oxfordjudo.com

Becky and Max
OUJC Captains 2011/12

Check here or your email for updates.

After a training camp at St. Ives, our new secretary Carina Venter (Team Silver at BUCS 2011) is flying to South Africa to participate at the qualification to London Paralympics 2012. The entire club wishes her best of luck. We also hope that she will fulfil her dream to fight in London in front of her friends from Oxford Judo.

Ifor Capel (Individual Gold at BUCS 2011) and Rebecca Bayliss (Individual Bronze and Team Silver at BUCS 2011) have, based on their performance at BUCS 2011, been selected to represent Great Britain at the first European Universities Championships that will be held in Bosnia on 23 – 26 June 2011 (http://www.eurouniversitiesjudochampionship.com). Furthermore,  our head coach Chris Doherty has been selected to lead the British Team.
Oxford judo is extremely proud that the commitment of our members could be rewarded by attendance at such prominent international events.

Vit Sipal
Men’s Blues Captain 2010/11

On Saturday all the judoka fought extremely well, most of them progressed to the play off stage. Among the men, the best performance of the day was delivered by Max Denning and Ifor Capel. Max narrowly lost a bronze medal fight in the U90 category. Ifor managed to win all his fights and defend his BUCS title in the U90 category. Amongst the women, top performance was delivered by Amy-Ellis Thomson and Rebecca Bayliss who both won bronzes in their respective categories.

On Sunday, the team competition was on. The women’s team including both medallists and Carina Venter went easily to the final where they narrowly lost to Bath University. Despite the loss, everyone was happy with the defence of last year’s silver. The men were unlucky because of the rules Ifor could not fight due to a knee injury. He could be replaced James Shepherd but the order of the fights had to be kept. As a result, James U81 was facing heavier competitors than Max and David (both U90). Regardless the team managed to get a spot in the bronze medal game where they narrowly lost to Portsmouth.

The team left Sheffield with five medals and now everyone in Oxford is wishing best luck to Ifor and Becky who got the chance to represent Britain at the European University Championships in Sarajevo later this year.

Vit Sipal
Men’s Blues Captain 2010/11

CITY TEAM: 4-4(3-0) WIN TO OXFORD

All of city’s players were lighter than their rivals. Benoit took his much heavier (18kg) opponent late into the fight and tiered him out before throwing him for ippon. Paul started strongly in his match against an over 100kgs fighter (109kg) but when the fight went to the ground the heavier masters player had the advantage and pinned him. Jim fought against a skilled bjj practitioner (heavier by 11kg) and proved his class by dominating him throughout the contest and winning by wazari. Ben fought next against a strong player who again had the size advantage(12kg), but he was unable to complete any throws and lost by a yuko. Henry was next up against his foe who yet again had the size advantage (12kg). Henry was able to put in some great attacks and avoid the attacks coming his way. The referee called ‘mate’ after a leg grab from Henry’s opponent and duly disqualified him, giving Henry the ippon. Greivin fought against a sixth dan who had 12 kgs on him and fought hard but could not overcome the more skilled and heavier opponent and was eventually pinned for ten. Alex then fought against last years captain. Again alex gave up around 15kgs and was unable to make any of his attacks stick, and was thrown for ippon. Finally our vice captain Jordan was up and she had an equally tough draw from the strong Cambridge team. After scoring many times Jordan finally managed to get the ippon, drawing the match at 4 each.

The referees pulled 3 fights out of the hat to be recontested. Ben, Henry and Jordan were chosen to fight again. Ben came out all guns blazing this time and got control early, his opponent threw in an attack which was defended but in doing so he went over on his knee and could not continue, awarding Ben the ippon. Next up was Henry, he put on a great display of judo really making his heavier opponent struggle and concede shidos. After the forth penalty Henry had the deserved win. Finally Jordan had her fight and completely dominated her fighter, eventually scoring ippon via juji gatame and bringing home the City Shield to Oxford!

The city squad overcame a much heavier Cambridge team and deservedly won the metal, making captain Ben and the rest of Oxford Judo proud.

MEN’s B TEAM: 5-3 WIN TO OXFORD

The B team was exceptionally strong this year with many players who, in a normal year, would be on the A team. The match did not start well though. Firstly, Kabalan submitted to an armlock. This was followed by Vitek’s injury related withdrawal from his match and Nick’s mistake. At that moment, we were 0-3 down, and every Cambridge person believed that they had their hands on the trophy.

Fortunately, Cambridge could not have anticipated the storming performance of our last five fighters. Matt Taylor coming back after his back injury was in a head to head fight for most of the match before he presented a massive leg sweep for ippon. Guy went to fight his former vice-captain from his old school and has proven that he was the captain for a reason. Sam decided that there was no reason to waste time and with one of the most beautiful throws of the day finished his opponent very early. Next up were Lui and Nick. They both finished within 30 seconds and completed a phenomenal comeback from 0-3 to 5-3! A fantastic turnaround.

WOMEN’S TEAM: 2-3 WIN TO CAMBRIDGE

Even though the women’s team was severely weakened by injuries and late pull-outs they presented a strong side. President Karen, still not fit after her knee injury, was fighting well but lost to a hold down. Captain Amy stepped up the game and equalised to 1-1. Carina gave a good fight but one could see that she has only come back to judo in recent weeks and needs more competitive practice to hone her game. Becky proved her class and equalised the match again. At 2-2, Rachel, a novice to the Varsity was next up. Unfortunately, she lost which was more due to the pressure of the situation rather than any lack of skill on her part. Next year, we will fight back and get the sake bowl back to Oxford!

MEN’s BLUES TEAM: 6-2 WIN TO OXFORD

The last match was the clash of the Blues. Our team was motivated and ready to bring the Matsudaira cup back home. Brad was first up and showed that he does not lose his varsity fights. Good start for Oxford. Next up was a fight between Justin and former World Champion Florian Wanner. Unfortunately, Justin submited to a rather unfair technique and had to go to hospital to get his ear sewed back on. At one all, Ifor Capel entered the mat to make a routine 5 second win without breaking a sweat. (He needs to show a big performance at BUCS because these 5 seconds cannot be enough for a Full Blue ). 2-1 for Oxford and the biggest fight of the day was on: the clash of Oxford’s Max Denning against Cambridge’s Captain Kane Chandler. After 3 minutes of breathtaking judo the score board was still at 0 : 0 when Max suddenly managed to catch Kane unprepared and won by an armlock. 3-1 for Oxford with 4 to go. Next up was David, who dominated his match and won eventually with a big throw. Good first five fights, 4-1 for Oxford and the traditional fight between Andy Stewart and his Austrian Nemesis was up next. Unfortunately, Philipp managed to hold Andy down making the match more interesting, 4-2. Next up was James Shepherd who faced an opponent who traditionally does not want to fight and receives a penalty after penalty. James was pracising smart judo, his opponent got three shidos and after 4 minutes, the trophy was now ours! Last fighter was Hugh Leonard, who was sent on to the mat with one clear instruction: “Don’t accept a 5-3 win, make it 6:2!” Not only did Hugh follow the instruction, he also decided that there is no reason to postpone the celebrations and gave us a big quick win that triggered unprecedented celebrations from the victorious Oxford squad.

Not only does the final score of 6-2 in Oxford’s favour, achieved on Cambridge home turf, demonstrate the extraordinary strength of this year’s squad, it gives us great hope for big things at BUCS in two weeks.

Ben Clifton & Vitek Sipal
City Team Captain & Men’s Blues Captain