Skip to main content

News for 2013

Please click on the news item you would like to view.

Nearly 100 members, Parents, Wives and Friends gathered in the Main Dowty Clubhouse just prior to Xmas 2013 for the Club's annual awards evening.

The Club has undergone a stringent Clubmark Audit during the year, commissioned by the BJA, and had come through it with flying colours, illustrated by a very positive and praiseworthy letter from the Auditing Company.

The full list of awards presented on the evening was as follows:

Spirit of Judo,
Olly Matholie
Kerry Matholie
Izzie Butler
Archie Walsh
Jason Augh

Performance award,
Adam Shotbolt
Callum Woodham
Richard Mowbray
Ben Stanley

Continuing Performance award,
Nathan Berreclough

Junior Player of the Year,
James Dobson

Junior Players Player,
Callum Woodham

Senior Players Player,
Mike Woodham

Keith Wolvendale Shield,
Chris Ritchie

Paul Chadwick Spirit of Judo,
Chris Andrews

Player of the Year,
Maria Ritchie

Apollo Judo Club sent players to fight in the Rod Lane minimon on the 16th November at Kidderminster. Results as follows:
GOLD - Owen Burton
SILVER - Henry Jones
BRONZE - Bethany Whittard-Swift, Bradley Wilband, Leo Wedley and Rosie Jones.

Lucas Holford acheived a gold medal at the Bradley Stoke minimon on the 16th November.

Pete Miles from Bradley Stoke Judo Club has been awarded the BJA Cadet of the Year.

BSJC and guests travelled to The Hague International tournament from 8th to 11th November 2013. Leaving Bradley Stoke at 6.30 it was a great trip over to Holland with Mike on the mike. Arrived in The Hague at 7.00 in evening in time for supper and a relatively early night.

Here is a brief review of who did what:

Day One

A busy day at a first class venue where we were well looked after by our Dutch hosts.

James Smith - first competition abroad great experience won a fight with a great ippon.
Jess - classy little fighter who won a well earned silver.
Tatum - totally dominated to win gold.
Joe - much more maturity got him fifth place losing to the eventual gold medalist.
Jack - performance of the day destroying a large field to take a fantastic bronze.
Brad - BSJC training starting to pay dividends with a well earned fifth place.
Sam Bass - tough group but Sam acquitted himself well even though he didn't win a fight.
Toby - difficult day with some tough opponents and even though didn't win give all of his opponents a tough time.
Megan - difficult day and still carrying an injury but notwithstanding losing 3 managed to dig deep to win fourth and last fight.
Sam Ashton - a day of highs and lows in a large group. Got out of his pool and won a fight with a strangle for the first time.
Jaxon - another tough group that contained the eventual winner. Despite fighting well Jaxon disappointed not to win a fight today.
Elle - along with Jack the star of the day taking a well earned silver with a clinical display of judo.
Amy Oram - after a slow start pulled out the stops to get silver.
Tom Smith - baptism of fire (and strangles) in a tough under 38 group but won a fight and will certainly benefit fro experience.
Adam Whitfield- fought his heart out to take a thoroughly deserved bronze from a tough group.

Day Two

After a fairly late night for some and early breakfast we were at the venue by 9.00 ready for another full on day

Beth - pulled out another great performance abroad and fought well to earn a well deserved bronze.
Amy Oram (petite) - also won fights and was over the moon to get bronze after previous disappointment in Holland.
Kate Ashton - struggled in a very tough pool full of strong Dutch girls but should not be disappointed with her performance.
Isaac - managed a good win but also came up against some tough opponents
Myles - in the same group as Isaac managed to dig deep to win a creditable bronze.
Ben - fought really well in both juniors and seniors to get gold and bronze respectively.
Chris Edwards - fought well, won one but didn't manage to get out of pool.
Louis- fought his heart out in the juniors taking on some really tough guys and managing to win one. Unfortunately after a great start in cadets had to withdraw with a shoulder injury.
Dom - back on form with a well deserved gold in seniors
Jordan - lost a really good fight with Dom in seniors but sustained a head injury and had to withdraw.
James Hayes - one of the real stars if day two with 12 hard fights and well deserved silvers in both juniors and cadets.
Lele - a great start winning gold in juniors but then struggled and did not get out if pool in cadets. Rallied to win gold in seniors.
Steph - a really strong performance from Steph winning a bronze in a very tough cadet group
Andrew Serdega - display of judo to win gold in a really tough cadet group. Sound of cheers from the BSJC crew still probably ringing in his ears.
Hannah - had to fight some giants who she couldn't overcome.
Lissa - great to see Lissa back to winning form fighting out of her pool to win bronze.

