It was a fantastic day, with CUJC clearly demonstrating it had a breadth of quality that Oxford clearly lacked. With CUJC winning the City, the Men’s B and the Women trophies and the Men’s A putting up one hell of a fight.

Varsity Team 2013

The City Team: 6-2

Jamie Sutherland started the day off, and surprised us all with a lovely foot sweep to win by ippon and so didn’t even have to use his groundwork skills. Next up, André Martins, who had returned from a couple months of judo-less rugby training, showed he hadn’t yet forgotten everything with an impressive ippon win with Sasae Tsuri-Komi Ashi. Following the roll, Lee Beamiss fought through his tiredness and pulled off a beautiful Ashi Waza that scored another clean ippon victory. Jonathan Toner out-manoeuvred a fast opponent to score ippon with a quick counter. Fighting to secure the City Team’s victory, City Captain Chris Coward almost lost his chance after he failed to follow up in ground work after a Tai-Otoshi scored a waza-ari. Fighting on, Chris pulled off a Tani-Otoshi to bring the score up to 5-0 to Cambridge. Chris McGee put up a strong fight but lost to a well-executed drop Seoi-Nage. Giovanny Antalika unfortunately failed to catch his opponent with one of his drop Seoi-Nages and a long fight took its toll, so eventual Giovanny was held with a pin. Last up, for Cambridge Yvette Soesbergen didn’t even get a chance to properly get into her fight before her opponent went for a leg grab and so was disqualified. So it ended up with a very clear Cambridge victory.

The Men’s B Team: 5-2

The Cambridge Men’s B fought against a mixture of students and city players, resulting in the Oxford City team getting beaten for the second time. First up, was Will Sonnex whose fight was almost over straight away as a nice Ashi Waza followed up by a pin gave Cambridge their first ippon. Vladan Martinović did very well for his first competition but got caught for ippon by a more experienced opponent. Josh Falconer Roberts fought well and won with a nice O-Uchi-Gari Next, Dom Lentrodt had us at the edge of our seats as he only barely escaped from a hold down but then within seconds had taken the advantage and won with an arm-lock. Andrew Tam took to the mat and had only just got started when his opponent went for a leg grab and so was disqualified. Rob Blackburn fought well against a higher-graded opponent but unfortunately he couldn’t quiet pull off his Seoi-Nage and was caught by two hip throws that combined gave his opponent an ippon. Last on, Liang Wu wasted no time and won almost instantly with an O-Goshi after his opponent countered his Uchi-Mata to leave the score at 5-2 for Cambridge. The Cambridge B team showed some excellent Judo, especially considering that for some this was their first competition.

Exhibition fights

Two Cambridge players had exhibition fights due to last minute changes to the team numbers. James Fielding put up a good fight and almost threw with a Tomoe-Nage but then got caught and was thrown for ippon. Connor Tann looked like he was dominating the fight at the beginning, but an unlucky mistake handed victory to his opponent.

The Women’s Team: 3-2

Abbie Lawrence was up first but within seconds followed her instincts and so unfortunately went for a leg grab and was disqualified. Madeline Ang performed fantastically against a 1st Dan, in a long fight Mady pulled off first one Maki-Komi and then a second to win by ippon. Next up, President Megan Sørensen was unfazed when fighting a partially sighted girl, and quickly won with an O-Soto-Gari. Meaning it was down to Women’s Captain Rachel Moore to secure the victory. Rachel had a really tough fight but in the end Rachel dug deep and pulled off a Seoi-Nage to win by ippon. Last on the Women’s team was Nina Voigt debut. Nina fought incredibly well, and managed to score a yuko, but in an O-Soto-Gari battle that could have gone either way, Nina was sadly thrown. So a fantastic 3-2 victory for the Women’s Team.

The Men’s A Team: 1-6

Despite Oxford having an incredibly high calibre team that including several national and international players, the Cambridge Men’s A team were unfazed and put up a heroic performance, which meant Oxford had to work hard for every victory. Up first Gergely Racz made the Oxford President really work for it, but was eventually caught by an arm-bar. Then Lawrence Rowles went up against a Norwegian player, Lawrence attacked well but was thrown in the end. Michael Bockmayr had a really impressive fight and despite facing a much stronger player managed to score twice with his Uchi-Mata to take the win. Luc Darme fought well in a high-speed match, and really demonstrated his spirit but despite some impressive avoidances he was thrown. Charlie Whittaker faced a much heavier opponent but still managed to put in some attacks, and really made his opponent work for it before he was thrown. Men’s Captain, Jesse Olszynko-Gryn, fought well but couldn’t quite get his Uchi-Mata in, and at the end of a long fight was caught out. Josh Hunt faced an opponent who was almost twice his height, but managed to put up a good fight. His opponent did the impossible and pulled off a drop Seoi-Nage to take the win. The Men’s A Team proved that they were made of tough stuff, and had fantastic performances in the face of opposition that on paper should have had an easy day.

So all in all, an incredibly successful day with three trophies to take home and some really impressive demonstration of true fighting spirit. If the club keeps training as it is, our players will move from strength to strength and hopefully we’ll see this Cambridge domination continue for years to come.

Megan Sørensen – President