BJA Junior and Senior Grades - New Syllabi (posted on 23/04/2008)

The BJA, our national governing body, has revamped its syllabi for senior (kyu) grades and junior (mon) grades and aligned them more closely to give a natural progression towards the technical Dan grade syllabus, against which the club's senseis were assessed in 2006. Click on the web link below to take you there.

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In April (posted on 23/04/2008)

Albert took a party of Northbrookers to Oosterhout in Holland and came back with ten medals despite almost running out of fuel... Check out this link for a commemorative photo spread.

Feature on Lee Carder, our young Dan Grade, currently serving in Iraq.

All the ususal news on April's sensei awards, Jack Petchey winner and the new mats for Kingswood Hall.

CLick on the link below to take you there.

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No Licence No Judo (posted on 23/04/2008)

Shirley has been getting increasingly frustrated at members that either have not renewed their Licences or not informed her that they have renewed it.

It is a firm policy of the club that 'NO LICENCE - NO JUDO - NO EXCEPTION' the licence is your only form of insurance thus it makes the club criminally liable if you practice without one. If you are awaiting a new licence you must pay a double mat fee as this will place you onto the club’s own insurance.

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Friday Venue Change (posted on 28/12/2007)

Good news! From Friday 11 January we are holding Friday sessions in our new venue at Kingswood Hall, Kingswood Place, Lewisham, SE13 5BU.

Check the venues page for details and a map showing how to get there. Please note that we will be starting half an hour later at 7pm - so no excuses for not turning up!

Parents are welcome to join their kids on the mat.

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National Championships (posted on 16/05/2007)

A magnificent well done to all participants in this years BJC Junior Nationals. This year we only took a small contingent of 5 students; Olivia Piechota, Ben Wood-Gluck, Amelia Cook, John Hisee and Anthony Butler but, what an impact they made winning 3 golds, 1 bronze and 1 fifth place, Well done all!

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Congratulations! (posted on 24/04/2007)

A big congratulations to Amelia Cook for winning a bronze medal at the 2007 Cadet International Tournament in Portugal. This surely are early signals to a potential Olympian for the 2012 Olympics! Also congratulations to Stewart Bevan and Danny Clarke for their respective Silver and Bronze medals at the Kent Closed competition at Dartford Judokwai.

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New venue, new look! (posted on 02/04/2007)

Firstly Congratulations to all those that attended the BJC (MAC) competition in Gillingham on Sunday, congratualtions especially to Luke Treveil and Olivia Piechota on their gold medals and to Lucy Robert with a well deserved silver with a excellently executed Ippon Seoi Nage (worthy of a senior Dan grade in Alberts opinion), also well done to both Lane brothers for their Silvers.
Finally we've reached the end of the road with the Northbrook school venue, this has been our second venue for our flagship sessions in Lewisham (the first venue being Lochaber Hall). However, we are now moving ever upwards and onwards to our newest venue which will be Blackheath High G.D.S.T School, Vanbrugh Park, London SE3. The venue boasts a much larger hall and better access, with the opportunity to build the long seeked permanent dojo. The first session at the new venue will be Friday 13th April (hoping this isn't a bad omen), there will also be new session times in place too with Primaries, Novice to Intermediate and Advanced classes in their own time slots. Monday (first session Monday 16th April) session times will remain the same, but only at the new venue instead.

For further enquiries on the new venue, feel free to contact any person within the club contact list. Click the web link below for the venue details.

Happy Easter!!

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Densign White (posted on 19/03/2007)

The club had a very busy Saturday and Sunday this weekend. On Saturday club champion Amelia Cook missed out on an opportunity to become a member of the British Cadet squad, by being beaten at the trials in Sheffield by arch nemesis (and friend) Charlotte Wraith - better luck next time.

Sunday was a coaching revalidation event at Willesden Judo Club for club senseis Tim (who not only had to borrow a belt (I left my gym kit at home Miss), but also split his trousers - thankfully not visible in the photo) and Gary, although Nigel and Albert also attended. The day was very rewarding on a lot of levels; firstly we were able to meet senior committee members of the BJA London area, to which we are now affiliated, plus we also got to meet some very senior members of the BJA including BJA president Densign White, who took a 20 minute session on turn overs and was excellent. We were then put through our paces with Andrew Moshanov (BJA coaching director) on teaching proper, upright, ippon judo.