Final medal tally from a really tough competition, Gold 6, Silver 5, Bronze 8.

A fantastic trip, thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Many thanks to our excellent coaches Pete, Nick, Roy and Simon who, as always, managed to get maximum effort and performance out of all of our players.

Also a huge thank you to Sally for all the hard work she put into making this trip happen.

Pete Douglas

Dowty Players have been active in recent weeks, with two of our Players gaining or enhancing their Dan Grade status. 17 years old Chris Ritchie, who has been at the Club since joining as a Junior, gained his first Dan at High Wycombe with the successful completion of his line-up. Ben Stanley completed his points requirement for his 2nd Dan.

Long term Club member Nathan Lockey who is currently serving in the British Army took part in the Army Championships recently, and took the Gold in his new weight of -81kgs.

At the recent Gloucestershire Junior Open, James Dobson came up with the best Dowty performance by far with a Gold medal at u/46 kilo's winning all four of his contests.

Pete Salter

Our recent event at the Newent Leisure Centre, home of the Newent Judo Club, was another very successful event. This was our 5th Gloucestershire Open, and this year we attracted 128 entries which was one of our highest, and nearly 30 up on last year. We had a couple of pre event hiccups, but all was sorted by the day, and we had completed all the action by around 4-30pm.

Gloucestershire Clubs were well represented both in entries and eventual medal places, and this was despite the absence of the majority of the Bradley Stoke Club who were abroad on a trip arranged many months previously. There were 15 medal places for 13 of the Counties Players, 6 of which were Gold.

The event was as usual planned over the preceding months by a small but committed group of the Counties committee, and as always it was good to see it all come good on the day. The venue is excellent, the LC Manager has been there for the duration of the last 5 years, is very helpful, and now knows exactly what we want. We look to cut our costs wherever we can, but without of course compromising the event in any way, such as re-using medals left over from the previous year, again without compromising the end result for the successful medal winners, and again Lorraine O'Connell provided a first class buffet for the officials at a fraction of what most people would consider to be a normal cost.

So from a financial point of view, the County will make a profit, which will be used to help finance players for competitions such as the area team event. Profit from such an event is not easy in these days of ever rising costs, such as officials expenses, venue hire, medals, mat transport etc etc, but we managed it, so well done to all.

Pete Salter - County Chair

County individual results as follows:

Under 12 years Competition
GOLD - George Barby-Moule (+50kg) Bradley Stoke
GOLD - James Dobson (-42kg) Dowty
GOLD - Ellen Holder (-44kg) Cirencester
GOLD - Ryan Rijksen Salman (-38kg) Bradley Stoke
SILVER - Josh Long (-50kg) Stroud
SILVER - Alexander Rijksen Salman (-34kg) Bradley Stoke
BRONZE - Joe Freedman (-34kg) Stroud
BRONZE - Henry Jones (-30kg) Apollo
BRONZE - Omar Shaik (-42kg) Stroud

Under 16 years Competition
GOLD - Alexander Rijksen Salman (-34kg) Bradley Stoke
GOLD - Ryan Rijksen Salman (-38kg) Bradley Stoke
SILVER - Rebecca Norris (-63kg) Newent
BRONZE - Owen Burton (-60kg) Apollo
BRONZE - Jonathon Phelps (-34kg) Apollo
BRONZE - Cameron Turton (-42kg) Stroud

Well done to everyone who took part and click here to view the full results.

