On Sunday 27th March 2011, four junior and one adult fighters made the long journey to Birmingham for the first tournament in the Birmingham Series Championship 2011. The tournament kicked off and the first of the Grimsby Strike Team to fight was talented Ethan Noton (7) in the boys -4ft 4 semi-contact advanced category. This category was a round robin. Ethan found himself against a very good black belt who had height on his side! Ethan won his next fight 13-3, there was no stopping him. He got his legs going and then was finishing with his fast blitz techniques. Ethan won 2nd place.
Next to fight was Evan Balch (8) in the boys -4ft 8 advanced semi-contact category. Evan fought hard and found himself in the final. It was a tough fight, but Evan used his legs well scoring some fantastic head kicks. This wasn’t enough though and his black belt opponent beat him 11-7. Evan won 2nd place.
Joe Axcell (11) stepped onto the mat to fight in the boys -5ft 2 intermediate semi-contact category. The semi-final was close. It was point for point all the way. Just as the buzzer went both boys scored a point leaving the final score 9-8 to Joes’ opponent. Joe was gutted! He then had to fight for third place. Joe was determined from the start. He never let up, banging the reverse punches in. Joe won the 3rd place fight off 13-5.
Daniel Balch (12) battled his way through the 1st round to win 6-1 in the boys -5ft 2 advanced category. His next opponent was an experienced international 3rd Dan black belt fighter, who Daniel has met before at competitions. It was a tough fight but Daniels quick reverse punches soon won him a place in the final. Daniel was focused and quick off the mark in the final, but his opponent had extra long legs which Daniel found difficult. It was a good fight and Daniel had to settle for a respectable 2nd place.
The light continuous sections got off to a good start with Ethan Noton winning first place in the boys -25kg section. He controlled the fight from the start. His jab, cross and front kick techniques soon saw his opponent struggling to keep up. After about a minute his opponent retired and Ethan took home the first 1st place trophy of the day for the Grimsby Strike Team!
Evan Balch took to the mat in the boys -35kg light continuous section. In the semi-final Evans’ opponent came at him hard and fast but Evan returned a quick jab directly onto his nose. His opponent had to retire with a nose bleed only 10 seconds into the fight. The final was tough and Evan was using the techniques which he has been learning back at the gym. He got his legs going and his opponent received some spectacular kicks to his head. Unfortunately this wasn’t enough and for Evan to win but he was still please with another 2nd place trophy!
The last of the juniors to fight light continuous, was Daniel Balch in the boys -45kg category. There was only three in the category so Daniel had to fight in a round robin. He took it steady; he used clean, sharp techniques. Daniel kept it very simple at first, pushing his opponent with a front kick and the getting stuck in with a jab cross sequence. His opponent never saw Daniels spinning hook kick until it landed on his head. Daniel was determined for 1st place and pushed on his opponent from the beginning. He had done it! Daniel had won another 1st for the Grimsby Strike Team!
The last Grimsby Strike Team member Lizzie Summers (16) was really feeling the pressure. Each of the juniors had won a trophy in all of their categories and Lizzie didn’t want to let them down in the ladies -65kg light continuous category. Lizzie got to the final and was up against a very experienced older fighter. Lizzie fought extremely well, ducking and weaving to miss some very quick punches and kicks. Lizzie returned the kicks with some nice round house kicks to her opponents head. At the end of normal time it was a draw. After 30 more seconds of fast and furious kicking and punching both ladies were shattered, so when another draw was announced and the ref decided that they had to fight for another 30 seconds you could see the look of horror on both of their faces. Both ladies battled for 1st but Lizzie just missed out on 1st and won another 2nd place trophy for the team.
The early start and long journey was worth it for the Grimsby Strike Team, as the five fighters managed to bring home an impressive haul of trophies. Two 1st places, five 2nd places and 1 3rd place.