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46 NAVY NEWS, JULY 2010


Royal’s kendo attitude


THIS year’s RN and RM Martial Arts Association Championships were held at HMS Temeraire,


Portsmouth. The aim of the championships is to select the best possible RN squad to compete against the Army and RAF at the annual Inter-Service Championships. The day was a great success with good turn outs from karate, taekwondo and kendo. All events were fiercely contested, with all competitors displaying great fighting spirit and control.


l Ark Royal’s AB(WS) Laura Davies breaks away from Liverpool’s ladies in a 25-0 trouncing of the destroyer’s team in Mayport Picture: LA(Phot) Gregg Macready, HMS Ark Royal


Ark lifts Auriga cup


WHILE alongside in Mayport, the ship’s companies of HM Ships Ark Royal, Liverpool and Sutherland plus RFA Fort George took a well- earned rest from the Auriga 2010 deployment to play each other at a variety of sports.


Under the blazing Florida sun the football, rugby, volleyball and netball teams turned out in force to do battle. Ark Royal provided five football


teams, Liverpool four, with more sides from RFA Fort George and HMS Sutherland.


tournament,


After a bitterly-fought the final was


between Ark’s marine engineering department and the flagship’s 1st XI.


At half-time the score was 1-1,


but the strength of the first team shone through in the end, winning by a resounding 6-1. With a sun-baked ground, the


rugby matches were a battle of attrition.


In the men’s tournament it


was particularly close between the teams with only one point separating the top three sides. Liverpool drew upon their


great rugby pedigree and saw off all opponents to beat Ark Royal and Sutherland into joint second place.


The ladies’ tournament was


equally tough as Ark Royal’s rookie team faced Liverpool in their first- ever game. The ‘Spirit of the Ark’ shone through in the end, after a tense first half, with the carrier beating ‘The Scousers’ 25-0; ‘man of the match’ went to Logs (SC)


Green from Ark Royal. The beaches of the USA have


not seen such great naval volleyball action since Top Gun first aired – that was until the 22 teams from the Auriga Task Group hit the sand!


Three teams made steady


progress throughout the early stages of the competition, defeating their opponents in short order; The flagship’s The Captain’s Team and Team Ark Royal soon progressed through the competition along with Liverpool’s Vincy Utd. The final score was 15-11 to


Vincy Utd, who displayed fantastic skill and teamwork and loved beating the captain of the Navy’s most senior ship! The rivalry between the ships


was clear to see throughout the sporting events.


This led to a healthy level of competitive sports with many closely-fought and entertaining matches taking place. Despite the best efforts of other teams the biggest ship eventually won the day with Ark Royal receiving the overall cup. After a hard day on the sports


pitch, the evening saw a coming together of the teams to swap stories and socialise with their oppos from the other task units. One of the many highlights


was the band put together by Ark’s officers. They managed to put together an impressive set including an appearance by task force commander Cdre Simon Ancona on harmonica.


Gemma and Keith dominate fencing


THE RN fencing championships were staged at HMS Temeraire with two full days of action involving all three weapons: foil, épée and sabre. Two individuals in particular stood out. Numbers attending rose again, particularly in the ladies competition but this did not stop LMEA Gemma Wollaston taking the individual titles in all three weapons, and clearly being the master swordswoman for the second year running.


Lt Keith Bowers took home the master swordsman of the event, coming top in both épée and sabre, with Lt Cdr Adrian Olliver winning the foil title. The penultimate event was


the Inter-Command ladies foil championships. Plymouth started off strongly, gaining an 18-point lead in the rolling 45 competition; this was impressively reduced by Lt Caila Barnett in the final three minutes to win 45-42 for the Portsmouth Command team. Finally the six-person Inter- Command event was fought hard by all three entries, with Plymouth Command taking the victory for the final competition of the weekend.


A new member of the Portsmouth Club, which meets at HMS Sultan on a Tuesday evening, S/Lt Gail Hodgkinson said: “As a beginner to the art of fencing I was somewhat apprehensive about the event and it turned out that there was no need to be as I was welcomed like any other. “I enjoyed all aspects of the championships, from the sporting to the social side, and would definitely recommend this sport that can be enjoyed both at sea and alongside to anyone and everyone.” In other areas, arrangements


are made for naval fencers to be part of local clubs.


The championships will help with the selection of the team for the Inter-Services Triangular on September 6 and then for the individual Inter- Services championships the following days.


With a lot of new blood


entering the championships this year the karate events were eagerly awaited. The first event of the day


was the individual kata with good performances from all competitors.


categories the standard was so high that the judges commented on the difficulty they had in scoring the displays. With very little difference in the scores the results were: Dan grade kata: 1 – AB(WS)


Next came the individual kumite (sparring).


competitors gave a very good account of themselves in some very fierce bouts, all showing dogged determination and excellent fighting spirit. The scoring in all bouts reflected the closeness of the contests with the results as follows: Dan grade kumite: 1 – AB(WS) Lakeman, 2 – AET Fraser-Shaw; junior grade kumite: 1 – AET Sullivan, 2 – WO1 Starkey. The final karate event was the team kumite and after some very spirited performances throughout the event the eventual outcome was: 1 – Maj Graham Adcock RM, AB(WS) Lakeman, WO1 Trevor Starkey, 2 – ET(ME) Kiel Graham, AET Dominic Fraser- Shaw, ET(ME) Bulpit The overall karate champions for 2010 are the Royal Navy. The weapons kata event saw


two excellent displays of kendo no kata by PO Taff Howells and Mne Chris Gray. Competitors carry out a series of strikes and defences using the bokken (wooden version of the samurai sword). This was followed by a superb display with the jo (Japanese short staff) by Maj Adcock.


