We departed from Birchington on Sunday at an ungodly hour of 6.30, as normal looking forward to competing and hopefully bringing back some stories of good performances coupled with some silverware, we were not to be disappointed.

Of course as we set off, it would not be normal if we did not have a few dramas, you know the sort of thing, Ben Baddeley, only joking Ben! We arrived just as the weigh in had began, then settled down to enjoy the day, the event was relaxed and we were made to fill very welcome by Master Sahota and all the officials representing GB-ITF on the day. An added bonus was to see some old friends, who we did not expect to bump into namely Master Harry and Mr Snow, Mr Snow in fact goes back to the old BUTF days, always nice to touch base now and then.Master Harry attended the World Championships in Australia and we look upon the time spent with
Master Harry with fond memories. Back to the comp, we had only taken 6 competitors to the competition due to the fact that we have the Imperial Open the following weekend. However, this proved to be in some ways quite interesting, the Green Belt Pattern Division in which we had 5 entries gave us a good chance to start the day as we meant to go on. What a great start! they all went out in the first round, all very close decisions we felt, maybe next time it will go our way.

Yellow Belt Pattern Division, Matthew Chubb (Bronze) our only Pattern medallist on the day, put in an excellent display and was unlucky not to progress to the final, he was narrowly beaten by a good opponent who went on to win the gold.We then commenced the Sparring Divisions determined to make up for a slow start in the patterns and we did just that, with some excellent performances.On a more somber note, we forgot the camcorder, so unfortunately we have no footage of this event or even pictures. This was a great shame, as some great action took place with Mark Peachey (Gold) and Ben Baddeley (Silver) pulling out the stops to win against higher grades in good fashion, Nathan Whiteman (Silver) and Reegan Mathews (Gold) battling it out for first and second place and
Tyler Cawood (Gold) comfortably wining his division. In addition, Mathew Chubb showed a tremendousimprovement within his fighting capabilities, we look forward with anticipation to seeing further progress within his competitive sparring.

Well done to all who attended, a big thank you from all at GTS to Mr Mathews Snr, who made the journey at short notice and made it possible for some students to compete, who other wise would not have been able to attend.


Pattern Division

Yellow Belt
Matthew Chubb Bronze

Green Belt/Blue Belt Sparring 13-17Yrs -70Kg
Reegan Mathews Gold
 Nathan Whiteman Silver



Sparring Divisions

Green Belt/Blue Belt/Red Belt Sparring 13-17Yrs-63Kg
Mark Peachey Gold
   Ben Baddeley Silver

Green Belt Sparring 13Yrs +170cms
Tyler Cawood Gold



Competition Total

Gold x 3      Silver x 2     Bronze x 1