Picture for Paper

I thought I would post this picture. It was taken for the local paper

Southern Area Ranking Event, Worthing

This is the last event before the nationals and my second at -66kg. I was hoping for a good test before Sheffield.

First Round (Bye)

Elliot Short (Oakwood) Second Round

Scored with a yuko and then an armlock within 30 seconds.

Islem Thameur (Tower Hamlets) Semi-Final

Islem is from France and had won his first two fights easily. He was big and strong. I started well and scored what I thought was a good throw after about 30 seconds. No score was given. The fight continued and I scored a yuko. During the next 90 seconds of the fight the senior referee on the care system had a look at the earlier throw and decided to award an ippon. having looked at the throw again it was a good ippon but I can see why it wasn't scored. It was good to see the care system changing the decision.

Leonardo De Muniz (Tower Hamlets) Final

Leo generally throws big and quickly. He is a great fighter. I was really pleased to win by ippon quite quickly. I'm sure I will have many more good fights with Leo.

 Derbyshire Sports Awards 

2013

The Roundhouse, Derby

International Golf Development

Junior Sportsman of the Year

Eric Ham (High Peak - Judo)

After winning the High Peak Junior Sportsman award last month I was shortlisted down to the final two in the Derbyshire Sports Awards. Held at the Roundhouse in Derby. It was a great night and a real shock when I won the award. My award was sponsored by International Golf Development and presented to me by Guy Higton.

International Golf Development

Being presented with my Award

Pictured with my category sponsor - Guy Higton

The last twelve months have been quite eventful to say the least.

2102 Cadet British Championships Gold Medal,

2013 Cadet British Championships Silver Medal,

2013 Junior British Championships Silver Medal (as the youngest in the group), 

A place on the 2013 Junior British Squad,

Selected for England at the Czech European. Cadet Cup, 

Selected for Great Britain at the European Cadet Championships.

Started training at the new Centre of Excellence at Walsall

Knee Operation and three months off,

High Peak Junior Sportsman of the Year 2013,

Derbyshire Junior Sportsman of the Year 2013,

All the category winners

Me and Colin Jackson

 Winning this award finishes off a great year.  

One more big result at the Nationals in three weeks is all that is needed now.

Welsh Open, Swansea

I made the move up to -66 at the Welsh. Although I can make -60 this will be my weight next year so I am moving up now.

CADET SECTION

First Round (Bye)

Remi Dorey (Guernsey Judo) Second Round

My first fight at -66kg was over in 20 seconds winning with a strangle

Andrew Serdega (Kingsley School) Semi-Final

Andrew (Andrejs) is from Latvia (born 1996) and has two Silver Medals at their National Championships. He has represented Latvia at European Cups.  He had also beat Aiden Moffat and George Cullum (Twice) last year so I was expecting a bit of a beating. Far from it.  It looks like the move up to -66 could be a good one. I threw for a wazari and felt in control for most of the fight.  This was a really really good win for me.

Harry Lovell-Hewitt (Stroud) Final

Harry is a good fighter but my good form continued and I won with some good ashi-waza about a minute into the fight.

JUNIOR SECTION

This was going to be a hard group.  Competing up at -66 is hard enough at Cadet but at Juniors its another thing.

Alec Ranford (Hardy Spicer) First Round

My first fight at Junior -66 was as good as my first at Cadet. I won with drop morote after about 30 seconds

Joe Dallard (Midsomer Norton) Second Round

I continued my good form into the second fight and won with an armlock.

Tom Johnson (Yoshin Ryu)

Tom is two years older than me and one of the best Junior -66 fighters and again I expected to get beat quite quickly. I nearly caught Tom with my reverse Seio-nage but over rotated. It was a great fight which lasted nearly seven minutes.  I was dead by then and went over easily from a good drop attack from Tom.

Jacob Moore (Judo Scotland)

Jacob is three years older than me and I was knackered by now. I started well but struggled with his style and good uchi-mata. I made a good left seoi-nage attack but left my neck open and lost by a strangle.

This was still a great performance

SENIOR SECTION

I wasn't really intending on entering the senior section after moving up to -66 but had entered at the lighter weight. I expected not to do very well

Jonathon Dewar (Judo Scotland)

I felt strong and had a great battle with Jonathon. I was only a penalty down right up to the last seven seconds. I had to come forward and got caught and arm-locked right at the very end.

Stuart Pateman (Erdington)

This was another great fight and I was pretty tired by now.  I went a penalty up early on and managed to hold on for the remainder of the five minute contest. This certainly was my best win to date.

Tal Almog (Israel)

Tal was super strong and attacked me everywhere.  it was still a good fight before getting caught in the third minute.

Overall I had ten fights over the weekend with some great wins and performances in defeat. I start at Walsall on the AASE next week and expect to see good gains very quick.

High Peak Sports Awards

Last night I was presented with my High Peak Junior Sportsman of the Year award.  It was presented by the leader of the Council, Caitlin Bisknell. It was great to again receive the award. It has been a year of ups and downs but I hope to finish in style at this years Nationals in December.