The day did not start well as both our lightweights missed their weights so we had to improvise. We entered two teams of four for the men’s category (requiring teams of five) as well as a women’s team.
The women were fighting well despite significantly heavier opposition and won a bronze medal! After that, Amy and Emma went on in the individual competition and won bronze and silver respectively. RESPECT! On the way, Emma has managed to get points for her 1st Dan.
The second men’s team was seriously underweight. Guy with 67kg as U73, Sam Hoggard with 67kg as U81!!!, Nick Rounthwaite with 73kg as U90!!! in a black belt competition, David Passarelli with 86kg as O90. Regardless, they were giving good fights. They did not make it out of the group but even 2-3 losses are a valuable result given the circumstances. All four deserve tons of respect.
The men’s A team was U73 Hugh, U81 James, U90 Max, O90 Brad, we were missing the U66 player. The start of the team was impressive. Two 4-1 wins taking about 5 minutes each made me very happy and will eventually cost me 8 beers, which the boys well deserved. Next was a match against the Samurai club (non-university team with quite a few squad players). We lost narrowly but gave them a fight a class higher than any other university team. Unfortunately, Max got injured in his epic fight against a GBR squad member. Due to the rigidness of the head referee, we were not allowed to replace Max with David for the last group fight and the playoffs.
Against Warwick 2, we only entered 3 players:-(. We lost this one 2-3 but it must be said that the referee’s decision in Hugh’s fight might be called controversial. But it is time to get used to it as Varsity will be an away event as well.
We still qualified for the semifinal and we managed to get a player from Birmingham who could enter in our team. In the semifinal, we faced Coventry (another non-univ club), who were pretty much at home. We ended up losing 0.5 – 4.5 after the only draw was made by our new U90 from Birmingham who was a kyu grade. David would have killed that particular opponent, but it was not meant to happen.
The fights were closer than the final score suggests. Hugh definitely deserved to draw but again, we were not the home side.
Anyway, we got bronze in a good quality tournament and if I do not count the loss to Warwick, which would not have happened if Max or David could have played, our A team was UNBEATEN BY ANY UNIVERSITY TEAM DESPITE THE FACT WE ONLY ENTERED 4 PEOPLE FOR A TEAM OF 5! Good outlook for BUCS!
After the team event, we had few uninjured people entering individuals with a great success rate. Brad won a silver, Nick Rounthwaite bronze, David Passarelli bronze as well. James fought well but got a bit unlucky. Still, if I include the women, we entered 6 people for the individuals and got 5 medals. It is still one medal to perfection, but we still have time to train before BUCS! Sam was injured and Guy had to leave but given their performance in the team event they looked like they would have dominated the lightweight category.
Overall, everyone is doing extremely well and I am soon to have hard time choosing the Varsity Squad.
Vitek
OUJC Men’s Blues Captain