Successful weekend for Dartford judo fighters (From News Shopper)

Successful weekend for Dartford judo fighters

1:36pm Wednesday 18th November 2009

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DARTFORD Judo Club’s juniors were in action in two competitions last weekend and returned from both with a haul of medals.

Eleven members travelled to Canterbury on Saturday for the red and yellow belt rumble where they collected 11 medals, including five golds.

A trio of Dartford youngsters took part in the south coast open championship at Worthing the following day, although none of the three was able to claim a medal.

The first group to fight at the red belt rumble included Harry Perkins and Henry Rogers.

The pair fought well, with both successfully beating Hadleigh of Lyminge.

Rogers was then beaten by club mate Perkins, who went onto to the final of the group, but he lost to Popplewell (Canterbury) to finish with the silver and Rogers claiming the bronze.

Tommy Smith delivered the first gold for Dartford by beating Russell (Canterbury), Munn-Holland (Lyminge) and then Wilding (Canterbury) in the final.

Luke Kemp added another medal to Dartford’s haul with a bronze having defeated Brown (Lyminge).

Connor Seal also won a bronze at the event with victory over Hart (Tonbridge).

Tom Fisher had to fight players outside of his weight, but was still able to collect gold in the yellow belt rumble.

Lucy Brandon was debuting and one of only two Dartford girls taking part.

To give her some experience, a best of three matches contest saw Brandon twice defeat her rival with ease, finishing both contests in under 30 seconds to claim gold.

A trio of Dartford members to fight were drawn in the same group.

James Richards won bronze as Max Shorter and Jack Glynn-Jones made it to the final.

Both fought well but Shorter proved the more dominant and was awarded the gold with Glynn-Jones taking the silver.

The last team member to fight was Patrick Sykes, who won through to his final, where he defeated his opponent with some ease to land Dartford’s fifth gold at the event.

Dartford’s team of three fought at the highly-competitive age banded south Coast open at Worthing.

Christopher Ball was taking part in 12 to15 years U42kg category.

Ball fought well in his first two contests of his pool but lost both, including to the eventual gold medal winner.

He needed to secure a win in his final pool match to progress to the semi-finals, but as the match was tied at time it meant the match went into golden score.

A hotly disputed refereeing decision saw a poor throw by his opponent score against Ball, ending his hopes of a medal.

Ryan Chiles competed in the 12 to15 years U60kg category, where he drew tough competition from the start of his knockout competition.

Chiles was defeated by Lawrence Rowles in the opener and although he fought well in his second contest, the Dartford youngster was beaten by a more experienced player.

However, he still gained vital experience of a national level fielded competition and will undoubtedly benefit from this in the future.

Joe Gribbin was in action in the 12 to 15 years U66kgs banding.

Gribbin hoped to match his debut gold win of two weeks ago and faced national squad players in his draw in the knockout.

His movement was good but his inexperience saw him caught out by his opponent’s shoulder throw.

Gribben still had a chance of bronze but was again caught for ippon due to his lack of tactical competition experience.

He was still smiling as he bowed out but having only taken up the sport sport months ago, Gribben looks set for more medals in the future.

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