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3514 Read Muay Thai in UK 20 : JUNIORS WEEKEND
The WKA Junior Open Championships at the North Birmingham Sports Centre on May 1st and 2nd included appearances by several Billionmore Hall of Famers, proof of our intention to encourage outstanding young talent, and also proved to be a fine exercise in creating order out of chaos, as RON SIMPSON found.
Read axkickboxing.com – always the best guide to what the intelligent (and sometimes the bigoted) opinion thinks about Muay Thai and kickboxing – after Saturday’s Muay Thai championships, and it was obvious that this year’s event was already a big success. In 2009 the championships were plagued by late-night finishes. This year a larger venue (a splendid new sports centre linked to City University) and a third ring, plus determined efforts to keep the show moving, avoided all that. The division into three rings for junior boys, older boys and girls meant that you always knew where a certain fight would surface, if not always when!
The problem with such championships is that the organisers have no idea what numbers will apply and in what categories. If nine boys or girls enter a division, a finalist might have four fights in a day and, if one enters, somebody travels a long way just to hold the pads for clubmates. What makes it worse is that some fighters who are eligible already have fearsome reputations and opponents are naturally keen to avoid them – I guess that, on age grounds, someone like Jordan Calder would be eligible and he was winning a Class A fight in Glasgow on the same night!
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As it was, two Scots Muay Thai fighters from the Phoenix gym already making their names won titles in very different circumstances. T.J. Everett, British champion only the week before, was one who came through the four-contest route and won a closely contested final, whereas I strongly suspected Amy Pirnie (who has been in terrifying form on recent shows) would be left without an opponent – not so, but she swept to a 2nd round win against Aleksandra Plewewicz who was brave enough to take her on.
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Championships of this sort are not especially easy to follow for ordinary audience members, but they’re not really for them. Mostly they’re for youngsters, their parents and coaches to have a glorious day out, competing and networking. However, for the few neutrals, this must have been the best value ever: £8 for a day’s Muay Thai in three rings, followed by a refusal to take my money on the second day because I’d paid already! You get to meet nice people, too! |
Kyle Stewart v. Harry Hayes
| Anyway, I decided not to attempt to sort out the overall progress of the championships, but simply to follow our Hall of Famers and enjoy whatever other contests I came across. North Ayrshire’s Cassie Murdoch, defending from last year, had none of the frustration of the 2009 WKA World Championship in Huelva when opponents made an excuse and left. Courtney Baines (Knuckles) was a capable opponent who began with confidence, but it drained away in the face of Cassie’s aggression. Cassie’s father and trainer, Stewart Murdoch, would no doubt prefer to put it down to Cassie’s knee and kick techniques, but I reckon the sheer ferocity and intensity of her attacks drained the determination out of Courtney. By the 2nd round she was confined to passive resistance and in the end was waiting for the referee’s well-timed intervention. Then Stewart and Cassie had to dash off to the airport for a flight to Glasgow for that evening’s Power of Scotland show where Stewart had fighters on the bill!
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It was a strange weekend for Scott Allan, though it fitted well with his ‘Title Taker’ nickname: he took two more to add to his collection – ‘too many’, according to his good friend Dean Ford who was unfortunate not to add to his own collection. Scott, who is a kickboxer branching out into Muay Thai and amateur boxing, ended the weekend with two fights, neither of them kickboxing. In his Muay Thai semi-final he was matched with Joe Boffey, a promising, if inexperienced, fighter whom I had seen in Liverpool the week before – a good fight, with Scott having just too much power. The final against Elias Dexter was a less enjoyable contest, but Scott’s business is taking titles and, faced with a much taller opponent, he fought a canny fight, elusive in retreat, darting in with sudden attacks, clinching and taking Elias down – scrappy, but effective, against an opponent who had no chance to use his reach advantage. |
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One other boxer in Hero kit caught my eye, the stylish Kyle Stewart (Phoenix, Glasgow) who fought through two excellent even rounds with the equally stylish Harry Hayes (Studio 2000) before being caught with a devastating low kick early in the 3rd. Remarkably, Kyle carried on in a courageous losing battle, with Harry having to put up an equally heroic and clearly unsuccessful struggle against Gary Kewley (Semtex) in the final – I was much impressed by Kyle and Harry despite their defeats and will look out for their names in future. |
For the Sunday kickboxing it was mostly the story of the Rivals Gym, though I was sorry to see the classy Conor Judge, in Hero George Cross trousers, get a thorough beating from Thomas Wilson. Dazed by a kick to the head in the 1st, Conor took 8 standing counts in both Rounds 2 and 3 from kicks to the body. His despairing looks to his corner may have suggested that he’d had enough, but he bravely completed the three rounds.
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Scott Allan v. Joe Boffey
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Rivals Gym is based in the small Lanarkshire town of Newmains and is notable for two things: the number of champions it produces and its blue-and-white Hero kit – when I arrived in Huelva last year, so many of the Scots team wore Rivals kit that I assumed it was the international uniform!
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Almost at the start of the day Rivals picked up a first title, with tiny Aimee Boyle (‘Banger Boyle’ according to her t-shirt) winning clearly and already showing the typical Rivals style based on elusive, on-your-toes movement. Soon Calum Reynolds followed suit, with a win on the extra round after drawing over three rounds – rather an odd way of proceeding, but what do you do when somebody has to get through to the next round? For the record I had Calum winning (just) after 3 rounds.
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Conor Judge v. Thomas Wilson
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But the day brought disappointment for Rivals’ two Hall of Famers. Scott Allan had no opponents at 55kg – another title taken, but hardly satisfactory – and Dean Ford had a sad day through little fault of his own. Outpointed by Jack Docherty in the 60kg semi-final, the four-times British champion blamed himself for losing to an opponent he should have beaten, but he was really a victim of circumstance.
Throughout their very successful careers Scott and Dean have fought at adjacent weights, both hoovering up domestic titles, Scott going even further and adding World titles. So what do they do when they end up in the same weight band? Maybe beat an English boy apiece and meet in the final? But what if there are no other entrants? Dean, having been out injured and having no opponent except Scott in the Scottish finals, decided he wanted a proper fight, so bravely persuaded his coach to let him enter the 60kg category.
I had not seen Dean fight before and was impressed by signs of his huge talent, but for whatever reasons he was not consistently at his best and the move up in weight meant he lost the height advantage he normally has as a particularly tall bantamweight. I thought maybe Dean shaded it, but he, with refreshing honesty and typical modesty, dismissed the idea - a sad disappointment for our most recent Hall of Famer!
 Dean Ford v. Jack Docherty  |
 Dean Ford
| I found it a great disappointment, too, as Dean is a splendid young man who felt keenly that he had let people down: his gym, even Billionmore. In fact we are immensely proud of him and honoured to have him in the Hall of Fame – and I look forward to seeing him cover himself in glory at Edinburgh’s World Championships later in the year!
If there is something faintly unfair about Dean’s situation, it’s not the sort of unfairness that’s anyone’s fault. Paul Sutton and his enthusiastic and industrious team can no more balance the entries in each age and weight category than they can predict the winning numbers in the Lottery. What they can do is to make sure that the WKA Junior Championships proceed efficiently and in a friendly atmosphere – and, on a weekend when the Power of Scotland Muay Thai tournament produced drunken scuffles and a hoax fire alarm, they did that with total success.
Read the best Muay Thai News here ... www.billionmore.com
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Last modified : 28 Jun 2010 - 08:03 PM (GMT+7:00) |
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