On the 28th January, Akitas Judo Clubs visited the Budokwai for yet another contest grading. Unlike our previous visits though, this was probably the biggest supported visit so far.

Arguably the biggest result of the day was from Andrew Buxton who, having started his Judo at Akitas finally achieved his 1st Dan, black belt after completing his theory. Special mention has to be attributed to this theory - full 10's on every technique, passing with 100%, a feat that is apparently impossible! The whole club extends warm congratulations to you Andrew - well done!

Sensei Adam walked away with another 5 points after only a 1st dan and one 3rd dan were able to be opponents; still, this does make the point tally to 73, only 27 points away from the long awaited 3rd Dan.

As for the Kyu grades, we had 5 men and 1 woman entering - not including two injured men that still turned up to spectate (thank you!). Starting with the woman, Rebecca Haylett was unfortunate to only have one possible opponent, winning that won her 1st BJA senior grade of 6th Kyu, lower Green. General feeling was that she was capable of more, but once again the problem with womens judo and the lack of opponents was the downfall...

After only being to the club on a handful of occasions, it was a little unfortunate for Jason to be first up – not just from the Akitas but in the first contest of the day. This baptism of fire didn’t stop Jason being the main attacking force – with his opponent not really attempting any attacks. Almost expected then that it was a Kaeshi Waza (counter technique) that was to overcome Jason in this contest. O-uchi-gaeshi was the technique.

Before anyone else had a taster of contest, Jason was up again. His limited repertoire was again evident, but this time a little more ready for the Kaeshi Waza. Another o-uchi-gaeshi (this time almost an o-soto-gari) by the opponent for to begin some ne-waza, with Jason being the more likely to get anything from it – stopped only by his opponents legs. This gave Jason more confidence, but was caught off guard by a well executed left handed tai-otoshi for a waza-ari. Although in position to hold Jason down, the opponent opted to stand again and was rewarded almost immediately with ko-soto-gari countering another o-uchi-gari attempt by Jason for waza-ari-awasete-ippon.

Over then to the other end of the mat for Rebecca Haylett's first contest, which left all of us a bit bemused. Bexs certainly wasn't attacking with her usual vigour, and the referee seemed to be more of a bystander. This confusion was cleared up after by Bexs, explaining that as they were both fighting for their first senior grade the examiner wanted to suss them out before contesting properly.

This bit of randori caused us to miss the first few seconds of the contest at the other end of the mat – Peter and Russ out against each other in the first contest for the pair of them. Peter getting the upper hand to start with, scoring a waza-ari with a sutemi-waza (sacrificial technique) version of sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi. Pete was straight on top of Russ for a mune-gatame, but this came to nothing as Russ escaped by turning out of the hold quite quickly. Peter then had the luxury of waiting for the right moment to attack again – throwing Russ with the same technique, but this time with the reverse happening; no score for the throw but the hold (kesa-gatame) scoring waza-ari-awasete-ippon for Peter.

I was up next, against a 3rd Dan. Hands up, I was slow to start after not expecting to fight on the day. That said, I did start off the contest with the more attacks, missed an opportunity of rolling into a juji-gatame, and almost strangling my opponent before he stood up. Shortly after the restart, despite being warned that my opponent’s technique was a dropping seoi-nage, I was thrown by the technique for an ippon.

The now contest veteran Jason was now up for his 3rd and final contest before Ben and Charlie had had even their first contest. Jason was quickly thrown for ippon from an excellent sutemi-hiza-guruma.

Ben Page was then up for his first contest of the day. Almost immediately throwing his opponent with a left handed uki-goshi (I think – you’ll see from the video that someone walked in front of me at the crucial moment!) and holding down his opponent in a kesa-gatame as if his life depended on it for ippon.

The last of our debutants, Ben's brother Charlie was then up. After an even first few moments, a stumble from Charlie was taken immediate advantage of by his opponent who held him down in kesa-gatame only for Charlie to turn out and away - although the toketa call was a while coming! Charlie then scored a waza-ari from a yoko-ura-nage. After another tussle on the ground, with Charlie on top, Charlie was lucky to be thrown with another yoko-ura-nage (this time from his opponent). Why lucky? It was just after the matte call! Not so luckily, seconds after Charlie was thrown by a well timed yoko-tai-otoshi for ippon.

Up next was Russ, this time not fighting one of his own club! After a few unsuccessful throw attempts, Russ managed to turn out of a tomoe-nage, but landed on his shoulder in the process. Wary of his injury, Russ continued to attack with o-soto-gake, but the lack of variety in his technique was punished with a counter from tani-otoshi for ippon.

The next contest was another Akita, Charlie, for his second bout, this time victim of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it left handed uchi-mata for ippon.

Peter up immediately afterward, in a humorously sized contest with his opponent almost half his height. Size didn't take a part in this win for Peter, throwing for an o-guruma (not bad as he never knew the technique!) and holding down in a kesa-gatame for ippon.

I was then up for my second contest of the day. Still trying to wake up, I opted to attempt a tachi-shime-waza. Not quite managing this, I threw (eventually!) with a tomoe-nage, which wasn’t scored as I took so long to execute the technique! Straight into a hold down which was cancelled by my opponent trapping my leg. Escaping from this leg trap, my opponent then managed to get one leg back over the top of mine. Not seeing what was happening and not feeling exactly how my leg was caught, I gave up on the hold upon hearing my opponent shout that he had my leg. He hadn’t, and the referee stopped the contest despite my strangle being on, annoyed with the call-out. Thankfully, the annoyance woke me up and I threw for an uch-mata-maki-komi almost immediately after the restart.

Up then was Bexs with the same opponent as before, this time in proper shiai! A battle for grips and a tussle on the ground which was to end with no real superiority shown either way to start off the bout, becoming clear early on that the opponent was intimidated by Bexs, falling to the floor with every attack from the Akita. Not letting the frustration get to her, Bexs continued to attack, throwing with a tai-otoshi-make-komi for no score. Continuing to attack, threw with the same technique, again for no score, straight into kuzure-mune-gatame for ippon.

Final contest of the day was between the club-mates and good friends Russ and Ben. It was immediately evident however that Russ approached this bout frustrated that it was against his best mate, whilst Ben, with good focus, concentrated on fighting for his grade. Ben’s determination paid off almost immediately, throwing with an uchi-mata for ippon.