Saturday 5th October 2019 – Nottingham Wildcats Arena
Journey
Staying over at Farmoor, the journey to the competition took about an hour. The venue was easy to find and parking was directed by a rep at the entrance to the venue. Parked at a school car park next door with plenty of spaces available.
Venue
The arena was a good size with 10 areas set up but the fixed seating was only along one side of the hall which meant it was going to be challenging to see the fights if they’re on the diagonal opposite corner with limited access.
Tournament
The competition started on time and ran very efficiently. The officials were very good, in particular the main official on Area 10 who called decisions both for and against my boys and was fair and professional.
In contrast, the main referee on Area 8 appeared a stressed by the time the Pee Wee Boys Tag Team event started and was overly aggressive towards the kids. He was confrontational to one of the ringside parent spectator. He also interfered with the flow of the matches by prompting changes; even though all the competitors in my sons' team changed regularly and adhered to the tag team rules.
Ethan and Tyler
The Blue Belt Peewee category only had 6 competitors. Ethan won his first round with 10 points. Tyler won his with 9 points. Next round, it was Ethan against Tyler! Tyler was 3 points up when Ethan kicked him and caught the corner of his eye which brought him to tears. The fight ended 4-3 to Tyler, and it’s the first time in a long while that Tyler beat Ethan in a tournament. Ethan subsequently came away with Bronze. So it was Tyler against Lewis in the final. Close fight but Tyler came second losing out in sudden death.
Ashton
Black belt middleweight category only had 3 competitors and Ashton had a bypass. He was up against Robbie in the final and lost out by 1 point. Reviewing the video footage, we were suitably impressed by Ashton’s head kick which wasn’t awarded [see video at 1:45]
If it was awarded, the spin kick would have meant Ashton would've been 1 point ahead and would have come away with Gold. Nevertheless he came away with Silver. It was also unfortunate that there wasn’t enough competitors to be able to run a middleweight black belt Tag Team category.
Tag Team Event
Ethan and Tyler teamed up with Lewis for the Blue Belt Tag team – they won first place with a fantastic 22-8 final score. We were told that the boys' gold medals would be posted out to our club as they 'ran out' gold medals for tag team awards! So Ady will be able to present the boys with their winning Gold medals at the club in a few days time.
I think this must be one of the earliest finishes for us all today at 12:30pm. But instead of heading home, we were back on the road towards London for another competition the following day in Hatfield.
The boys winding down for half an hour in the nearby park, enjoying the climbing and the zip-wire.
Review and suggestions
Just an observation but maybe in the smaller competitions the organisers should merge the divisions, get the competitors lined up and then select the teams, taking into account height etc. The competition was great and efficiently run; the only improvement would have been a few more competitors in each category .
Overall
Ashton Silver Point-stop Sparring 🥈
Ethan Bronze Individual Sparring 🥉Gold Tag Team 🥇
Tyler Silver Individual Sparring 🥈Gold Tag Team 🥇