Millennium League and County Squad Trials 2008

The Boys Competition Report  by Iain Greenwood

Tomas Luckus fought extremely well and showed great potential. Tomas was unlucky to lose his first fight having scored a wazari (7 point score) but unfortunately was then thrown by his opponent for ippon (10 point score). He won his next against a 10th mon, which is nearly twice Tom’s grade throwing this opponent twice for wazari with two brilliant rear throws. He showed great resilience and strength as his opponent was a lot bigger and more experienced than him. Tomas went on to fight four more people who were higher grades and showed some great skill before winning bronze.

Tim-Philip Ebel had a good day, winning silver; he threw almost all of his opponents with a harai-goshi, some of which were massive. He won his second fight in an amazing 15 seconds. Tim-Philip only lost one fight all day against a very talented Tom Johnson, who won gold.

Ben St. Clair-Gray, Croydon’s youngest fighter of the day, only had two fights but fought extremely well showing some great technique and was unlucky in the fact that his 1st opponent somehow managed to turn out every time. He was then held down in his second fight but did very well and nearly turned out but didn’t quite escape in time.

Two of Croydon’s older boys had a fantastic day and brought home two gold medals. Peter Vincent, who we all know is a talented fighter with great potential, showed his class by winning all of his fights with ippon (10

point score). He did some lovely techniques including a left handed o-soto/harai type throw. John Hisee another amazingly talented fighter claimed Croydon’s 2nd gold of the day, completely taking apart all of his opponents. He had two fights in his first pool, one of which was Croydon’s own, James Milne who put up a good fight considering he was a lot younger and less experienced than John. John went on to fight in the final pool and didn’t give his opponents a chance as he beat them in quick succession with little difficulty. His 1st fight in the finals was won in as little as 3 seconds and he won his last fight with a lovely foot sweep that took his opponent completely by surprise and scored ippon (10 point score), this was a spectacular throw and was the easily the best throw of the day. 

Two of Croydon’s less experienced players James Milne and David Garcia both fought extremely well, picking up points for Croydon in the league. James tried hard but came up against much older and more experienced players; David also had contests against heavier and more experienced players. They both put up good fights and gained a lot of experience from this competition. I am sure in years to come they will both be picking up a lot of gold medals.

Everyone who represented Croydon fought extremely well and did the club proud. Whether they picked up medals or just missed out they all received points for Croydon in the millennium league and showed everyone what our club is about.

By Iain Greenwood

Ed: Thanks to Iain for compiling this report whilst James (and Peter) were at the Budokwai passing the Dan grade theory!