DJC @ The Fudoshin Cup (Team Event)
Sunday the 16th of September saw Drake Judo Club make the short by windy journey to Bideford for the Fundoshin Cup hosted by Kingsley School Judo Club, This was to be the first team event that DJC have entered
A few years ago, Devon County used to host a team element at their individual closed championships which often was the highlight of the calendar, this sadly came to an end, so until last year there were no team events available in Devon.
Simon and his team came up with the idea to rectify this with the Fundoshin Cup, which has been thoroughly well received.
DJC were able to enter a full compliment of teams, a boys lightweight team, a boys heavyweight team and a girls team.
Sadly our heaviest boy in the lightweight team Bogdan, was just over the weight limit and so we arranged a last minute loan deal and brought in Maddox Callard from South Brent, Maddox is well known to the Drake players and blended in from the beginning
Our light weight boys team called ''The Drake Green Lions'' consisted of the following players
The Drake Green Lions
Lightweight: Joe Walker Welterweight: Will Kidd Middleweight: Jake Brown (c) Light Heavyweight: Nate Morgan Heavyweight: Maddox Callard
The boys had 4 contests against 2 Kingsley School Teams(our Drake boys won both of these) we then drew with a combined Truro team and finally beat the combined Bristol team in the Final, sadly team wins were replaced with points and we had to accept silver to the combined Bristol team whom we had just beaten (in a very dramatic event as Maddox Callard being a wazari down threw his opponent with one second remaining and held him for the full Ippon)
Other highlights included a big ippon win for Will against Bristol(after being sick in the car on the way up!), Joe getting a shoulder injury but coming back to win his final contest by Ippon!, Nate taking on a HUGE opponent and beating him!(see photo) Jake as captain leading by example with 3 wins out of 4 and Maddox winning all of his contests by ippon.
A short break and it was time for the 3 man girls team, 'Drake Lioness's' were up next.
Drake Lioness's Lightweight: Erin Hopkins Middleweight: Lottie Hay Heavyweight: Alanna Hopkins
Sadly due to an injury, our middleweight girl Maria had to pull out of the tournament, this meant we were left with only a 2 man team, giving each other team we would face with a bye and an automatic ippon win, cue Erin to be seconded into the action as our 3rd member, the girls contests were the biggest group of the day which meant the girls had 7 contests in total with Lottie moving into the middleweight position and Erin becoming the new lightweight against some very experienced teams,
However they beat Truro and one of the school Kingsley School Teams and then a mixed team from Plymouth JC and Kingsley. Highlights included Erin's excellent wins which would have otherwise been team losses, Lottie's excellent contest against Jersey and Alanna back on the mat with TJ only a month after they changed age groups!
Over all the girls took 4th place and a very well deserved bronze.
Last up was our boys heavyweights, our team was lacking a little in experience but we more than made up for in intestinal fortitude
'The Drake Black Lions' consisted of the following players
Drake Black Lions Light Heavyweight: Leo McGee Cruiserweight: Reuben Frise Heavyweight: Ollie Zab
Up first we took on the home Kingsley Team and our lightweight Leo who has great intensity and dispatched his first opponent very well with Kesa-Gatame, Reuben had a very tough contest against Brodie who is older and more experienced but put up a great fight and then next up was Oli Zab who has only been back with us for two weeks(he did Judo a few years ago and had a fearsome reputation as a competitor) he dispatched his opponent in 3 seconds with a neat ko-soto-gari. Next up were the Samurai team who were the Pre-Tournament favourites due to their greater experience and higher grades, what a contest this turned out to be!!
First up Leo was initially struggling with his opponent going a wazari down, before regaining the score and then pressing the action until unfortunately after both boys landed in a heap, Leo's opponent had to leave the mat injured, this gave our team an ippon victory, next up Reuben was facing a boy at 14 was 2 years older and considerably heavier, the boy also had won both his previous contests had a very dynamic aggressive style and piled the pressure on to Reuben who was getting beaten up but getting more and more into the contest and eventually scored Wazari and hung on for the win, next up Oli took on the Heavyweight who was a green belt compared to Oli's first mon and heavier, straight away he was having trouble with the Drake Heavyweight and proceeded to try and cause Oli to give away venalities (which he did, two of them) but Oli then stepped in and threw for wazari giving Drake the overall victory and the Fudoshin Cup.
Also Kieron Murphy was taking his practical exam for his club referee after passing his theory before the summer, it was great to see him in action and he progressed more throughout the day, Judy Maslin especially gave Keiron some excellent advice.
DJC is delighted that he has passed and become our first home-grown referee,
Team events are a different dynamic than usual and are very good for club spirit, we hope next year to potentially enter an additional 3 teams