Last weekend a small but capable group of Pinewood fighters made the long trip to Bradford to compete in the Northern Area Open Championships, which, as a ranking event always attract a quality entry.
Club mates Kiera Bateman and Holly Eccles split the honours in the final of the Cadet U48kg group with Kiera taking Gold and Holly silver. Olivia Spellman opened her account with a Gold in the Cadets at U57kg which she then followed with a very impressive Silver in the Senior U57kg, only losing the final to a highly ranked GB international fighter by a single penalty. Jade Eccles earned a Bronze medal in the U63 Cadets and Will Malinkrodt had a superb day gaining valuable ranking points on his way to a Gold in the Cadet U73kg.
This weekend saw Pinewood making the annual pilgrimage to the Kent Open. This is a 2 day event with a lot of Dutch and European fighters in attendance. It is held at Crystal Palace with the younger children competing on Saturday with the youth and senior sections on Sunday. Pinewood had a solid weekend with lots of medal winning performances.
On Saturday Tobias Chapman showed some great strides forward in his technical range winning a bronze at U27. Tobias Trafford and Oliver Young both came away with bronze medals at U34. Callum Jones fought with his usual guts and determination, to take bronze at U38. Dan Franklin provided a standout performance, ending his recent run of poor form with a blistering display of throws and ground work to take Gold at U38.
Terri Gough who is now moving from promising novice to reliable winner took Gold at U44 with some serious no nonsense Judo. In the higher grade B band Wade Muttitt put together his usual display of stylish judo to take a silver only losing the final in the golden score with a penalty. Crissie Webb had a good day taking silver at U70 and Kiera Bateman who was competing in the youth section took gold at U48.
Sunday saw the Youth and seniors take to the mat. Jade Eccles in the youth U57 group lost her first fight to a strong Dutch girl but then sharpened her game considerably winning her remaining fights without a mistake to take bronze. Olivia Spellman competing in the youth section at U57 managed a silver after some grueling fights.
Will Mallinkrodt moved up a weight group to fight in the youth section at U81kg. Dwarfed by his opponents Will fought with great skill and intelligence to take a gold medal. He gave credit for this performance to his senior Pinewood team mates Sean Dineen and Chris Thorne who have been training with him now for sometime and pushing his judo hard in the right direction. Chris Thorne a recent and very welcome addition to the Pinewood Dan grade line up put in a great and determined performance to take a well deserved bronze at U81kg.
Coach Mark Fricker was pleased to see evidence of the hard work the younger ones in particular have been putting into their technical judo, with visible gains in some key areas.