GKI Championship
 
This special newsletter is to acknowledge three of our students Andrew Brown, Steven Brown and
Connor Goldson who started with the dojo at its inception.  With only a few lessons under their belts and
some grilling by us they entered the GKI annual championships on Sunday 21st May 2006 and proudly
represented Paddock Hill Dojo.  Full of nerves the students were all very brave to stand up to compete in
Kata, Kumite and Team Kata.
 
Andrew Brown started the junior 10th Kyu individual kata section with the very first kata in the
championship. He should have got a medal just for that!  Both Steven Brown and Connor Goldson also
competed in this division.  They all done very well and completed the San Dan Ge kata with no mistakes.
Steven took Bronze medal for his efforts.
 
Next up was the kumite (fighting) and all three students had already been warming up and practicing.
Again Andrew started the division with the first fight against a tall opponent. He held his own but was out
pointed during his fight.  Steven then came up and had another tall opponent. Steven was doing well
trying to get under the guard when his opponent drew blood with a smack on the nose that gave Steven
the match.  After a quick wash up Steven was so keen to carry on so it was Semi final time and this saw
Steven and Connor paired up.  This ended with Connor collecting a bronze medal and a place in the final
for Steven. In the Final try as he may with the techniques we had given him in the last couple of lessons
Steven could not outpoint his tall opponent and gallantly collected a silver medal.
 
The final event the boys entered was the Team Kata. Having only practiced this for an hour on Saturday
morning they stepped up to the mat and produced a prefect San Dan Ge.  They were in time doing the kata
with spirit and the kiai raised the roof.  They were just off the medals in joint fourth place so bearing in
mind our students only had six weeks training with the nearest other students all having at least three
months karate experience and with a grading under their belts we can safety say that our boys can hold
their chins up very high.
 
With Sensei Andre confined to Judging and refereeing Sensei Daphne decided very late on to go in for the
mixed kata and Ladies kumite.  
Doing Sepai in the mixed division Sensei Daphne done well to come fourth just outside of the medal
positions. 
In the ladies kumite Sensei Daphne started slowly but won her match to reach the semi finals.  In the semi
final Sensei Daphne met our good friend Sarah Milford and gave away too many penalty points against
her own scoring chances to win the match so collected a Bronze medal. Sarah went on to win the division
 
A touching moment was when Sensei Daphne donated her medal to Andrew Brown in the prize giving
presentation, so, all our students went home with a medal in this our first Paddock Hill Dojo
Championship entrance.

       The happy medal winners
  
Events  
Some parents spotted our deliberate mistake in the last newsletter with the demonstrations in July and not
June as follows: -
Saturday July 8th 2006
The Grove school in Frimley has asked us to do a demonstration in their school fete.  All students are
welcome to show off all their new skills that they have learnt during our first three months.
Sunday July 9th 2006
Dr Tony Moore who runs the Frimley Community Centre has also given us a 15 minute slot on the same
weekend to demonstrate our skills at the Frimley Green Carnival.
 
Also just to confirm we are open the usual times Bank Holiday Monday 29th May 2006.