The coaches were addressed by the biggest cheese of all: Scott McCarthy, the CEO of the BJA, who was there to paint a picture of the BJA’s vision of the future of Judo in Great Britain, which was very interesting and does well to mirror Northbrooks philosophy of grass-roots judo. We also had a presentation, followed by a question and answer session on the new referreeing rules for the under-12s. All in all a very good and inspiring day, as agreed by all the club senseis

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Jack Petchey recipient for March awarded! (posted on 06/03/2007)

Congratulations to Jessica, on being the second recipient of the Jack Petchey foundation award. Jess, was given the award to record her hard work in training, dedication to the club and loyalty. As part of the award, Jessica has been awarded £600 to spend on the club. This money will be going towards a 'special' gift for every member of the club which will be recieved shortly. Jess (along with Aidan the 1st recipient) will also get to attend a gala evening with other Jack Petchey recipients from other sports clubs across London.

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Grading success (posted on 04/03/2007)

A big well done to all the Northbrookers that took park in the South London area BJC grading. Those taking part included: Lucy Robert, Luke Treveil, Alex Miller, Lewis Reed, Louis Cursan, Ruby Falconer and Matthew Langdon. Special consideration should also go to James Hodgkinson on being awarded his 2nd Kyu (blue belt), at his first senior grading. Also noteworthy was club coach Sean Bashford (illustrated) on finally getting his Dan grade verified with the BJC. Although already a Dan grade with the BJA, Sean explained "It was a matter of principle!", and a hard fought principle at that competing in a pool of 5 he won all his fights by Ippon! Well done all

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Official club mark recognition (posted on 23/02/2007)

Congratulations! to all Northbrook members thanks to all your hard work we are now officially registered recipients of the club mark 'Bronze award' and as such are now listed on the BJA websites official 'Hall of fame' page.
Well done all!

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Weekend Winners (posted on 05/02/2007)

A big well done to all the successful competitors this weekend. Firstly to John Hisee on earning his 13th Mon (Blue belt) at the grading in Dagenham, and to Amelia Cook, winning Silver in the Midlands U20. and not forgetting of course all the members of the trip to Heerle in Holland (results on results page). Especially nice about the Holland trip was the introduction of some of our younger stars that made their first trip there (and probably not the last). Well done all!

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Christmas 2006 Awards (posted on 24/12/2006)

What a great end to the year it was at the Christmas Party with the first ever Awards Ceremony recognising all the young Judoka and their achievements over the past year.
Awards were given out for Most Improved Male and Female, Best achievement for Male and Female, Best Male and Best Female, Future Olympic Hopefuls male and Female, Best Newcomers Male and Female and Best Competitors Male and Female. These awards were all voted on by the club senseis and committee members and in a touch of irony the students voted on their best Sensei's too voting on of course best sensei, most funniest, most sensible, best support for children and no forgetting 'sexiest' sensei.

Take a look at ALL the winners of the awards on the gallery page.

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Guestbook Page Changes (posted on 19/12/2006)

All Northbrookers who have registered on the site can now add messages to the guestbook page without them being verified by Committee members first. If the system is abused though, we'll revert to the old way of doing things.

Enjoy and Happy Christmas!

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Merry Christmas (posted on 15/12/2006)

Well we are nearing the end of the judo year yet again. The last 'Judo' Night will be Wednesday 20th December, with the Christmas party on the 22nd. The first Judo session back will be Friday 5th December, with Mondays being the 8th and Wednesdays being 10th. The Northbrook committe and Members would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New year. As a leaving present, look at the picture (which you'll find on the gallery pages 'blast from the past' section), and see who you think this good looking young chap grew up to be - Enjoy!

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Italians Arrive (posted on 10/12/2006)

It was a great session night on Firday, when Northbrook was able to welcome some 20 members from Italian Judo Club 'Jigoro Kano' and the Harris Judo Club, we all enjoyed lots of hard work, and have hopefully forged a greater relationship with a neighbour club 'Harris' as well as making some new friends in Italy. At the end of the night Albert gave some gifts out to a Italian guests before Gary, Nigel and some other northbrookers went over to the Harris judo club venue to enjoy a couple some food and drinks. we look forward to doing some more trainig sessions like this in the future, with possibly some of our friends in Belgium and Holland too

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National success (posted on 22/11/2006)

A big well done to the the 3 senior players who attended this year's BJC senior Nationals in Hereford - all three won medals. Stewart Bevan and Ray Causton won bronze and Niall Cox won gold making him the first BJC Senior National champion for Northbrook.

Well done all!

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New funding acquired (posted on 22/11/2006)

Northbrook recieved a cheque for its first £600 as part of a yearly donation of £3,400 from the Jack Petchey foundation. The funding allows Northbrook to select a junior member of the club to decide what to spend the £600 on.

