Taekwondo Tournament in Bournemouth 30/10/05
Ahhh first tournament of the year and everyone’s ready for some action. We had picked everyone up by about 8am and only stopped off to get some munch from the co-op (where Paul stuffed his face and left his jammy dodgers all over the bus!) before starting the journey. The journey was only 1 and ½ hours so didn’t seem to long and after an appalling effort by Ken on a random crossword puzzle that we found, we were there sooner than we knew.
At Bournemouth it was raining pretty hard so we all ran in to get ourselves changed and weighed in and apart from Adam’s wet hair which meant he had put on 5kg and was now in a heavier category, there were no surprises at the weigh in. So, we all went to get some brekkie at the local café, which was scrumdillyumptious.
Later after wandering off and leaving us for dead, Fab returned with news on our matches (hurray) – first up was fresher Rowdy Dowdy in the featherweight category. This was Dowdy’s first tournament so no one knew what to expect of him and he pulled off a great performance beating his opponent quite comfortably. This meant he would fight Adam in the next round, oooo~.
Next up was Matthew Gold, it was also his first tournament – but he is no fresher I’ll have you know. Although Matt constantly pumped kicks out on his opponent, he was unable to clench the necessary points and found that fatigue got the better off him by the end of the fight and lost in a close battle. Good effort for his first tournament though, and lets hope he can take the experience with him to future ones.
Social Sex Ben’s fight followed shortly after and one struggle of a fight later Ben sadly came out with a loss, it was also his first tournament and hopefully next time we’ll see more high kicks from him that we know he’s capable of!
Laura’s fight was also around this time (ok I got the order mixed up a little but I can’t remember everything can I? ehy?) and after a surprise appearance by her folks, she beat her enemy by kicking her and getting loads of points! As you do.
Amee’s fight I think was also around this time (oh god I’m way off now) and she lost in a distant battle (distant being that I didn’t see it cos I was in the cafeteria) and didn’t progress to the next round. But I’m sure she did well.
By now Fab was pretty annoyed, which is not like him at all! And after lots of shouting he lost his voice, which proved beneficial ehehe.
Anyway next fight was Paul and his experience obviously showed through because he played a very tactical fight and won quite comfortably. Good job to him. His opponent was very fast and flexible as well.
Somewhere after this (OK I’ve completely lost the timeframe [and probably the plot], but I just want to get onto my first fight) was Steve (aka me) and after a ‘heroic’ struggle and against all the odds (ehehehe) Steve put up an incredible performance and won! OK it wasn’t that good but I did win.
Before my (Steve’s) fight though, was Adam vs. Dowdy in the semi’s, Adam started off well and chased Rowdy Dowdy around the ring, but Dowdy put up a great performance and his quick movement and sharp kicks led to an impressive win for him, putting him into the finals vs. me (Steve, in case you forgot already who’s writing this).
Seeing as my memory is terrible (obviously one to many kicks to the head) and I can’t remember who’s fight was next we’ll just go onto Oz’s. Oz is in the heavyweight category and put up a good performance but kept moving into the guys kicks rather than away from them! And after a few headshots to Oz he finished with a loss, although his opponent was very fast and flexible for his size. Hopefully this was a good experience for Oz though that he can take to future tournaments.
Next was Lisa and after loads of high kicks being thrown at her opponent she was unable to actually get many points and hence didn’t win. But she didn’t break her nose again, which was good so hopefully she’ll be well prepared for the next tournament.
Charlee’s fight was next and from working on the pads with him he had some awesome power and high kicks but it didn’t show in his fight and he disappointingly lost, although put up a good fight (and I know he can do better).
Later in the day now, about 3-4pm and Paul stepped up to fight a pretty damn good black belt in the finals, after a worrying start he pulled off some wicked moves but was unable to get enough points to secure the victory, good job to him anyway (impressive performance).
Last two fights now, Laura was fighting some hardcore Welsh woman black belt in the final and she got beat pretty bad, but it was a good experience! And hopefully she’ll be taking home some more medals later on in the year.
And finally the last fight was the final between Steve and Dowdy in the featherweight division (should be lightweight as in I can’t handle my drink) and the extremely close match came down to the last second where Steve (me) sneaked in a headshot to put the scores back to 5-5 on the buzzer! This meant golden point (i.e. like golden goal in football, first point wins) and about 2 seconds into the round Steve caught Dowdy on the head and claimed the win. An awesome performance for Dowdy though, especially as it was his first tournament and it was basically only due to last second luck that Steve won.
So after all the fights we bought some photo’s of us kicking for ludicrous amounts of dollar and headed back to the minibus. To mine and Fab’s dissent people were playing the name game in the back of the minibus, at this point it should be mentioned that last year on our way to Leeds, Man played that game for 5 hours straight and I just can’t bear to hear any more celebrities names. Anyway, we stopped off at Fratton and dropped off the sissy’s who wouldn’t come for a meal and then headed down to a place (which I can’t remember the name of but later found out was The Farmhouse) where they serve enormous portions and got ourselves some Steak; very good choice by our driver Lee. The meal was yummy and everyone had a great time, discussing their fights and munching their food, Fab made a toast and where as everyone had massive portions, Eve had a tiny little plate with some skanky scampi on it which no one would eat and she didn’t even finish it. Rubbish.
After, we dropped everyone off at their homes (Matt Gold lives in the dodgiest part of Portsmouth) and as soon as my head hit the pillow I fell asleep (much to my woman’s disapproval).
Thanks go to Fabian (our instructor), Lee (our driver), Eve, Joe and Ken (the spectators and cameramen/woman) and all the tournament squad for coming.
Hope to see you all soon and will look forward to the next tournament in 2 weeks in Aylesbury,
So till next time
- Steve
Click here for the videos
MOTM – Dowdy for his awesome performance
DOTD – Laura for putting her helmet on backwards
Medals Tally:
Stephen Burt – Gold
Paul Favill - Silver
Laura Dadd - Silver
Mike Dowdy (Rowdy Dowdy) - Silver
Efstratios Chatzikonstantinov (Charlee) - Silver
Amee Plumb - Silver
Lisa Henley - Silver
Paul Bishop (Oz) - Bronze
Ben Causbrook (Social Sex) - Bronze
Adam Thomas - Bronze
