Young Judo Club

&

Sittingbourne Warriors Combat Wrestling Club

Annual Senior Club Members Championships

Saturday January 23^rd

The Young Judo Club was formed in 1957 and since that date we have always held an annual club championships in 1981 the Warriors club was formed and we have always put the two senior events together. IN past years we have had Judo, Olympic style Wrestling, Sombo Wrestling, submission wrestling and Belt Wrestling, as most of the players participate in all events the competition became some what of a marathon so it was decided to stick to our main two events Judo & Sombo Wrestling.

As expected John Clarke dominated the Heavy and Open cat in both Judo and Sombo winning 4 golds, Pete Wise won the Veterans event 2 golds, Danny Carrot won the Middle and under 18 years section 4 golds, Lee Waghorn won the under Black Belt in both Judo and Sombo.

New lad Ben Ingram was awarded best up and coming player, he has only been doing Judo & Sombo for a few months and is already a force to be reckoned with, we expect great things from this lad. It seems that things go round in circles, I refer to Lee Waghorn and John Clarke both these men started Judo when they very young boys, John carried on while Lee finished when he was 11 years old. Although lee has not done any Judo for 20 years his father Trevor, Britain’s Leading Judo referee, kept the family interest alive. At the championships John mum Val and Lee’s mum Helen were cheering their various offspring just like they did 20 years ago. Lee got himself a new nickname his 3 year old nephew joined in by shouting come on Uncle Lee which sounded like come on Monkey. So now it is Lee Monkey Waghorn. Lee has a strong possibility of making Black Belt within a year.

Coach Martin Clarke 8^th Dan ex World Judo Champion prides himself on running a tough club which welcomes any body who wants to train properly but discourages wimps. Instead of Senior numbers dropping like a lot of Judo clubs his club is actually increasing its numbers with players travelling from afar as Margate, Folkestone and London in fact one player travelled from Norfolk to train with Martin

Martin now runs two classes a week at the East Street Sports Centre, Tuesday 8.30pm Judo/Sombo Friday 8pm Sombo/Jiu Jitsu any one interested in Judo can contact Keith Costa 01795 426784.