These selected juniors also recieve a certificate and medallion for being selected and get to attend an reward ceremony in London. read more about the Jack Petchey foundation by clicking on the link below.

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Gillingham Triumph (posted on 14/11/2006)

Well done to all Northbrookers with a 100% medal collection (12 from 12), at the BJC (MAC) Southern open in Gillingham. This is a popular event for our primaries as all are able to earn something. Gold medal winners on the day however consisted of Ruby Falconer, Shane Worges, Reece Lane (in his first ever competition) Henley Holder. other medal winners were Luke Trevail, William Charlesworth, Matthew Langdon, Lucy Roberts, Michael Nester, Conor Lane, and Siam Sudphurm. Special Mention should also go to Stewart Bevan, the only non-primary in his first senior competition after a long break due to injury and school work. Stewart picked up a well earned Bronze medal against tough opposition and is now looking forward to attending this weekends BJC Senior Nationals in Hereford.

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South of England Success (posted on 06/11/2006)

Three Northbrookers competed at the South of England Junior Open for orange belts and below. All of our players fought well; Olivia Piechota won a well-deserved gold, Shane Worges silver, after narrowly missing out on the gold medal, and Tom England came away with a hard-fought bronze.

Well done to all three!

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club mark! (posted on 25/10/2006)

Northbrook Kyu Shin Kai is now registered as a 'club in progress' of achieving the club mark which is basically a quality assurnace that Northbrook Judo coaching as well as administration is set to a very high standard. It ensures that all coaches have completed a level 2 (BJA) coaching award, first aid qualified, good practice and child protection as well as CRB checks. We are already in discussions with the BJA to discuss the achieving the club mark, which now believe we are 80/85% on a way to achieving this award. current progress can be viewed on the documents page.

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World Class (posted on 25/10/2006)

Since winning her silver medal at the BJA National Age bands in Sheffield 2 weeks ago, it's been all go for Amelia. She has now been accepted into the World Class Start Programe and is currently training with the rest of the British World Class Start Programme Judo athletes in Lilleshall in Shropshire. Here she will be learning with the best, which will hopefully filter back into the club and inspire other young judoka to achieve the same. Amelia will be submitting a weblog diary of her time at Lilleshall when she returns, so remember to look out for it.

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Northbrook Open a big success! (posted on 25/10/2006)

A big thank you to everyone that attended our annual competition this year at Swanley. The day turned out to be reasonably trouble free with just a few minor hiccups. From the feedback that we received everyone enjoyed the event and this year we were joined by some new friends from Belgium, who have now asked to come back next year.

Also this year we were also able to offer the services of a professional photgrapher, who took some very good pictures througout the event - not just action pictures, but also of the medal winners. These pictures can be viewed and purchased online by following the link below.

By viewing the Results page you will also be able to see a club results list as well as individual medal winners list.

Finally Northbrook would like to extend a personal thanks to Chris from Luton who worked tirelessly at refereeing, Laurie for his excellent work on the organisation of pools and categories, Pete the Paramedic whose knowledge was invaluable, especially for the guy who had a dislocated shoulder put back into place right there on the mat, and not forgetting all those that worked virtually without a break as table officials and general helpers.

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Sheffield Success! (posted on 15/10/2006)

A big congratulations to Amelia on winning a hard fought Silver medal at the BJA National Age band championships in Sheffield. With this medal it means that Amelia has now won Gold at BJC British and Welsh Junior Nationals, Gold and London Youth Games and is capped with a BJA nationals medal. It seems there is no stopping Amelia at the moment, and looks set to become at very least the first Northbrooker to be accepted into a BJA National squad, who knows we could well be seeing her in 2012 at the London Olympics, we at Northbrook at extremley proud of our surrogate daughter!

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YOUNG PEOPLES FUND (posted on 14/10/2006)

We are now in the final stages of our bid from the Young Peoples Fund. This is potentially the most important (and ambitious) thing, that Northbrook Judo Club has done. If successful Northbrook, working alongside Lewisham schools development team, will over a 3 year period be able to place extra curricular (or curricular) judo clubs into at least 15 schools in the Lewisham borough area. This development will will have a tremendous impact on introducing new people to the sport, developing young athletes and providing coaches as well as providing training to creat new coaches from newly formed clubs so that students from the new clubs could become independent entities under the umbrella of Northbrook Judo Club.

