The National Championships safely completed and the Grandmaster requested I write a report on the day's proceedings, but as I've written so many in the past, I am now suffering from writers' block big time (so what else is new?) how can I make this fresh and original? Ah well, here goes.

On arrival everything seemed to be very proficiently in hand and all those long hours of preparation appeared to have paid off. You have to laugh you know, when some people think Grandmaster and Mrs Loke just turn up and smile all day when on at least one occasion this week they have worked for at least one complete 24 hour stretch to prepare the paperwork for members of the Committee to work on. Firstly the computer churns out who fights who and then we fine tune those same lists to try and avoid brother fighting brother first round, sister v sister, classmate v classmate etc. etc. and then there's the officials to sort - that takes just as long - trying to get the correct balance of age and experience with the newly trained and the cross sequencing of slight regional differences seem sometimes to take forever! Mind you, let's admit it, the first draft is easy that is just putting the names of all the qualified personnel we have into boxes but it's the availability of those people, then their notifying us, then the balancing and moving round, then the checking and double checking that takes the time. All good stuff though.

Grandmaster Loke then called the assembled masses to order for the welcoming speech and all those little lads and lassies that had been scanning the trophies for their names, as if it was pre-designated somehow, scrambled quickly to get through a sea of legs to their positions in the line up.

The Photographer, David Brown again, I'm glad to say, then got to work to squeeze all the bodies into form for a decent group photograph unlike last year's photographer who made us all look like those ultra slim characters from an L.S.Lowry painting. It suited me and did my almost lithe form a great favour but the Grandmaster was having none of it. The photographs duly taken, the officials ran to move the ten 'rings' into order and the competitors walked away to warm up and to prepare their minds and calm their nerves before the action began.

After watching and judging some superb sequences, it soon became apparent who had successfully mastered their nerves in time and managed to give out some great performances. Some others, who had not managed to get their mindset quite correct then perhaps lost their attention for one fleeting moment, saw the whole lot go out of the window for another year and sat visibly beating themselves up for that moment's loss of concentration.

Soon done and then into the fighting, going great guns with some quite surprising results. You know, some who you expect to get something do not and others who enter strictly for the experience and with lower expectations come away with trophies - it's all part of the magic and mystery of the day. One constant problem is the oft staggering difference in heights between students especially in the teen group but when we reach this problem on selection, it gives us the age old question of do we say to this person you cannot compete or do we try and incorporate them in as close a group as possible? The obvious answer is for more people to enter then we can form big enough groups and increase the number of categories into more closely suited units.

Mind you, talking of the difference in heights, it's not only with the teenagers as the veteran black belts know when facing Mr Graham Towl from Tunbridge Wells whose arms and legs seem to go on forever. His long legs stood him in good stead - if you'll excuse the pun!

Master Butterworth, as Judge and his lightning defence as
Graham Towl was making a quick exit of the ring. More than a
handful for him! 'Not something I ever make a habit of!'
Master Butterworth's emphasis, not mine.

Also in the sparring, we had a bit of a mix up with the teen black belt group in which the competition number of one of the losers had been inadvertently inserted into a winners' box giving a wrong result. By the rules, it cannot be changed. This rule is normally for an instance discovered some time after the event but this being fairly prompt gave us the chance to change it. However the initial 'winner', Sam Peniston from Rochford could have, if he had wanted, under those Rules, insisted on the result being upheld and thereby take the gold but Sam did not hesitate and requested the last two bouts be fought again in order to be fair to everyone. I don't know if it was that fair to Sam because he promptly received a clump in the eye and then took 2nd place to Sahin Ayanoglou's 1st place. Sam's excellent martial spirit and sense of fair play came to the fore and displayed an integrity a lot of people could use in the outside world!

The fights continued apace with possibly our largest black belt group ever; one of the categories appearing to go on forever. Some stunning and hard fought performances right from the teeny boppers to the veterans, a joy to watch and thanks to everyone who took part. I don't think there is a single competitor ever who has not experienced the differing highs and lows over their competitive career.

Once again, a number of quite minor injuries, soon settled with a plaster and few quiet words with the two most serious being a dislocated finger and a cool looking split lip - trout pout rules okay? So who needs expensive plastic surgery, come to us and we'll do it for nothing.

Another lesson to us all was given by David Emlyn Jones (blue tag) who has devised some marvellous new blocks unknown even to the Grandmaster - they include use of his face, shins, ribs and groin which although painful, do protect his more vital organs. (well he is in the Veterans now you know!) These blocks obviously paid off as he went home with a gold and silver (plus a few black, blue, purples and yellows!)

"Emlyn returns from the Championships with Trophies".

Excellent demonstrations were as follows: one-step sparring by Robert Little (2nd Duan) and Chris Wright (3rd Duan); jump side kick on two tiles by Rhys Meade; back thrust kick by James Slade (1st Duan), jump side kick by Robert Little (2nd Duan); reverse knife hand strike on a stack of tiles by Reading club instructor Nazim Gokcezade (3rd Duan); jump twist kick (reverse roundhouse) by Steve Earle (3rd Duan); spin back kick and knife hand strike combination by Laura Askell (3rd Duan); twist kick and palm heel strike combination by Stephanie Debenham (3rd Duan); slow and then fast roundhouse kick overhead and bottom fist strike combination by Master Siew Ying Loke; and the final demonstration by Grandmaster Loke - a spear hand thrust through blocks of wood.

This was followed by the presentation of Awards for outstanding performance on the day to: Kevin Austin, Teresa Farrington, Kim Gravett, David Hopkins, Joseph Jessop, Rhys Meade and Emma Rivers.

And of course the Bill Edwards Memorial Award for the Most Promising Under 16 which this year was presented by the Grandmaster to Jack Jenner of West Sussex.

A presentation of flowers then went to Mrs Nicola Mayatt for her constant dedication to her class and her recent fund raising event for the Cancer Research UK charity, instructor Tina Preston who will soon be getting married and Master Susan Merrell for her dedication and support.

Grandmaster Loke then thanked all for coming, especially those who had travelled from so far afield as Northern Ireland, Liverpool and Devon etc. and then with rousing Tang Sou's! the day's activities ended, the journey home commenced, for many clutching trophies, some clutching only memories and some clutching bin bags as the big clear up began. Nothing sadder than a large empty hall after a day full of activity.

And some final essential credits:
Grandmaster and Mrs Loke for their many, many, hours of hard work and guidance.
Master Goward (5th Duan) for all his hard work (and early starts ha!,ha!)
The management and staff at the Clements Hall Leisure Centre for all their assistance.
Mr Robert Hooper (3rd Duan) for standing in as m.c. and doing a sterling job.
Miss Tina Matania (3rd Duan) for many hours of keyboarding and photography.
Dr Tariq Quershi and assistant Michael for their undivided attention in the first aid corner.
Mr Panayotis Evagorou for a day long hard filming (DVD on release before long).
Jeff Thomas, Lee Mundy and Alan Kyte for providing a 'taxi service' to Stanstead Airport for the Irish Team.
The sterling folk on Door security.
All the un-named students who help untiringly.
And of course, thanks to all the competitors, their families, friends, and relatives who come to cheer on their loved ones and to all members past and present who came not to compete, but simply to enjoy and support the British Tang Sou Dao Federation Championships of 2005.

THANK YOU!

Master Chris Cook (5th Duan)

(Cartoons Chris Cook - July 2005)

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