• Junior & Senior Grading, Dec 2003

Battle Hill Primary School played host to the Bushido Academy of Judo’s Gradings at the weekend, with Judoka from various clubs in the region covering Wallsend, Gosforth, West Allotment, Forest Hall & Newcastle.

Three Senior students, having previously completed line ups of up to 10 Judoka, completed the second part of their grading syllabus with a demonstration of Nage no Kata, 15 techniques demonstrating forms of throwing created by the founder of Judo, Jigaro Kano. This was followed by an excellent demonstration of the less familiar Kaeshi Kata, introduced to the uk by Kenshiro Abbe 9th Dan, which is considered by many to most truly reflect the principles of Judo.

Barry McSherry was one of the first students to join the Bushido in 1976, and became the clubs most successful Judoka gaining recognition throughout the UK, also representing the club successfully on many occasions in Europe. Barry left Judo for a period of about 8 years, recently returning to his original Sensei Chris Dawson (6th Dan) to continue his Judo learning. Barry achieved his Junior Black belt on 13th December 1982, exactly 21 years to the day, and achieved promotion to Black belt 3rd Dan.

Steve Ellerby has studied Judo at the club since the age of 7 and is to date one of the longest serving students. His precise demonstration of the Kata was only surpassed by his outstanding line up of 10 Judoka the previous week, where each contest was won very convincingly with Ippon (maximum score).

Steve successfully achieved promotion to Black Belt 3rd Dan.

Jimmy West gained promotion to 1st Kyu (Brown Belt) after completing his line up and bravely completing his Nage no Kata demonstration despite being injured in the process.

There were some excellent contests from the junior students, most of who were taking part in their first grading event. Juniors were grouped into pools of three to six giving each between two and five contests, this gave the spectators three hours of excellent Judo.

Further displays of the Nage no Kata by three of the juniors, Kris West, Tim Dugdale and Glen Young also demonstrated a high level of commitment from the young students.

Junior Promotions;

Event officials Chris Dawson-6th Dan, Sharon May-4th Dan, Steve Ellerby-3rd Dan, Barry McSherry-3rd Dan, Fred Ellerby-2nd Dan, Malcolm Young-1st Dan, Jimmy West-1st Kyu.

• Bushido, Nov 2003, C.Dawson 6th Dan - Keishi Kata Training Course

• Hokojun Barrasford, Oct 2003, J.Hearn 8thDan

Attendees: Malcolm Young, Chris Young

• Great Northern Open, Wallsend Oct 2003

 Callum Thompson - Bronze u35kg u10yrs Darren May - Silver u35kg u10yrs Katie Young - Silver u30kg u10yrs Adam Hope - Bronze u40kg Tim Dugdale - Silver u35kg Kris West - Bronze u35kg Faye - Gold o55kg Malcolm Young - Bronze u81kg Ken Schofield - Bronze u81kg "Big" BillySnowdon - Silver o90kg Dave Colwell - Bronze o90kg Roy u32kg Chris Young u32kg Jacob Brown u40kg Thomas Dugdale u32kg u10yrs Brian Batey - Bronze u90kg

• White Tiger Open, Nottingham Sept 2003

Pictured from left Thomas Dugdale, Callum Thompson, Darren May, Malcolm Young, Tim Dugdale, Adam Hope, Chris Young, Katie Young.

The Bushido Judo Kwai travelled to Nottingham at the weekend to participate in the White Tiger Judo open. This is their first outing at this event and the club was looking to make a good first impression.

The medals were to follow quickly with three trophies from the under 8 year category. Katie Young won Gold in the girls under 30kg category, while Callum Thompson and Thomas Dugdale won Gold and Silver respectively from the boys under 27kg.

The over 8 years were to follow with competitors in three weight categories. Chris Young under 30kg was unfortunate to lose the Bronze final in what was his first competition. Tim Dugdale and Darren May successfully won Silver and Bronze in the under 36kg category, which was by far one of the strongest groups of the event. Adam Hope narrowly missed the Gold on points to receive the Silver medal in the under 40kg.

Club coach, Malcolm Young also took part in this event and won Gold in the Senior Men's Open.

• Cobra Open, Nottingham June 2003 

Pictured (from Top left): Darren May, Kris West, Tim Dugdale, Adam Hope, (from bottom Left) Thomas Dugdale, Katie Young, Callum Thompson

We attended the annual Nottingham event with a squad of seven junior students, participating with 20 clubs from around the UK, totalling over 130 competitors.

Callum Thompson (7 yrs) was to set the standard early, by winning all of his fights with "Ippon" (maximum score), to take the first Gold of the tournament. Thomas Dugdale (7 yrs) immediately followed with once again maximum score, in each of his contests to win his first Gold Medal. Katie Young (7yrs), competing in her first ever competition, was beaten in her first fight, however she came back strong by winning her remaining contests, becoming the top scorer in her group to take a third Gold for the club.

The four remaining contestants; Darren May (8 yrs), Adam Hope (10 yrs), Kris West (10 yrs) & Tim Dugdale (11yrs), were unfortunately all in the same weight category, in what was to be the toughest weight group of the day. Each fought extremely well, winning numerous contests, with Kris West reaching the Semi Finals, and Tim Dugdale reaching the Final. Both fighters were beaten in the Gold and Bronze medal finals by very strong opposition, Tim returning with a Silver medal, to bring the medal tally to four from seven.