With the 2012 Olympics looming over the horizon the new scheme will be invaluable to everyone!
We would like to ask everyone between the age of 11 and 21 reading this blog, to fill out the questionnaire in the link below and return it via e-mail to info@northbrookjudo.co.uk.

Many thanks. All help is welcomed!

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From BJA Headquarters (posted on 11/10/2006)

Champion Judo - Contact the BBC

BBC Breakfast Sports Presenter Chris Hollins has admitted that he often gets a steady stream of e-mails each Monday morning accusing the BBC of ignoring viewers favourite sport. So he has decided to tackle the criticism head on and is asking for everyone out there who thinks their sport is not covered enough to email him!

We don’t need asking twice!

If you'd like to champion judo to the BBC then they would like to hear from you

The BBC will pick out the most deserving, or most intriguing e-mails and then send Chris and a camera crew down to find out more about it.

Lets get emailing!

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BJA Official! (posted on 09/10/2006)

We are now officially members of the British Judo Association, recognition arriving this morning, next stop - the club mark (a list of our progress can be found on the documents page in the 'dojo')! We are about 80% there, and should be able to apply late this year or the early part of next year.. after that it's permanent dojo. Look out world here we come!

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Southampton Success! (posted on 08/10/2006)

A terrific day for Northbrookers in Southampton, having 10 entrants in the competition and coming away with no less than 8 medals, all gold and silver. Gold medal winners were: Amelia Cook, Olivia Piechota, Jodi Kirrage and Shane Worges; silvers: Amy Lott, Lucy Roberts (in her first ever competition), John Hisee and Anthony Butler - who was robbed of the gold!

Special consideration should be also given to Florin and Aidan who showed the true spirit of Northbrook Judo by not quitting and competing to their best.

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Ipswich Triumph (posted on 17/09/2006)

2 Members of the Club, attended their first BJA competition since the BJA change-over. and recorded reasonable success with Amelia receiving Gold and Rodan a well fought 5 place, narrowly missing out on a bronze. The standard of contest at the Ipswich U20 was very high, with a large contingent of National squad players and champions attending in preparation for the BJA Junior Nationals. Well done!

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Thanks to B&Q (posted on 04/09/2006)

Northbrook would like to extend a big thanks, to B&Q for donating prizes for our fund-raising raffles. The funds rasied from these raffles will go toward the continuing development of the club and its members.
Many Thanks!
Also Many Thanks to Paul's mum for her help in this contact

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Northbrook Annual General Meeting (posted on 02/08/2006)

The club will be holding its AGM on Monday, 7 August at 19:30 following the training session.

Agenda as follows:

1. Election of Officers:
a. Chair – Executive Officer;
b. Secretary – Executive Officer;
c. Treasurer – Executive Officer;
d. Fundraising Officer – Executive Officer;
e. Publicity Officer – Executive Officer;
f. Safety Representative – Executive Officer;
g. Young Persons’ Representative – Executive Officer;

2. EGM minutes of 20 February 2006

3. Constitutional Changes
a. Election of assistant to Secretary
b. Affiliation to the British Judo Association

4. Reports
a. Audited accounts
b. Secretary’s report

5. New venue

6. Funding
a. Subscriptions
b. Young People’s Fund
c. Other funding sources

All club members are welcome. Please make every effort to attend.

Click here to access Agenda as a Word Document

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Northbrook Joins the BJA (posted on 11/07/2006)

There was a good turnout over the weekend at the club when we took the first steps towards affiliating Northbrook with the British Judo Association. A large selection of club members turned up and helped Albert, Gary, Nigel and Tim with their BJA technical dan grade assessments and club coach awards, under the expert supervision of Dermot Heslop (6th Dan), Kerry Manfredi (4th Dan), Steve Lesik (6th Dan) and Pete Blewett (6th Dan), from BJA headquarters.

Club members with BJA licences had their grades converted to the BJA equivalents and we are now completing the process of affiliation with the BJA as a club. This will give Northbrook judoka more opportunities to train and compete at a higher level, whilst allowing access to greater athletic support from the governing body. One of our next steps is to work towards gaining the 'club mark', a nationally-recognised quality mark for well run clubs, which will help us move from strength to strength. We hope to be running BJA grading sessions at the club.

A big thank you to Dermot, Kerry, Steve and Pete for giving up their valuable time and expertise and to everyone else who turned up for their help, patience and excellent etiquette. We hope that you all enjoyed the day. Roll on that Northbrook Olympic champion!

