Cheshire County Sports Club – Sunday 10th November 2019
Early start in Chester this morning for the Cheshire Cup Open Championships 2019 at Chester County Sports club. Only a 20 minute drive from Wrexham and arrived at 9:00am for weigh-ins.
Venue and location
Unlike all previous competitions, the Cheshire cup today was a 20-minute drive in Chester. At the same venue as where the boys used to go for Kung-fu/Boxing lessons. There were competitors with mixed martial arts experiences and even some TAGB taekwondo students in 2018 Worlds doboks. There were 3 mats in total plus the ring. All categories were organised efficiently with minimal clashes of areas.
We entered this competition for two reasons. Firstly, it was a 20 minute drive to Chester and was ideal for a practice run before the TAGB British in Worcester. Secondly, because competition Brian Nelson was hosting it.
It had various categories to chose from and this was what we selected for the day
Ashton
Age 12-14 / 60-65 kgs – light-contact ring
Age 12-14 / 60-65 kgs – full-contact ring
Ethan
Age 6-8 / over 125cm – advanced point-stop
Age 6-8 / below 30kg - light-contact matt
Age 6-8 / below 30kg - light-contact ring
Age 6-8 / below 30kg - full-contact ring
Tyler
Age 6-8 / over 125cm – advanced point-stop
Age 6-8 / below 35kg - light-contact matt
Age 6-8 / below 35kg - light-contact ring
Age 6-8 / below 35kg - full-contact ring
The Tournament
The tournament started just after the 2-minute silence for Remembrance Sunday. That was when we found out that some of the categories were going to be merged as there were not enough competitors for each category. What that meant for us was Ethan and Tyler fighting against each other for 2 of the categories. Also Ashton didn’t have anyone to fight in the ring, and also he had to fight a 15-yr old in the point-stop category. Most of which were either straight finals, or had between 4-6 entrants. Ethan and Tyler's categories were now:
point-stop sparring mat fight
continuous sparring mat fight
light continuous sparring ring fight
full contact ring fight
Ethan was super quick in his points fighting and was relentless in his continuous.
Tyler did some super hook kicks but needs to work more on his breathing technique.
Ethan ended up getting 4 Golds and 2 Silvers; whilst Tyler got 1 Gold, 2 Silvers and 1 Bronze.
Ashton
Already proud of Ashton for dropping weight this week from 66.9kg to 63.4kg for his upcoming under 65kg category. By training hard, controlling portions, eating early rather than late and avoiding snacks, he’s in the mind-set to achieve a good result today.
Ashton entered Light contact ring and Full contact ring however there wasn’t anyone for him to fight in these categories. In the end he went up a weight and did Points fighting which was a straight final and he won Gold; not bad as he was up against a 15 year old and Ashton had just turned 13 years old the week before.
Check out Ashton's fight at around the 1 minute mark 💪🏻😲
Ashton fought superbly well, continually moving and slipping his opponents kicks and punches.
Referees and judges
The refereeing was good and consistent; and the areas were used efficiently. However, there was one poor decision in Ethan’s full contact fight which I had him winning all 3 rounds and dominating throughout; and for some reason the fight was awarded to his opponent. Ethan then met the same competitor on the continuous matts category and beat him fair and square.
Watch the video and judge for yourself!
The competition could have been supported better. However, I think an accident on the M6 and also the Liverpool v Manchester City game didn’t help.
I think if the support for this tournament can be grown, it could turn out to be a well run local competition.
If I had to offer a suggestion, I would perhaps introduce Tag Team categories consisting of 3 competitors who are able to enter on the day at £5 per person (£15 per team). This would take the pressure of the novices and if there is a less confident fighter who is just starting to compete at tournament level, they can lean on the support of their tag team members be alternating in the rounds. I would say 3 categories would suffice: 1) under 137 cm 2) under 152 cm 3) 152 cm and over; for Juniors.
Overall
So again, the super Coopers all came away with a medal placement each, keeping up their track record for another competition 😊
Ashton Gold Point-stop 🥇
Ethan 4 Gold 🥇🥇🥇🥇2 Silvers🥈🥈
Tyler Gold 🥇2 Silvers🥈🥈Bronze🥉