Matsumachi Judo Club

Three Matsumachi judoka travelled to Stockbridge to participate in the Hampshire Championships last weekend.

Our two senior entries, Ben Grant and Jaden Elston, were both entered in the under 81 kilo category and stormed through the rest of the opposition with quick ippon victories all the way before meeting each other in the final contest.

In what was expected to be a very closely contested match, Ben produced two well executed throws in the early stages to emerge victorious by ippon and take the County title.

Junior Logan Prior finished in a creditable 5th place at under 46 kilos.

Matsumachi JC members model their new club hoodies!

Anyone who missed out on the order last time and wish to purchase one then please get in touch with Paul 🙂

Congratulations to Jaden Elston who became the first winner of the Cameron Hamilton Trophy.

This trophy is awarded annually to the club's outstanding performer in the 13 - 19 years teenage category and is in memory of Cameron Hamilton, a former junior member of the club who died in tragic circumstances in 2023.

Among Jaden's achievements in 2024 were achieving his black belt at the very young age of 18 and winning a bronze medal in the Southern Area Open Championships.

Cameron's grandfather (pictured with Jaden) kindly presented the trophy.

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Anyone interested in or wishing to donate to the Changes Are Made charity set up by Cameron's family can view their page https://www.facebook.com/p/Changes-Are-Made-61557682024219/?locale=ne_NP
or website www.changesaremade.com
The charity aims to support, educate, prevent and deter young people from any involvement in knife crime.

We return for 2025 on Thursday 9 January at Atorro Sports, Barrack Road, Christchurch, BH23 2BA

Juniors 6 - 7.20pm
Seniors 7.30 - 9pm

We look forward to welcoming current members back and welcoming new faces too!

The Jeremy Markham Trophy, annually presented to the club's outstanding senior member, was won this year by Ben Grant who has enjoyed an excellent 2024.

Ben returned to judo last year having had a few years off. Within a few months he secured the British Masters Kyu grade gold medal and a bronze in the open grade event and shortly after his brown belt to round out 2023.

Ben built on his 2023 success this year, winning another bronze at the British Masters, silver at the High Wycombe Masters and bronze at the Southern Area Open in the under 81 kilos category.

Expanding his horizons during the summer, Ben attended the club's Cornish Wrestling training sessions under the watchful eye of Jamie Hannaford and wrestled superbly to win the Heavyweight title at Bodmin in September.

The last class of 2024 saw the annual trophy for the year's outstanding junior judoka awarded to Tommy Annetts.

Tommy, 11, has trained diligently throughout the year and, for much of the time, was the smallest and least experienced member of the class. Despite these disadvantages, Tommy showed considerable tenacity making great progress even winning a bronze medal in his first tournament in Southampton.

The weekly trophy which is awarded at the last class before Christmas for commitment over the whole autumn term resulted in a four-way tie between the Prior family. Logan and his three sisters Ruby, Evie and Poppy have all recently been promoted in the belt ranks this month and Logan took a brace of bronze medals at Southampton and High Wycombe in November. Also they have been actively recruiting new club members amongst their friends and supporting them in the classes.

Congratulations to all our winners and a mighty well done to all the other juniors who have also made big strides this term!

A couple of recent international results to round off the year.

Congratulations to Tom Humphrey who won gold in Sweden and to Kay Andrews who added another silver to the one achieved at the World Veterans in Las Vegas by taking second place in the Angers Veterans Tournament in France.

Another medal for Logan Prior, this time a bronze at the High Wycombe red and yellow belt event. Some strong clubs were present and Logan enjoyed some competitive contests.

Matsumachi Judo Club’s Dave Phillips celebrated his 90th birthday on Sunday. Dave, at 5 feet 8 inches and weighing around 75 kilos, competed at national level during the 1960s, more often than not in open weight events as weight category competition was not fully established in the UK until the lead up to the 1964 Olympics.

Dave started judo in 1958 and, despite being deaf since birth and his smaller stature, worked really hard at his judo and enjoyed considerable success achieving his first dan in June 1962. Dave earned a place on the Southern Area team (an event which was still open weight at the time) in 1965 alongside well-known internationals Mick Leigh, Ivan Silver and Cliff Baker-Brown. Dave also competed in the National Trials as a middleweight in the mid-sixties.

Dave was also responsible for getting Ringwood Judo Club off the ground in the early sixties before handing the reins to Keith Adams.

Despite his considerable skills, Dave didn't look to progress beyond first dan owing to family commitments but will always be remembered as one of Matsumachi JC's finest judoka.

Dave continued to train regularly at Matsumachi during the 1960s and 70s with occasional visits during the early eighties where he could always be relied upon to pull out a big seoinage in randori!

PHOTOS (1) Dave demonstrates a classic hanegoshi from the mid-sixties (2) the birthday boy with framed sketch drawn by a club member (3) 90th birthday cake made by daughter Tracey, (4) close up of the sketch (5) Matsumachi JC display team circa 1960 (6) Jim Loney and Dave at 57 Albion Road, Christchurch where the club trained in the Nissen hut in Jim's back garden circa 1960 (7) Dave throwing GB international Derek Vaines in the Nissen hut 1962.

4 medals from 4 entries at the Southampton Samurai Tournament yesterday.

Silver and bronze respectively for Jack Taylor and Logan Prior in the junior boys under 45 kilos and a further bronze from Louis Gillespie at under 55 kilos started the day off well.

Our lone senior entry, Hamid Otmani, fought very well to add another bronze in the Men's kyu grade under 100 kilos category.

Another world veterans medal for Kay Andrews who added a silver to her collection in Las Vegas today.

Kay, in her first competition at her new weight of under 63 kilos, beat eventual winner Silva of Angola in her last contest but lost her opener to her German opponent before recovering to beat the Mongolian entrant. The tied final pool was decided on points scored which meant that the Angolan pipped Kay to first place on the rostrum by the narrowest of margins.

Well done Kay!

Congratulations to Tom Humphrey on winning his third British Open Sambo wrestling championship at Folkestone last weekend. Tom was a very convincing winner of the men's +98 kilos category showing a range of throwing, pinning and armlock submission techniques on his way to the gold medal.

Tom is one of Matsumachi's four British Open Sambo wrestling champions since the mid-nineties following in the footsteps of Paul Sawyer, Marcel Morelli and, more recently, Ruslans Neilands.

Two bronze medals for Matsumachi at the recent Southern Area Open at Woking.

In the Senior Men's under 81 kilos category, Ben Grant kept up his run of podium places and added another 20 points to his first dan black belt whilst Jaden Elston, in his first competition of the year added a further bronze in the Junior Men's under 81 kilos category.

To all club members,

Please see the new club hoody design below. We will be ordering very shortly.

If you are interested, then please could you email me your name and size ASAP.

SIZES & PRICE

Child sizes 5/6, 7/8, 9/11 and 12/13 £25
Adult sizes S, M, L, XL and XXL £30

Paul

Congratulations to Hamid and Rohid Otmani - newly promoted green belts!

Congratulations to the Otmani brothers, Rohid (u90 kilos) and Hamid (u100 kilos), who won bronze and gold respectively at the Sussex Open blue belt and under competition at Worthing.