Last Sunday the Devizes Budo Club held their 38th annual championships. The winning club is presented with the Mat Giles Shield and Pinewood Judo Club have now won this trophy every year for thirty eight consecutive years. It has become a must for all Pinewood Judoka; Graham Trinder flew from Edinburgh to fight in the event and travelled back after he had finished.
Pinewood Coach Don Werner considers this a mark of the loyalty and club spirit that exists in the club; the under 12 and under 16 year’s junior groups fought brilliantly. Then the seniors were in action and they had to pull their weight because the medal score was still quite close. It is interesting to note that many of Pinewood’s veterans were in action too. They really pulled their weight and made quite a difference to the final score.
This year had the largest entry ever and second to Pinewood came the well turned out Ealing Judo Club, a strong German club were third and Devizes took fourth place. The points won 60 for first place, 37 second place, 33 for third place and 28 for fourth place. The many other clubs entered also made the going quite tough.
The Pinewood members taking gold medals are Noah Jones, Wade Muttitt, Tom Lichter, William Mallinckrodt who also won the junior open weight group, Holly Eccles, Kiera Bateman and Graham Trinder.
Silver medal went to Tobias Chapman, Alfie Thomas, Ky Webb, James Widman, Cameron Charles, Olivia Spellman, Oliver Fricker, Emma Pang and Kiera Bateman who also fought in the senior section.
The bronze medals went to Ruben Lord, Jay Bennett, Oliver Young, Daniel Franklin, K-C Franklin, Phoebe Deacon, Callum Jones, Declan Whyte, Charlie Howell, Emily Brown, Niamh Whyte, Crissie Webb, Ben Roberts, Matthew Sallis, Martin Rance, Mark Fricker, Jade Eccles and Lara Hewitt.
Club Coach Don Werner was pleased with the result; it took him back to the time of the first event in the 70s when the club was just starting to spread its wings.