Pete Miles from Bradley Stoke Judo Club has reached the final 3 for West of England Aspiring Young Performer of the Year. He has also been short listed for the BJA Cadet of the Year award.

At the British U12s Championships Bradley Stoke Judo Club took a record haul of medals, Ryan and Jaxon took Gold, while Alex, Sam, Tatum, Jess and Zoe won Bronzes.

Maria Ritchie and Chris Andrews have both retained their British Masters titles for 2013 by winning Gold at the recent British Championships held in Kidderminster.

Also winning medals at this competition from Bradley Stoke Judo Club were Nick Brace who also came away with a Gold and Trevor King who won a Silver.

Lele nairne won a Gold medal at the UK school games in Sheffield for England while Ben Attwood took a Bronze. This was the first time any B.S.J.C player has been selected for this event.

Bradley Stoke Judo Club were competing at the highest level over the last couple of months.

Pete Douglas B.S.J.C Coach and Pete Miles student were both competing for Great Britain in the European Championships for their relevant age groups both have competed at this level previously with no medals but this time everything fell into place.

Pete Douglas fought on the 15th of June in Paris at the European Veterans Championships at the age of 50. After a very tough draw he fought his way through to winning a superb Silver Medal beating ex world and European Champions on the way. Pete has previously won 5 British Veteran Championships but rated this Silver as his best result. Pete will now be aiming to compete at the Worlds in Abu Dhabi in November.

Pete Miles aged 17 competed for GB in the European Cadet Championships, held from 21-23 June, in Tallinn, Estonia. Pete won an amazing Bronze medal taking on the best players from all over Europe. Pete has also won 5 British Championship medals at 3 different age groups and weight classes. During this last week Pete Miles won a Silver Medal at the European Youth Olympics Festival in Holland defeating the current European Silver medallist. Petes recent rich vein of form means he has qualified to fight for GB in the up and coming Cadet World Championships in Miami.

Players from the Dowty Judo Club travelled to Kidderminster for the Samurai Senior Kyu grade event, and although all three Players involved are in the Cadet class ie 17 years or under, they enjoyed a successful day.

Adam Shotbolt, one of the Clubs up and coming youngsters competing at -73kg had an excellent championship and with four straight wins came away with the Gold medal. Adam will shortly compete in the West of England Open event in the Cadet category.

Chris Ritchie, also still only 17 years of age, more than held his own with senior players at -81kg, and came away with the Silver medal in his category.

Likewise, Becky McNickle scored two wins before a rib injury caused her to withdraw, but still finished in Bronze position for her category.

Players from the Dowty Judo Club, at both Senior and Junior level have been active at various competitions around the Country.

At a Junior event in the Midlands, Harvey White, Max Gregory & James Dobson were all Gold medallists in a lower grade event, with Archie Walsh, Oliver Mathoulie, Oliver Stone, Brodie Brain, Kerry Mathoulie and Toby Williams all taking Silver.

In the West of England Junior closed, held at Kingsbridge in Devon, Brodie Brain took a Gold at -44kg, Nathan Berrecloth won Silver at -50kg, and James Dobson took a Bronze at -42kg.

Two of the Dowty Club's Senior Kyu grades, Adam Shotbolt and Tom Tobin took Silver and Bronze medals respectively at another Midland area event.

A senior Squad of six Players from the Club also took part in the High Wycombe Masters event, with Chris Andrews taking the Gold at -81kg, and Maria Ritchie also taking Gold at -71kg.

Finally, one of the Club's qualified Judo Coaches Bradley Salter, has won a British Masters title in another of the Martial arts of Ju-jitsu.

Peter Salter

Up to the 12th of April 2013 B.S.J.C had won lots of things, little did we know what was going to happen over the next 9 days.

In 9 Days B.S.J.C players won 4 European Cup Medals, Fantastic results.

April 13 and 14th - European Cadet cup in Portugal
Pete Miles wins Bronze
Lele Nairne wins Silver

April 20th and 21st - European Cadet Cup in Czech Republic the biggest this year.
Pete Miles wins Bronze
Lele Nairne wins Bronze

Pete Douglas.

