Venray International 2007

Coach's Report:

Following our trip to Venray in Holland on the 1st to the 3rd of June I have the following report:

Firstly praise to the mini bus driver Paul Wathan, for excellent care throughout our journey and stay in Holland. He took all the usual pranks with good humour! Excellent!

Joe Whatman – Junior U60kg (Sat) 5th PLACE
Very tough category – he had 5 fights overall and managed to successfully win 3 of them out of the 5. He got to the quarterfinal and lost to the silver medallist, just missing out on a bronze medal. A very large group and an excellent effort and determination were shown.

Andrew Stevenson – Senior U60kg (Sun) 5th PLACE Under 21
He fought well and had a very tough first fight, which he lost. He managed to win his second fight by ippon, and then went on to fight for the bronze, both scored against each other but got Andrew was caught right at the end which enabled his opponent to snatch the win from him. Fought well.

Stewart Pateman – Senior U66kg (Sun) BRONZE
Stewart had a bye in the first round, which managed to put him through to the semi final. He then fought the Gold medallist and had a fabulous fight, absolutely excellent, there really was nothing in it but unfortunately Stewart was caught seconds before the end. He then went on to fight for a bronze medal defeating his opponent in seconds! He fought extremely well and was a credit to Team BJC and their Judo.

Jamie Pearson – Senior U90kg (Sun) Under 21
He had 2 fights and 2 losses. I think Jamie let his nerves grab hold a little but he fought well giving it a go and undoubtedly this was good experience for him.

Nicholi Daley – Senior U90kg (Sun) SILVER Under 21
Nicholi had 4 fights and fought extremely well. I think Nicholi needed the wake-up on the first fight and unfortunately got caught, he lost his first fight but it was extremely tough, that soon put his mind in the right frame for the next three fights because he absolutely smashed all other opponents, beating a British Squad player and Swedish and Scottish Internationals. He did an excellent tournament.

Dave Clark – Senior U90kg (Sun) BRONZE
Dave fought well and was injured with his first opponent, which he then lost. He then came out strong winning the second putting him in a bronze medal fight, which he also won. He completely dominated the fight, which was very tough – winning at full time.

Craig Homer – Senior U73kg (Sun)
Craig fought hard on his first fight right to the end loosing by a small score. Second fight, he fought a Dutch International loosing quite quickly unfortunately. Craig gave a brave effort and fought well.

Nick Holmes – Senior U90kg (Sun)
Nick lost both his fights. He fought his first fight really well, he was winning up until seconds before the end and nail biting stuff, getting caught 7 seconds before the time was out!! Second fight he was caught early and was disappointed with himself but he gave a great effort and determination.

Journey to Holland was fine. Saturday was an early start to do some ‘Bonding’ and pre competition preparation – GO KARTING and football, swimming and generally anything to take their minds of the competition.

The boys were fine weighing in showing a mature and sensible responsibility for their own weight categories.

In the evening we went for a Chinese and Nicholi decided to eat all the Chilli on the table – I have no idea why he might have wanted to do this!!

Andy wanted a challenge to drink 6 litres of coke – again I have no idea why he wanted a challenge! – He failed miserably, but Nicholi ‘Dustbin’ Daley managed to help him out and finished the lot off! (3½ litres).

Sunday was a long day for all of us but everybody kept each other going and Team BJC demonstrated a unique team spirit that is so often missing from other organisations.

Mark Howard under 73Kilos failed to show and to get the keys to the accommodation I had to pay for his stay, which was a total of 60 Euros. I would be grateful if Mark could refund this to me ASAP, as he had every chance to cancel and now I have had to foot the bill.

So again, another successful trip to Holland, It would be good to look into taking the squad away to other events as they all really enjoy them and Team BJC is starting to become real contenders in the competitive circuit.

Neil Roode - National Squad Coach (5th Dan)

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