Again all In both the junior and dan grade


Arran Lakeman, 2 – AET Fraser- Shaw; junior grade kata: 1 – ET(ME) Fred Bulpit, 2 – WO1 Trevor Starkey.


l ‘The way of the foot and fist’... MA Kylie Springall (RM Chivenor) demonstrates the former during the taekwondo contest


Picture: LA(Phot) Dave Jenkins, FRPU East


championships being a fuller, more engaging tournament than previous years and thus producing a vibrant spirit and some hearty performances from both sides. Without delay (and warm-up!), the dan grade patterns category got under way, providing a template and example for junior grades – for most this was their first serious competition. ITF taekwondo patterns are judged on key components comprising:


acceleration, power,


control/balance and sharpness as a basis, then viewed in terms of the specific movement sequence. These key components form an


integral part of body conditioning and transitional coordination which transfer into military application especially when operating in an urban route. The dan grade pattern saw


was controlled


After deep contemplation and long discussions by the judging panel the results were: 1 – Maj Adcock, 2 – Mne Gray. The start of a new taekwondo season sees the first of the four competitions open to Service personnel with the RN/RM


victorious, winning with a slim margin on points ahead of Vegas. The dan grades were limited in numbers and saw L/Cpl Tovey fight Mne Allinson in a straight two-round final.


corporal took gold. The culmination of the day’s


The lance


events ended with a RN vs Royal Marines team tournament as both sides fielded five fighters. Or rather the Royals only fielded four as they were a man down and conceded one bout. That was soon rectified with


L/Cpl Tovey pick up gold as he performed a first-degree pattern gae-beak (46 moves). The sparring at junior level and disciplined,


providing selectors for the Navy team with a good view of potential stars.


The men’s individual sparring concluded in a fiercely-competitive fight between Mne ‘Vegas’ Peplow and Cpl ‘Lemmy’ Mottershead, with some tense moments and solid sparring.


Lemmy was


the swift despatch of the first Navy fighter by Mne Allinson, followed by Mottershead winning the second fight, even with the most girly of girl punches which confused the audience into thinking that Lemmy was actually suffering with a mild stroke, with arms flailing like a sparrow! L/Cpl Tovey in the “jackest” of


manners proceeded to repeatedly place foot and fist into the face of the last Navy fighter (who previously had been smashed by Mne Peplow!) to secure victory for the RM. Job well done. Kendo had its first outing at the RNRM championships and was well-supported by both Services. The Royal Marines won


outright with a dazzling display of kendo and superior numbers! Mne Gray proved unstoppable


Rough – and not much smooth


THE Christmas races are a mainstay sporting fixture for islanders in the Falklands, but the island’s capital has other delights for the sportsman, not least a ‘challenging’ 18-hole golf course. Stanley Golf Club invited HMS Portland to take part in a friendly. The matelots jumped at the chance, despite it being the depths of winter in the southern hemisphere, writes CPO Les Willock.


As the frigate’s eight avid golfers


waited for the boat to take them ashore uncertainty reigned as they speculated about the upcoming match.


Could the match still be played with 25 knots of wind with a worsening forecast? Which would be greater challenge:


avoiding co.uk.


RN fencing has a series of events over the year and will have teams competing in both the RAF one-hit épée and Guernsey prior to the Inter-Unit three-person team competition in London on November 27 Details at www.navyfencing.


grazing sheep or dodging lowland geese?


With club members


maintaining their own course, Stanley is renowned as being unique! A warm welcome greeted the ship’s team at the club and following a draw the game commenced with a shot-gun start. The wind had picked up and


the wind chill was around 2-3˚C but that did not dampen the spirits; the Portland golfers were just happy to dust off the irons and swing a few clubs for the first time during the deployment. The standard of the course was


pleasing, although in places it was difficult to determine where the fairway ended and the rough


started.


The stalwart locals had erected red marker posts to give the visitors a clue where to aim for, but with winds gusting up to 35kts staying on the fairway was challenging. Much to the surprise of some,


the Portlanders persevered and managed to eke out a draw. Picture: LA(Phot) Simmo Simpson


fighting through the rounds and winning the individual knockout competition.


outright in the team competition due to superior numbers and, of course, the chance for Royal to beat the Navy with a stick. (Hmmm... no triumphalism there, then – Sports Ed). More details about the various


sports from: karate: Maj Adcock at graham.adcock505@mod.uk or 94371 8105; taekwondo: C/Sgt Al Curtin at alan.curtin438@mod. uk or 93832 8083; and kendo: PO Taff Howells at taffhowells@ hotmail.co.uk or 9375 65668.


Judo squad Channel energy for Manny


THE RN Judo Association visited Guernsey to compete against the Channel Islands for the Sgt John Manuel Memorial Trophy. The Trophy is named in


memory of ‘Manny’ Manuel, a RNJA member who was killed in Afghanistan in December 2008. During the visit, CPO John Thacker – 4th Dan and BJA senior coach – ran training sessions including several with local children’s clubs. Mne Chris Sherrington has


firmly established himself as the current GB No.1 heavyweight, recently taking medals in both a European Cup event and the British Open.


Then the RM kendo team won


He has also been selected to represent Great Britain in the World Championships in Tokyo later this year. His increasing celebrity status resulted in television and radio interviews during the visit, raising the Navy’s profile significantly. The main event consisted of


the Royal Navy team competing against Jersey then Guernsey. After some closely-fought bouts the Navy team retained the memorial trophy for the second year running, beating both Jersey and Guernsey convincingly. RN players find it difficult to practise sufficiently when deployed, but showed consistent progress throughout the event. This was demonstrated during the final team match with all players showing considerable fighting spirit in the 10-2 victory over a combined Channel Islands team. For further information on RN Judo visit rnjudo.com or contact CPO Thacker on 01743 232541.


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