A good year for the County all round I feel, with more successes on and off the mat. These continue to be good times for our Players in the County, and in particular our juniors continue to be very successful competitively speaking. In particular, Players from the Bradley Stoke and Stroud Clubs are extremely active around the Junior circuit with Players from Bradley Stoke in particular in the National pre-Cadet, Cadet & Junior Squads.....

Here is the rest of Pete's report.

Ellen Holder, Silver in -44Kg under 16 years age group.

Dowty Judo Club as a Bronze Clubmark award holder were selected at random to be externally audited by Knight, Kavanagh & Page.

The audit manager sent a very nice letter to the club and here are the comments pertaining to the club audit :

"The External Verification enables us to ensure that your national governing body is continuing to demonstrate the robustness of Clubmark as a quality accreditation scheme.
My colleague was particularly impressed with the set up at the Club and the welcoming atmosphere which has been created at your purpose built facility. Celebration of member's achievements and qualifications has helped to develop this and it is clear to visitors, such as my colleague, that the Club provides an enjoyable and positive experience for its members. It was particularly pleasing to hear of your offer to new members and beginners to the sport and how these are appropriately integrated into the Club. As always we appreciate your feedback regarding Clubmark and its wider promotion and can ensure you that all is being done to improve this in the ways you have suggested. The Club is a credit to you and other committee member's hard work. I look forward to hearing of many more successes in the future."

A small Squad of Dowty juniors attended the Bradley Stoke Training and Competition day, three of them took a Gold medal including young Callum Woodham at just 6 years of age:

Callum Woodham - Gold -27 Kg
Harvey White - Gold -30 kg
Brodie Brain - Gold -45 kg

A squad of 12 of the Dowty Club's comparatively new Junior intake travelled to Kidderminster for the Samurai mini-me's competition recently. The Club enjoyed an excellent day with some of the Squad both taking part in their first competition, and winning their first medal. Three of the group Harvey White, James Dobson, and Max Gregory took Gold's in their respective groups, and the remaining Players all took a medal of some description. The full list of successes were as follows:

Harvey White - Gold -30kg
Max Gregory - Gold -35kg
James Dobson - Gold -45kg
Archie Walsh - Silver -30kg
Oliver Mathoulie - Silver -31kg
Oliver Storey - Silver -30kg
Brodie Brain - Silver -45kg
Kerry Mathoulie - Silver -50kg
Toby Williams - Silver -67kg
Jessica Tryner - Bronze -42kg
Joe Davies - Bronze -45kg
Austin Solway - Bronze -63kg

It's annual awards time again at Newent and as well as the certificates that are given to the club members for their achievements for the year the following trophies were awarded:

Junior Trophies
Spirit of Judo : Rebecca Norris
Spirit of Judo : Jake Mitchell

Senior Trophies
Spirit of Judo : Evan Barber

Club Trophies
Coach player of the year : Carrie Nicholls
Club player of the year : Tarran Hasuk

The B.S.J.C Coaches travelled to Lille in France in a very precarious fashion to compete at the Eurometropole Championships.

Only 6 Brits took part in this international competition and Pete Douglas won it for the 4th time in a row with all Ippons.

Roy Walker won a superb Bronze ,Trevor King took 5th place and Nick Brace 7th after losing out to the Gold Medallist by 2 shidos.

Pete Douglas.

After another very hectic weekend in Judo B.S.J.C added to it's 11 top 5 finishes at the Brits the weekend before.

Pete Miles became a 5th time British Champion winning the Junior event.

Lele Nairne won a superb Bronze at the age of 15 and Ben Attwood took a creditable 5th Place in a very talented line up.

Pete Douglas.

The B.S.J.C Gang were back in fine form again.

Gold - Pete Miles 4th National title in a row great result against Eric Ham in the Final.
Jack Reeves, Stephanie Walker, Lele Nairne all won Silver Medals
Bronze Medals went to Toby Attwood, Marc Arsac, James Hayes, Myles Nelson.
Elle Young and Hannah Pitt took 5th places

Pete Douglas.