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Nationals Success! (posted on 01/05/2006)

It was a very productive weekend for the club, on our annual weekend away to Hereford for the BJC Junior Nationals. 9 of our club memebrs attended this event, 7 of which got medals. However the Gold proved a little elusive this year. This was not the only highlight this year though with entertainment coming from club clown Niall who delighted in showing his boxers to everyone in the contest hall (Good job, Sean). It was also good to catch up with our friends in Northeast Judo club Washington JC.
Medals this year came from Amelia, John (Silver) and Katie, Tom, Stewart, Benedict and Camilla all collecting bronze. Well done guys!

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Kent Closed Tournament (posted on 24/04/2006)

Well done to Stewart Bevan and Daniel Clarke for winning Silver and Bronze respectively at the Kent Closed competition in Dartford at the weekend. Congratulations also to Camilla and Amelia Cook on being selected to represent Team BJC in Holland, after attending the National squad training in Birmingham. Finally a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Shirley and Albert both having their birthdays on 25th April - Albert is 60 and officially a pensioner. Gary's birthday is on the 27th April, so a busy time in the Currier family at the moment!

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Maidstone Madness! (posted on 02/04/2006)

There was an impressive display of medals from Northbrookers this weekend, despite some very dubious refereeing. Of the 22 entrants from the club we returned with 17 medals, including 7 golds, 5 silvers and 5 bronzes.

Gold medals came from Olivia, Jodi, Henley, Amelia, Camilla, Anthony and Ray. Also noteworthy, despite not winning a medal, was Imani in her first junior contest competing against much bigger girls and Chevez, who lost out on a medal by 1 fight and displayed some of the best judo on the day. Well done everyone!!

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Return of the prodigal son! (posted on 01/04/2006)

Northbrook was able to welcome back Lee Carder who recently finished his training for the British Army. Lee is now enjoying every bit of his new career and has even been selected to compete for the Army, already winning gold in the Army novice and Army Intermediates, plus a gold in the mens kyu grade teams combined services. Currently he has just recieved his 1st Dan and is looking forward to representing the Army in a tour of America and Canada next month. We all wish you well, and wish you continued success! Looking forward to seeing more of you at the club (especially the girls!)

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South London Area Grading! (posted on 26/03/2006)

Well done to all Northbrookers for attending this weekend's Grading and Kata course. The event was well attended by all age groups, including a high number of senior kyu grades. Amongst the many Northbrookers that graded were Dan Clarke, Ray Causton and Keiron Lee, all awarded their 3rd Kyu (Green belt), and Stewart Bevan awarded 2nd Kyu (Blue belt), not of course forgetting all of the primary and Junior grades for which there are too many to mention.

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Northbrook Showcase! (posted on 24/03/2006)

6 members of Northbrook Judo Club including Imani, Lottie, Katie Tom E, Tom S and club coaches Gary and Sean, attended a 'local sports showcase' hosted by Langley Park Girls School in Kent, to highlight local sports in the area. Although not well attended by the local community it served as a good way to speak with sports coaches from other sports and their approach to recruiting and general sporting issues.

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Commonwealth champion visits Northbrook (posted on 20/03/2006)

Danny Sargent, 3 times Commonwealth Gold Medallist and Silver Medallist at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, popped into the Club to give some of his valuable knowledge to the Club's younger members.

37 of the Club's members turned up to take part in the lesson, which finished with Danny taking some of the members through their paces and answering questions about his career.

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Club news update (posted on 20/03/2006)

Niall and Ray both won bronze medals at the groundwork competition on Sunday against some very tough seniors - well done to both of them.

The Holland trip leaves on the 7th of April.

The Maidstone tournament takes place the week before on Sunday the 2nd of April. Entries for this must be in by Wed 22nd March if you still want to enter. See Shirley at club, there will be a mini bus going to this one.

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Commonwealth medallist to teach at Northbrook! (posted on 13/03/2006)

On the 20th March, 2002 Commonwealth silver medallist, Dan Sargent, will be attending Northbrook’s Monday session to give some of his valuable insight to the younger generation of judoka at the club.

As well as taking the class, he will give a little Q&A session at the end for the kids to find out what it really takes to become a champion.

Look forward to it Dan!

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27 Medals for Northbrook Judoka (posted on 06/03/2006)

Northbrook Judoka took home 27 medals at the BJC South London Area Tournament on Saturday, 4 March 2006, including 10 golds!

We were encouraged by some of our more recent and younger members winning medals. A great day was had by all. To see all of the results for Northbrook's Judoka, check out the link below.

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Annual General Meeting (posted on 18/07/2008)